نرم افزار ماشین حساب سطح آمادگی تکنولوژی (TRLs) برای سیستم های مهندسی و ابزار مدیریت تکنولوژی

Turkish defense industry and policy makers seek effective and successful system development programs by implementing a validation mechanism to verify the maturity of new technologies being developed in national laboratories and industry. Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) developed by NASA as a general metric of technology advancement and it has been widely accepted as a systems engineering and technology management metric tool. In order to explore the sufficiency of this tool, first of all, academic and applicable studies of army and civil organizations have been searched out and the lessons learned have been analyzed in this study. Thereafter, questionnaires of awareness of TRLs and TRL Calculator have been applied to defense firms in Ankara, and interviews held with the technology developers, firms’ speakers and defense authorities. Finally, the applicable algorithm of TRL calculator has been recommended for Turkish defense industry.

Different classifications of technology has been emerged in the literature for years; however, classifications became more complex in the last decade. Diversity of technologies, complexity of systems and knowledge-based programs standing out with their huge budget, and many scientists and technologists draw attention to controlling and developing new technologies based on the needs. From this point of view, technology management science may need to be re-organized by merging both analytical and experimental processes. Technology readiness assessment (TRA) is a consequential process to select the best technologies meeting the system requirements by examining maturity of the technology. Working through the TRA process, some more details must be observed such as organization, system, subsystems or components and procedures of national defense development policies. As a lesson learned through the system development programs, the technology must be mature before system development begins [1]. Mature technology is tested in a relevant environment and it must be achieve the threshold measurements convenient for intending mission. Immature technologies are the main sources of problems on weapons system programs [2]. Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) is accepted metric system for measuring the maturity of technology DUSD S&T (Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Science and Technology), US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory) for years. TRL is used as a beneficial metric system by program managers and technologists in many defense system programs. However, there are several problems of measuring maturity effectively and objectively by using TRL Calculator developed by AFRL, and approaches linked to the maturity measuring systems are differentiated among the constitutions and countries. This paper proceeds as follows: Following the introduction, second section examines the TRLs systematic; Section 3 includes a brief view to Turkish Defense firms’ awareness of TRLs and in Section 4 there is a recommendation of TRL calculator algorithm and new features in this calculator are discussed.

Turkish defense industry firms’ awareness of TRLs systematic is unexpectedly insufficient and this situation is entailed from the weak exploring capabilities of common applications of technology management tools and models. Interviews with defense industry firms and technologists held in Turkey about TRLs and its applicability in Turkish defense industry and we finally recommend an algorithm for an applicable and convenient for the policies. Questions are classified as critical and non-critical for each level. Therefore, questions have different influence on the assessment. Additionally, qualifications of the technology developers can be monitored in the readiness assessment. Another essential feature of the calculator is the objectivity of the assessment is quite stronger than AFRL TRL calculator, since the technology developers can upload the evidences such as test results, drawings, photos or other documents related to the level achieved. However, giving the project managers the ability to change the critical questions can weaken the objectivity of the results. TTRL Calculator can be strengthen by providing less intervention of the project managers. By the way, the critical questions can be approved as not required to be revised by the project managers. It can be suggested that, questions should be assigned by a statistical method, i.e. list of the questions can be stated by a comprehensive survey analysis or they can be weighted by the mathematical formulas. Recommended TRL calculator algorithm can be useful for not only Turkish defense industry but also developing countries’ defense industry. TTRL v1.0 application’s validity and reliability has been proven. This software may be used by technology developers, technology managers and project managers easily. It works without errors and suitable to the prepared algorithm. It saves the data in a required way and shows the results in a suitable display. Thus, a typical tested, valid and reliable calculator is prepared for Turkish defense industry. For this algorithm is prepared by evaluating the experiences of the experts of procurement office, it can be effectively used for technology and system development programs. In accordance with the test results and feedback, new version of this calculator will be developed in the future. On the other hand this calculator has an English version for international access.