Diligence · Operating decision guide
AI readiness: a gate checklist, not a maturity score
Otomat editorial · Revised · Original edition 16 March 2026
Check goal clarity, data rights, reviewer capacity, integration, risk ownership and maintenance before committing to a workflow build.
Avoid averaging away a hard blocker
A high composite score cannot compensate for missing permission to use data or an absent release approver. Assess readiness for one workflow with specific gates. Unknown is a useful result when it triggers a targeted evidence request.
Run the readiness interview
Ask the business owner to demonstrate a normal task and an exception. Ask the technical owner to identify the source and destination systems, and the data owner to show the permitted use. Record artifacts and dates alongside the answers.
- Goal: can we state an acceptable operating result and baseline?
- Rights: are sources, destinations and retention authorized?
- People: can named reviewers and a backup participate?
- Integration: are required interfaces available and maintainable?
- Risk: who can approve or stop consequential actions?
- Operation: can the client export, restore and maintain the system?
Produce a decision and a short dependency list
A ready workflow can enter bounded discovery. A conditional workflow needs a named owner and due date for each missing dependency. A blocked workflow should stop until its hard condition is resolved. Use the operating charter to preserve that decision; do not sell a larger transformation solely from a self-assessment score.
Use the working tools
Blank templates are ungated. Adapt them to the workflow; inputs are not submitted.
Sources and limits
These are Otomat’s proposed operating methods and original decision artifacts. External references inform risk management; they do not certify this method or establish client results. Linked sources were selected for this review; their live revision dates may change.
For anonymous documentation and proposal patterns, see delivery evidence and its boundaries.
Related decisions
Bring a workflow to the discussion
Share the business goal and constraints through the mandate process. Do not send sensitive production data in the initial brief.
Scope an Operating Mandate