What is Operational Readiness?
Operational readiness is the verified state where the receiving organization can actually run what's being delivered: people trained and rostered, processes rewritten, support models staffed, spares stocked, cutover rehearsed. It's assessed against explicit criteria before go-live — not assumed from the delivery team's confidence.
Programs stage it deliberately: readiness assessments gate each transition, and "the system is ready" is never accepted as an answer to "is the operation ready?"
Worked example
Before a new container terminal opens, the readiness review checks 200 criteria: crane operators certified (yes), maintenance contracts active (yes), customs interface tested with real declarations (no — 12 of 40 scenarios failing). Go-live moves three weeks. The delay costs a headline; opening a port that can't clear customs would have cost the network. Readiness gates exist for exactly this trade.