Data Readiness Assessment Checklist

1. Strategic Alignment

Are your current data efforts directly supporting your top 3 business priorities?

Do you have a clear view of how data contributes to revenue, cost, or customer outcomes?

Do executive leaders regularly review and approve the data roadmap?

Are you able to measure business impact — not just technical performance?

2. Return on Investment & Financial Efficiency

Can you quantify the ROI of your data investments across teams or departments?

Is ROI from key data initiatives measured in financial or operational terms (e.g., time saved, revenue impact)?

Are you confident your current data operations are not overspending on tools or headcount?

3. Business Agility

Can your data infrastructure keep up with business pivots, new customer demands, or M&A events?

Are you able to deploy new data use cases in weeks—not quarters?

Can new data sources be onboarded without major rework?

4. Security & Compliance Risks

Do you know where compliance risks may exist in your current data systems?

Are your regulatory obligations (HIPAA, SOX, GDPR, etc.) consistently met without manual effort?

5. Executive Visibility

Do you have a high-level dashboard that shows how data is impacting operations and KPIs?

Are delays, failures, or bottlenecks immediately visible to you or your leadership team?

6. Innovation Readiness

Are you confident your data is ready to support AI, personalization, or predictive analytics?

Is innovation being blocked by fragmented systems or outdated architecture?

Do you have a unified data layer that supports experimentation and R&D?

7. Team Alignment

Do business and IT teams agree on the data priorities for the next 12 months?

Are you facing slowdowns because of communication gaps or unclear accountability?

8. Executive Visibility & Collaboration

Do executives have access to real-time dashboards on pipeline health and business KPIs?

Do business and tech leaders share a common understanding of priorities and successful metrics?

Is there a governance model that balances control with speed?