PUBLISHED METHODOLOGY · READINESS ENGINE v5.6
E-ARI connects your AI programme from system ownership to reviewed evidence. The eight-pillar score is one diagnostic instrument within that programme. It is not the methodology for every decision, and it is not a compliance percentage.
01 / GOVERNANCE
The system register records purpose and ownership. Rules determine provisional risk classifications; people review the determination. Applicable obligations connect to controls, supporting records and work that needs attention. A readiness score does not determine whether a system complies.
02 / READINESS
The versioned 40-question, eight-pillar instrument remains the self-reported baseline. Behavioural anchors, unanswered-item handling and respondent-role context make its inputs more explicit. Sector weights and cross-pillar rules are published. The result measures reported organisational practices, not legal conformity.
03 / EVIDENCE
Results distinguish the self-reported score, an evidence-backed score and the share of answers backed. Linked vault records or affirmative behavioural verification receive full weight; perception-only ratings receive half weight. That discount is a product choice, not an independently validated constant. With no backed answers, there is no evidence-backed score to show.
04 / DIAGNOSTICS
Nine additional capability checks record gaps without adding them to the frozen score. Multi-rater review surfaces consensus and disagreement across roles. These signals guide investigation; averaging opinions does not establish their truth.
05 / IMPROVEMENT
Assessment findings can become improvement actions with an owner, supporting evidence and a reviewed outcome. Reassessment measures a later baseline. A simulated score gain is conditional arithmetic, not a promise of operational or compliance improvement.
06 / VERIFICATION
Sealed exports bind the inputs and artifacts to a signed record. Independent verification checks integrity; Audit Replay recomputes the assessment from sealed inputs. Neither establishes that the source evidence is true or independently certifies compliance.
The instruments below explain the scored component using illustrative inputs. Evidence support and capability diagnostics are reported alongside it; they do not silently rewrite historical scores.
The scored part of the methodology: a versioned, reproducible baseline from your rated answers. Evidence support, multi-rater review and capability gaps are reported separately; this number is not a compliance verdict.
Forty Likert items (1–5), five per pillar. An item you cannot answer takes Don’t know or Not applicable instead of a rating — never a forced low score — and at least three of every pillar’s five must be rated before scoring runs.
Each pillar mapped to 0–100 from its raw total — transparent formula, no black box. The bounds follow the questions actually rated, so an item you could not answer neither drags the score down nor pads it up.
Six documented cross-pillar rules fire — weak governance reins technology, weak data reins strategy, weak culture reins process, and three more.
Eight structural detectors scan the response combinations for failure patterns — Shadow IT Risk, Compliance Cliff, Pilot Purgatory, Ambition Gap, and more. Each finding carries evidence and a concrete next move. A detector that reads a question you did not rate reports that it could not be evaluated, rather than showing green.
Pillar weights are re-balanced for your sector — healthcare emphasises governance and risk, retail emphasises data and process. Renormalised so weights still sum to 1.
Sector-weighted pillars combine into one E-ARI composite, alongside the unweighted baseline so you can see how sector context moved the number.
Overall maturity band — Laggard through Pacesetter — and every X-Ray finding is then handed to the agents as the grounding evidence for your tailored report.
The pipeline re-runs with each answer improved one step, computing the exact score gain per move. Your results rank the highest-leverage improvements and the shortest simulated path to the next maturity band — reproducible arithmetic, not analyst opinion.
Same answers in, same score out — versioned v5.6, auditable end to end.
Model-assisted explanation and drafting surround the deterministic engines. People review those outputs and the supporting records before relying on them.
Six agents arranged clockwise from the top following the orchestration pipeline. Hover or focus an agent to see its brief. Lines connect each agent to the central orchestrator hub.
Conducts structured, adaptive interviews with stakeholders to map organizational readiness, surface blind spots, and capture qualitative context that questionnaires alone cannot reach.