---
title: "5-Dimension Readiness Assessment"
description: "Formal readiness assessment before Adoption begins: technical, process, personnel, financial and governance readiness — with concrete acceptance criteria."
sidebar:
  order: 1
  label: "5-Dimension Readiness Assessment"
source_url: "https://framework.stackit.cloud/advisory/transition-to-adoption/readiness-assesment/"
source_file: "docs/advisory/transition-to-adoption/readiness-assesment.mdx"
---

## The readiness framework

The Adoption phase must not start until all five dimensions have reached the "Ready" level. One dimension at "Not ready" is a go/no-go criterion — not an optional point.

## Dimension 1: Technical readiness

| Check point               | Ready criterion                                           | Status check                 |
| ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| STACKIT account structure | Organisation → folders → projects defined and created     | STACKIT Resource Manager API |
| IAM baseline              | Roles, groups, IDP federation configured                  | IAM audit                    |
| Network design            | VPC design, hub-and-spoke concept complete, CIDR plan     | Architecture document        |
| Base toolchain            | Terraform + STACKIT provider tested, Git workflow defined | Deployment test              |
| Core guardrails           | At least 5 core guardrails implemented and tested         | Guardrail test protocol      |
| Observability foundation  | Central logging configured, test alert successful         | Alert test protocol          |

**Ready threshold:** All 6 points met — no partial credit.

## Dimension 2: Process readiness

| Check point        | Ready criterion                                                          |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Onboarding process | Defined process for new workloads and teams documented                   |
| Change management  | Standard change types for cloud operations defined and aligned with ITIL |
| Incident response  | Runbooks created for at least 5 common cloud incident types              |
| Backup & recovery  | RPO/RTO requirements defined, backup policy implemented and tested       |
| Exception process  | Guardrail exception process documented and communicated                  |

**Ready threshold:** 4 of 5 points met (1 in progress acceptable).

## Dimension 3: Personnel readiness

| Check point              | Ready criterion                                                      |
| ------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| CCoE fully staffed       | At least 4 FTE active and operational                                |
| Track A training running | Started for all IT employees                                         |
| First Track C cohort     | At least 2 Platform Engineers with Track C completion or in training |
| Cloud Champions network  | At least 50 % of teams have a nominated Champion                     |
| On-call rotation         | First on-call rotation for landing zone operations established       |

**Ready threshold:** 4 of 5 points met.

## Dimension 4: Financial readiness

| Check point                  | Ready criterion                                             |
| ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| Annual cloud budget approved | Signed budget release for Adoption phase available          |
| FinOps process established   | Tagging standard defined, first showback reports configured |
| Business case tracking       | Mechanism for measuring ROI against business case defined   |
| OPEX budget adjusted         | IT budget process adapted for cloud OPEX spend              |

**Ready threshold:** All 4 points met — budget release is non-negotiable.

## Dimension 5: Governance readiness

| Check point            | Ready criterion                                                            |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Core guardrails active | At least 5 hard-mandatory guardrails implemented and tested in production  |
| CISO sign-off          | Formal CISO approval of the cloud security architecture                    |
| Compliance framework   | GDPR/industry-specific requirements documented and mapped                  |
| DPO engagement         | Data Protection Officer informed about cloud architecture and in agreement |
| Governance reporting   | CCoE quarterly reporting template created and agreed with Board            |

**Ready threshold:** All 5 points met — compliance is non-negotiable.

## Readiness scorecard

The CCoE produces a readiness scorecard 4 weeks before the planned approval event:

| Dimension  | Status   | Open items                | Responsible   | Target date |
| ---------- | -------- | ------------------------- | ------------- | ----------- |
| Technical  | 🟢 Ready | –                         | –             | –           |
| Process    | 🟡 4/5   | Incident runbooks missing | Platform Team | [Date]      |
| Personnel  | 🟢 Ready | –                         | –             | –           |
| Financial  | 🟢 Ready | –                         | –             | –           |
| Governance | 🟡 4/5   | DPO sign-off pending      | CCoE Lead     | [Date]      |

**Traffic light logic:** 🟢 Ready | 🟡 In progress (ready by approval date) | 🔴 Not ready (approval postponed)

## Practical steps

1. **Complete the readiness scorecard** 4 weeks before the planned approval date
2. **Escalate red items**: who can unblock? what is the fastest resolution path?
3. **Track amber items**: daily status until approval date
4. **Go/No-Go decision** based on the scorecard