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 is in place.

• An SLA is in place, with service level targets defined and delivered service level targets periodically reported to the customer.  The existence of an SLA implies the following:

• Basic (e.g. port up) and functional monitoring in place

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

TRL 9

EC description: "Actual system proven in operational environment"

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