Assessment of Readiness

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”

— G. M. Trevelyan

How do you know if you are ready to start your transition to Continuous Delivery?

• Well, first and foremost, you must have secured robust commitment at board and executive level, with a clear remit for significant business change. Your management team should understand that they are changing the target operating model of the business and be fully bought into the extended journey that this will entail.

• You need to have secured a few key practitioners who will be your anchor through the inevitable confusion and doubt as you roll out new process. They will be the calm voices that guide everyone to the destination.

• You will have a reasonable understanding of your capability and have set expectations appropriately. You are in training to get to peak fitness to run the race that comes later. You don’t get to skip the training phase with a montage and some ’80s rock music. Your next step is to get the whole team fit for action and that will involve some sweat and pain.

• You have prepared some metrics to help you evaluate your progress. The DORA metrics are a good place to start. Don’t pick vanity metrics as they won’t help you.

• Finally, you have communicated carefully and positively with all staff. Your activity must be understood clearly as the path to more growth and prosperity for all. Rumours of secret plots to replace all staff with automation are all too easy to start and very hard to refute when you are building a lot of automation for unexplained reasons…

If you have these in place, you are ready to press ‘Go!’