Systems Engineering Perspectives on Technology Readiness Assessments in Software-Intensive System Development

摘要

Technology readiness assessments as formal technology maturity validation tools play an important role in system development and acquisition. Because of the particular diversity of technologies in software-intensive systems, such assessments pose a special challenge. This paper's objective is to show how technology readiness assessments control the technology transition process from research to productization and to demonstrate that effective execution of this transition requires sophisticated systems engineering perspectives. To achieve this objective, a rigorous attempt was made to seek out and clarify the ambiguous elements of the process and to provide tangible guidance on the topic. Examples from the emerging technology-rich domains of unmanned aerial vehicles are used to facilitate a deeper understanding of the concepts introduced.