Information items to improve integration readiness levels evaluation

Abstract

Systems integration is critical to the engineering of successful complex products and systems. The Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) scale assists in making decisions about the infusion of new technologies into complex systems. This scale presents challenges to represent the integration between technologies in a system. The Integration Readiness Levels (IRL) scale aims to address these challenges. A good practice for objective technology readiness assessments is to rely on evidence-based documentation. The TRL scale shows the evidence required for each level of the scale and the appropriate types of documents to collect this evidence, while the IRL scale proposes only the necessary evidence for each level. This research proposes a set of information items to document the required evidence for each level of the IRL scale. The results show the main stages of investigation and the successful tests of the proposal in a case study with spacecraft developed in the binational program China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS). This article contributes to the research in integration readiness assessments, aims to support professionals who carry out evidence-based evaluations and, consequently, may contribute to improving the accuracy of decision-making in the systems integration by using this scale.