Readiness Assurance© FAQs

This page provides the answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Readiness Assurance©.

“Readiness” involves ensuring that all puzzle pieces are aligned to begin a complex, transformational project. 


Getting the complete picture for this goes beyond the individual project, touching the organizational, environmental and strategic areas of your company.

These runners checked that they had the right shoes for the running surface and the most comfortable clothing for the weather conditions.

What is Readiness Assurance©?

Readiness Assurance© is a proactive project evaluation and health check, ensuring all components are in place from start to finish, from initiation to metrics, before you begin to execute.  It is especially valuable for complex projects.

Its objective is to align vision, objectives, people, tasks and schedule within the project AND externally across the organization.

It looks holistically at the project and the external environment, that surrounds it, to discover conflicts, interactions, impacts, and dependencies so they can be proactively addressed before project issues occur.

At a high level, we perform the following activities, through the lens of the seven Readiness Assurance© dimensions:

  • Reviews of all existing project materials.
  • Interviews with key stakeholders.
  • Objective assessment and identification of gaps, challenges, and risks.
  • Reporting and reviews.
  • Collaborative determination of areas to address before and during the project execution.
  • Support for filling the gaps.
  • Coaching and mentoring your delivery team for continuance of readiness discipline.

I’ve never heard of this. Is this a new process?

No, Readiness Assurance is not a new process.

We have applied these concepts during project and program execution assignments for many years.

This is the first time that it has been packaged as a service and made commercially available to help banks improve project success.

photo: olya kobruseva

Why do you need it?

In addition to operating the bank, supporting a large, transformational project with the additional task and time burdens is intimidating.  Often these projects revolve around a technology change and are driven by third-party leaders.  They typically follow a scripted process that doesn’t thoroughly address bank-side challenges and concerns.

Readiness Assurance© helps you avoid, minimize and eliminate obstacles that could affect schedule, budget, outcomes and the experience – saving time and money.

Readiness Assurance© leaves you with improved confidence in your readiness for the upcoming project.


When do you need it?

Ideally, our work should begin during the lead-time, before your project starts its execution – in the 3 to 6-month period prior to kickoff.

How is it provided?

Readiness Assurance© is a consultative service performed in partnership and collaboration with your project delivery team(s).  Your teams are critical contributors to success.

Your team will be asked to assist with collection of project materials, orientation to your organizational structure and culture, help generate support for the effort, review assessments and prioritize filling gaps.

The scope of work will be highly customized to fit the scope and scale of your change initiative.

photo: you x ventures
photo: coolshooters

Our value to you

  • Eliminates, avoids or minimizes obstacles.
  • Provides an objective assessment and holistic view.
  • Manages risk.
  • Accelerates outcomes.
  • Establishes early governance.
  • Addresses and balances the technical and people size of change.
  • Builds a discipline for future projects.
photo: karolina grabowska

Where is it performed?

Readiness Assurance© is provided through combinations of on-site and remote work, depending upon your preferences.

photo: andrew neel

How long does it take?

Generally speaking,  assume 2-4 calendar months for a project of medium complexity.  You are an integral part of the process, so it is dependent upon your availability to participate.  Support for filling gaps and ongoing coaching would extend the process.

What is Arete’s role during project execution?

Ideally, Readiness Assurance© is completed before mainstream project execution begins, although there may be overlap with early days of execution. 

Our resources can remain engaged on an ad hoc consulting or retainer basis for coaching on related items.

We have a PMO. Is Readiness Assurance still valuable?

Many organizations currently have or are building Project Management Offices (PMOs) to provide and embrace a robust, consistent process and methodology for doing project work.  Member project manager’s responsibilities include project planning.

Readiness Assurance© is intended to be complementary to existing project management practices by taking a deeper-dive beyond the standard process.  This includes a robust, holistic look at the project in the environment and a look at direct and indirect impacts.

In the rush to produce results, planning is sometimes short-cut.  Readiness Assurance© provides a fast, efficient extension on planning, with outsider’s objective perspective, allowing you to get better information about gaps sooner, and provides support for triage and prioritization. 

If you have a mature, well-defined process and experienced team, Readiness Assurance© can focus on assessment of specific areas or we can fill-in when there is limited resource availability. For newer PM teams, value is extended through mentoring to help you develop the mindset and approach for ongoing use.

Are there project assets left behind for our use?

Readiness Assurance© uses tools and templates to create artifacts for each of the areas in-scope to be reviewed.

Examples include project inventory, reports on technology and process dependencies, governance / project configuration, operational cycle impacts, and stakeholder registers.

photo: barbhuiya

What does a typical project timeline look like?