A Technology Readiness Assessment is an approach used to evaluate technologies in terms of their "readiness" for commercial operation and deployment. The technology readiness levels (TRL) are a nine-point scaling system used to qualitatively evaluate the maturity level of a technology. The TRL system provides a means of tracking the status of technologies during their progression through different stages of the R&D timeline . The TRL scale advises what resources may be required in order to achieve the next stage of development (i.e., what needs to be improved to reduce technical risk and make it ready for use).