A structured assessment framework for organisations planning digital transformation — identifying readiness gaps before committing to large programmes.
Digital transformation programmes fail primarily for reasons that were detectable — and often predictable — before the programme began. Technology debt, leadership misalignment, insufficient change capacity, and poor data quality are pre-existing conditions, not programme-phase discoveries. A structured readiness assessment prevents organisations from committing to a transformation they cannot yet execute.
This framework has been applied in pre-programme assessments across financial services, manufacturing, retail, and public sector organisations ranging from 500 to 40,000 employees.
Author: CELESDEV Solutions — Enterprise Architecture Practice.
Applicable contexts: Organisations planning large-scale digital transformation programmes; boards seeking independent readiness validation; organisations recovering from a failed transformation attempt.
Full document includes scoring rubric for all five dimensions, executive workshop facilitation guide, industry benchmarks by sector, and a roadmap sequencing decision tree.
| DIMENSION | LOW (1-3) | MED (4-6) | HIGH (7-10) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership | Fragmented C-suite, no sponsor | Sponsor named, limited authority | Single owner, board backing |
| Capability | No digital skills, outsource all | Mixed internal/external | Strong internal, targeted partners |
| Change cap. | 3+ major programmes running | 1-2 programmes, constrained | Clear capacity, managed portfolio |
| Data quality | No ownership, siloed, poor quality | Some domains governed | Enterprise governance, high quality |
| Tech debt | Core on legacy, no modernisation | Legacy isolated, modernisation active | Modern core, cloud-native |
Interpretation: Total score 10-24: foundation work required before programme launch. Score 25-39: programme viable with phased sequencing. Score 40-50: ready to accelerate delivery from day one.
Dimension weighting: Leadership (30%) has the highest multiplier. A score of 1 on Leadership disqualifies programme launch regardless of other scores. Re-run the assessment after each major remediation milestone.