📈 Maturity
Levels
- “Greenfield” research
- Basic research (“Goal-oriented research”, TRL 1)
- Technology concept (“Proof of principle”, TRL 2)
- Feasible (“Systems development”, TRL 3)
- Developing (“Proof of concept”, TRL 4)
- Prototype (“Application development”, TRL 5)
- Operational (“Integrations”, TRL 6)
- Mission ready (TRL 7)
- Mission capable (“Deployment”, TRL 8)
Tip
Discussion
ASPECT leverages an augmented version of the maturity indication levels of technology readiness levels (TRL). Wikipedia defines TRLs as “a method for estimating the maturity of technologies during the acquisition phase of a program. TRLs enable consistent and uniform discussions of technical maturity across different types of technology.” TRLs are widely used across the U.S. federal acquisitions community to assess the maturity of a particular technology. Additionally, ASPECT incorporates work1 that adapted TRLs to directly address the particular nuances of machine learning systems. Additionally, ASPECT maturity levels work well with the capability maturity model, but go beyond maintenance processes and efficiency to characterize the maturity of the technology, in practice. Specifically, ASPECT openness and portability attributes create a well-defined understanding of a given technology.
Ultimately, the maturity attribute of ASPECT combines with the other ASPECT attributes to provide a holistic view of the system under consideration, beyond simply how long the technology has been around or how well maintained it is. Maturity in ASPECT reflects the degree to which a system has been tested, validated, and proven in real-world scenarios, as well as its readiness for deployment and integration into existing workflows.
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A. Lavin et al., “Technology readiness levels for machine learning systems,” Nat Commun, vol. 13, no. 1, p. 6039, Oct. 2022, doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33128-9.
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