Glossary
What is a definition of ready?
The bar a piece of work must clear before it is accepted — applied at ticket level in Scrum, and far more consequentially at commitment level, before people and a date are promised.
At commitment level the bar is six things: the problem stated apart from the proposed solution, an intended outcome, a named owner, a capacity figure from the delivering team, the dependencies, and the open questions written down as unknowns. Readiness is checkable; optimism is not — and a demand that cannot clear the bar can still be committed, but only with a recorded exception.
Related terms
- Commitment exception — A recorded justification required to commit to work that is not yet decision-ready, naming why it is early, what is still unknown, who accepts the risk, and what condition would change the decision.
- Delivery governance — The practice of deciding what to commit to — establishing value, ownership, capacity, dependencies and open questions before people, budget or a date are promised.
- Decision-ready demand — A demand that can responsibly be committed to: the problem stated apart from the proposed solution, an intended outcome, a named owner, a first capacity figure, the dependencies, and the open questions written down as unknowns.
This definition comes from building DeliverySheet — it takes a vague work request to a clear delivery decision, so the shape, owner, capacity, dependencies and open questions are on the table before anyone commits people or a date.