About this page. Adapted from documentation I wrote for a government platform. Platform and team names, infrastructure details, repository names and internal references have been removed or replaced. The structure, the writing and the approach are as I wrote them.

A platform readiness assessment is a quality check that confirms your service follows platform standards and will not disrupt other services or the infrastructure it runs on. Every new service must pass a change approval board before it receives production traffic, and the assessment is what the board reads.

Start it early

Create your assessment when you start building, not when you are ready to launch, and make sure the team knows the criteria. Teams that do this get a smoother peer review, avoid rework, and are less likely to have a launch delayed by a failed approval board.

Create your assessment

1. Open the readiness assessment template in your documentation tool.
2. Add your service's name to the page title.
3. Select Publish.

Your assessment is stored in the readiness assessment space. Update it as development progresses rather than filling it in at the end.

What to do next

1. Talk to a technical lead about what the assessment requires for a service like yours.
2. Talk to the data platform team so your audit events match the organisation's standards.
3. Add the assessment work to your backlog and prioritise it for completion before peer review, not after.
4. Deploy to production early and keep deploying.
5. Build and test the service, updating the assessment as you go.
6. Complete a self-assessment.
7. Get a peer review from a technical lead in another team.
8. Take it to the change approval board.

Check it worked

Your assessment exists in the readiness space, every section has been completed, a technical lead outside your team has reviewed it, and the approval board has signed it off. Your service can now take production traffic.