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A demonstration proves a path; production must govern a range
A successful demonstration typically shows the intended path with prepared inputs. Production introduces missing information, conflicting records, changing interfaces, service outages, permission changes, and uncertain human responses.
Readiness means these conditions have owners and designed outcomes before the system receives operational authority.
Production-readiness review
- Named service identity and least-privilege access
- Explicit action and data boundaries
- Representative normal, edge, and failure tests
- Approval rules for consequential steps
- Durable state and safe retries
- Evidence for every external action
- Monitoring tied to actionable thresholds
- Pause, rollback, and recovery procedures
- A named operational owner
- A controlled change and release process
Readiness is environment-specific
Workflow
The same worker may be appropriate for one bounded process and unsafe for a broader one.
Authority
Observing, drafting, submitting, and approving are different levels of permission.
Evidence
The required run history depends on organizational, contractual, and regulatory context.
Operations
Someone must own incidents, changes, credentials, and degraded behavior after launch.
Sources
Authoritative references
Rules, standards, and guidance can change. The links below were reviewed on September 21, 2026.