This guide proposes characteristics to help assess the service maturity of a service via the operational definition of the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) indicators: TRL, 7, 8 and 9.

TRL 7

EC definition: "System prototype demonstration in operational environment"

• Service has passed through development and is an advanced stage of pre-production: the software is stable, reliable and has been deployed in an operational environment   

• Functionality as required by the target users is documented, understood, validated with target sample users and accepted by them. Internal documentation exists regarding preliminary validation tests.

• An assessment has been made of the required load of the system once the transition into production is complete and a plan has been made to service this load. This assessment has been documented.

• An SLA is optional.

TRL 8

EC description: "System complete and qualified"

• There are users who are making real use of the service and rely on it for their work.

• Service documentation for end-users exists and is made available.

• An acceptable use policy/terms of use/SLA is in place

• Evidence that the service is being delivered in a way consistent with user expectations

• Provision is made for user support, with response to incident and problem management

TRL 9

EC description: "Actual system proven in operational environment"

• All requirements of TRL 8 are met.

• Customer feedback is gathered and documented. The service has been in a production state and relied upon by users for at least 1 year and evidence is provided to show this.

• There are quantitative outputs as a direct result of the service usage.