Task: Prepare For Operational Readiness Assessments

An Operational Readiness Assessment(ORA) is performed in order to obtain confidence and conformance that the delivery team is ready for go-live of services as expected. The Service Engagement Initiation Lead will need to prepare for ORA in terms of checkpoints to be validated, schedules , reviewers from Service Delivery Teams etc. and communicate the same to all relevant stakeholders.

Operational readiness assessment (ORA) is the stage within the service transition lifecycle that demonstrates we are ready and tested for go live of the service(s). Most activities and deliverables within a service transition are managed by the appropriate work stream. It is in the operational readiness assessment that they come together for an integrated ‘testing’ to provide the confidence that the service is ‘good to go’.

It tests that the people have knowledge to deliver the service, processes work across all groups and are understood, and that the supporting tools work and are accessible for use by those who need to use them.

It is the responsibility of Engagement Manager (Transition) to prepare for an assessment of the ability of the team to transfer services and go-live.

Operational readiness assessment is ideally started well in advance to commencement of the go live date, with a minimum of 2 weeks before go live date (consider monitoring progress against the acceptance criteria from the point at which it as agreed). This period is required in order to rectify any delivery issues and is particularly important within the infrastructure management (IM) service lines.