Engineering Stage

ES-103 — Readiness Gate

Decide whether planning evidence is strong enough for ES-104 architecture to begin.

Readiness Gate Transition Decision Next: Manifest

Stage
ES-103

Current page
Readiness Gate

Inputs
Planning package

Decision
Proceed / revise

Next stage
ES-104

← Previous Outputs

Current Readiness Gate

Next → Stage Manifest

ES-103 Readiness Gate

Purpose

This readiness gate verifies that ES-103 is complete and ES-104 can begin responsibly.

Architecture should not begin until the team understands the work, constraints, risks, ownership, dependencies, evidence obligations, and uncertainty that architecture must support.

Completion standard

You are ready to continue when each gate is satisfied or when remaining issues are explicitly recorded with ownership, risk, and a follow-up path.

Gate 1 — Requirements grounding

Question

Does the plan trace back to ES-102 requirements and constraints?

Required evidence

docs/requirements/

docs/planning/planning_overview.md

docs/planning/work_breakdown_structure.md

☐ Yes ☐ Needs review

Gate 2 — Work breakdown

Question

Is the work decomposed into reviewable, deliverable-oriented work packages?

Required evidence

docs/planning/work_breakdown_structure.md

☐ Yes ☐ Needs review

Gate 3 — Milestones

Question

Do milestones represent meaningful readiness checkpoints rather than arbitrary dates?

Required evidence

docs/planning/milestones.md

☐ Yes ☐ Needs review

Gate 4 — Ownership

Question

Are major work packages, risks, reviews, evidence responsibilities, and readiness decisions assigned?

Required evidence

docs/planning/roles_and_responsibilities.md

☐ Yes ☐ Needs review

Gate 5 — Risks

Question

Are major planning, execution, AI, verification, governance, and operational risks visible and assigned?

Required evidence

docs/planning/risk_register.md

☐ Yes ☐ Needs review

Gate 6 — Dependencies

Question

Are dependencies and blockers visible enough to guide architecture and sequencing?

Required evidence

docs/planning/dependency_map.md

☐ Yes ☐ Needs review

Gate 7 — Estimates

Question

Are estimates recorded with appropriate uncertainty, assumptions, and investigation tasks where needed?

Required evidence

docs/planning/estimation_record.md

☐ Yes ☐ Needs review

Gate 8 — Review evidence

Question

Has the plan been reviewed for missing work, hidden risk, unrealistic assumptions, unowned tasks, missing evidence, and false certainty?

Required evidence

docs/planning/planning_review.md

☐ Yes ☐ Needs review

Gate 9 — Transition readiness

Question

Does the readiness summary explain why ES-104 can begin?

Required evidence

docs/planning/planning_readiness_summary.md

☐ Yes ☐ Needs review

Gate 10 — AI verification

Question

If AI assistance materially shaped the plan, has the team reviewed and accepted responsibility for final estimates, sequencing, ownership, risks, and commitments?

Required evidence

AI-use statement, planning review notes, or planning readiness summary.

☐ Yes ☐ Not applicable ☐ Needs review

Exit criteria

ES-103 is complete when planning evidence is sufficient for architecture work to begin responsibly. The team should understand what work exists, why it exists, who owns it, what depends on what, what risks matter, how uncertainty is represented, and what evidence must be produced.

If you are not ready

Do not continue into ES-104 by hoping architecture will resolve planning gaps. Architecture can help address tradeoffs, but it should not inherit unmanaged ownership, dependency, risk, or estimation problems.

Return to the weakest planning artifact, revise it, and update review evidence. If an issue cannot be resolved immediately, record it in planning_review.md or planning_readiness_summary.md with ownership, risk, and expected follow-up.

Common pitfall

Do not proceed to architecture if the plan hides unresolved ownership or dependency issues.

Engineering insight

A readiness gate is a decision about inherited risk. If ES-104 begins with unclear work, architecture will compensate for ambiguity instead of responding to known obligations.

Continue to Stage Manifest

Review the ES-103 stage contract after completing the readiness gate.

Continue to Stage Manifest →