What is the definition of ready?
The definition of readiness (DoR) is a milestone in the Scrum meeting agile framework that indicates the completion of preliminary steps for a task or project that is about to be processed. In essence, realizing a DoR milestone involves attaining a series of minimum pre-implementation requirements necessary for the success of an organizational-wide transition.
Importance of a DoR in Business
As a pre-transition strategy, a DoR is invaluable in managing change in the business. It addresses two significant issues in change implementation:
Pre-implementation Urgency
Urgency often precedes significant enterprise-wide changes as such transitions are typically perceived as fundamental to long-term success. However, a rapid shift from existing decentralized business practices to newer centralized methods is always detrimental. Such coerced transition almost inevitably preempts organizational chaos capable of bringing even the most prominent business down to its knees.
A suitable example would be an established brick-and-mortar casino unveiling an i-gaming website, with bandwidth issues severely limiting access to the online casino platform. In this regard, a DoR ensures everyone in an organization is not only aware but also prepared for the associated implications of the enterprise-wide transition.
Opposition to Implementation
The other difficulty of executing company-wide projects is such large-scale transitions typically embody a significant departure from ingrained and labor-intensive business practices. An ideal example is a business shifting to resource-efficient ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software from outdated, labor-intensive resource management methods.
In this scenario, long-standing employees can resist the transition on various grounds—the subsequent loss of automated job roles is the most common reason for opposing technology-centric change. Luckily, a DoR grants the overseers of the transition the opportunity to address any opposing views that employees may have towards the planned organizational-wide growth.
Defining the Ideal DoR
The first step in defining a DoR is establishing what constitutes “ready” regarding tasks that you must realize before actual change execution. The concept of ‘done’ in a DoR, as opposed to the definition of done, signifies a complete task when everyone on the transition-implementation team agrees that they can complete it. Coming up with a list of the required tasks entails two essential considerations, namely:
● Assessing the scope of the transition, e.g., determining job roles directly affected by the change, evaluating change effects on work culture, identifying possible resistance to the growth, etc.
● Securing the support of senior executives, shareholders, and other stakeholders in the business, e.g., securing funds to install the necessary infrastructure and equipment for the change, notifying customers of the change, informing suppliers/distributors of changes in payment, procurement, etc.
When defining the DoR, it is recommended that the change overseer continuously confers with the team responsible for each implementation stage. Once the DoR’s criteria are completed, you can select the sprint item from among those that may take the shape of a technical task, story, or any other customized effort that the team may develop. All that remains is to assign transition-team members with the various functions needed to ensure organizational readiness for the planned transition.
