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Did I Ever Tell You about the Whale?

or Measuring Technology Maturity

By:
William L. Nolte

Published 2008

Foreword by: James W. Bilbro

Technology maturity: What is it, and why is it important?

For more than ten years, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has criticized federal agencies for a history of cost and schedule overruns on a significant portion of their procurement programs. GAO has repeatedly reported that the use of immature technologies in programs is a primary cause for these overruns. In spite of these repeated reports, the problems in government procurement have not improved. In fact, recent reports indicate that the problems are getting worse.

One cause of this worsening situation might be that, while GAO identified lack of technology maturity as a problem, they did not tell how to measure technology maturity, or conversely, its lack.

This groundbreaking work attempts to fill this gap by examining the current state of technology maturity measurement, pointing out strengths and weaknesses of available measures, and proposing a complete technology maturity assessment as a potential solution. The book also includes a discussion of risk during technology development.

CONTENTS
Preface. Table of Contents. Foreword. Prologue. Did I Ever Tell You About the Whale? Chapter 1,Introduction to Technology Maturity. Table of Contents. Purpose.Chapter Overview. Why Is Technology Maturity Important to You? Technology. Product Technology Maturity. Product Maturity. Maturity Characteristic. Neutrality. Context Dependency. Dimensionality. Conclusion. Chapter 2, The Technology Life Cycle. Table of Contents. Chapter Overview. Biological Metaphor. Let Me Tell You About the Whale (Whale Chart. Alternative Life Cycles. DOD Acquisition Life Cycle GAO Knowledge Points. Exceptions. Conclusion. Chapter 3, The Product Life Cycle. Table of Contents. Chapter Overview. Moore's Technology Adoption Life Cycle. Did I Ever Tell You about the Whale? Technology Life Cycle and Moore Together. Product Life Cycle. Development. Introduction. Growth. Maturity. Decline. Did I Ever Tell You about the Whale? The Product Life Cycle. Did I Ever Tell You about the Whale? Product and Moore Together. Did I Ever Tell You about the Whale? Product and Technology Life Cycles Together. Conclusion. Chapter 4, Technology Readiness Levels. Table of Contents. Chapter Overview. Introducing TRLs. TRL History. TRL Definitions. TRL Definitions, Descriptions and Comments. Did I Ever Tell You About the Whale? TRLs. Calculating the Technology Readiness Level. What Are TRLs Good For? What Are TRLs Not Good For. Conclusion. Chapter 5, Software Technology Readiness Levels. Table of Contents. Chapter Overview. But Software Is Different. Historical Background. DoD Information Technology Working Group. Introduction to TRL Table for Software. Conclusion. Chapter 6, Readiness Level Proliferation. Table of Contents. Chapter Overview. What Is Readiness Level Proliferation? Why Does Readiness Level Proliferation Happen? Is Readiness Level Proliferation a Problem? Other Readiness Levels vs. Readiness Level Corollaries. Other Readiness Levels. Programmatic Readiness Levels. Manufacturing Readiness Levels. Sustainment / Supportability / Logistics Readiness Levels. Integration Readiness Levels. Readiness Level Corollaries. Bio-Medical Technology Readiness Levels. Learning Systems Technology Readiness Levels. Practice Based Technologies. Modeling and Simulation Technologies. Conclusion. Chapter 7, Risk and Variation. Table of Contents. Chapter Overview. Risk and Variation in Technology Development. Statistical Process Control. Estimating Risk from a Sample of Size One. Did I Ever Tell You about the Whale? Risk and the Technology Life Cycle. Warning: Not All Risk Comes from Variation! Conclusion. Chapter 8, How Hard Can It Be? Table of Contents. Chapter Overview. Research and Development Degree of Difficult. Technical Performance Measure Risk Index. Technical Performance Risk Index. Advancement Degree of Difficulty. Conclusion. Chapter 9, Technology Maturity Assessment. Table of Contents. Chapter Overview. Work Breakdown Structure. Critical Technology Element. Stage Gate. Technology Performance Maturity Model. Department of Defense Technology Readiness Assessment. NASA Technology Readiness Assessment. A Complete Technology Maturity Assessment. Conclusion. Epilogue. Appendix A, Acronyms and Abbreviations. Appendix B, Recommended Reading by Chapter. Appendix C, Variation and Risk in Science and Technology. Appendix D, Assessing the Impacts of Technological Advancement and Insertion, Jim Bilbro. Appendix E, TRL Calculator Installation Instructions. Index.

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