One of the challenges apparent in the organisation of research projects is the uncertainties around the subject of demonstrators. A precise and detailed elicitation of the coverage for project demonstrators is often an afterthought and not sufficiently detailed during proposal writing. This practice leads to continuous confusion and a mismatch between targeted and achievable demonstration of results, hindering progress. The reliance on the TRL scale as a loose descriptor does not help either. We propose a demonstrator requirements elaboration framework aiming to evaluate the feasibility of targeted demonstrations, making realistic adjustments, and assist in describing requirements. In doing so, we define 5 hierarchical levels of demonstration, clearly connected to expectations, e.g., work package interaction, and also connected to the project's industrial use-cases. The considered application scope in this paper is the domain of software-intensive systems and industrial cyber-physical systems. A complete validation is not accessible, as it would require application of our framework at the start of a project and observing the results at the end, taking 4-5 years. Nonetheless, we have applied it to two research projects from our portfolio, one at the early and another at the final stages, revealing its effectiveness.

翻译：在组织研究项目时，一个明显的挑战是演示验证装置相关主题存在不确定性。对项目演示验证装置覆盖范围的精确而详细的获取，通常在提案撰写阶段被事后考虑且不够详尽。这种做法导致持续的混淆以及目标成果演示与可实现演示之间的不匹配，从而阻碍进展。依赖技术就绪水平等级作为模糊描述符也无济于事。我们提出了一个演示验证装置需求阐述框架，旨在评估目标演示的可行性、进行现实调整并协助描述需求。在此过程中，我们定义了五个层次分明的演示级别，这些级别与预期（例如工作包交互）明确关联，同时也与项目的工业用例相关联。本文考虑的应用范围是软件密集型系统和工业信息物理系统领域。完整的验证尚无法获得，因为这需要在项目开始时应用我们的框架，并在项目结束时观察结果，耗时约4-5年。尽管如此，我们已将其应用于我们项目组合中的两个研究项目，一个处于早期阶段，另一个处于最终阶段，结果揭示了其有效性。