Human Readiness Assessment: A Multivariate Approach

Abstract

Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) are a framework, originally created by NASA and later adopted and tailored by the US Department of Defense (Graettinger, Garcia, Siviy, Schenk, Van Syckle, 2002) to track the progress and maturity of a given technology. There are a number of derivative readiness level frameworks that have spun off the original TRL framework such as System Readiness Levels, Software Readiness Levels, Integration Readiness Levels, and Manufacturing Readiness Levels, just to name a few. Most of the time, these frameworks have an associated readiness assessment used to identify or assess the precise readiness level status. Human Readiness Levels (HRLs) are a framework used to identify the level of readiness or maturity of a given technology as it relates to its usability and its refinement to be used by a human(s) (Phillips, 2010). There are a number of HRL frameworks or similar (e.g. Human Factors Readiness Levels), yet little attention has been paid to Human Readiness Assessments (HRAs). The purpose of this paper is to review the literature of Human Readiness Levels and introduce a new multivariate Human Readiness Assessment that emphasizes workload, situation awareness (SA), and usability.