Readiness State. An explicit architectural answer to whether work is ready to proceed: ready, missing evidence, missing approval, missing inputs, blocked, or not yet reviewed. A readiness state keeps a system from converting uncertainty into action by accident. A blocked state should carry a conflict explanation when the reason is a constraint or dependency conflict.
Readiness state is a specialized lifecycle state: it says where work sits before conclusion, approval, or execution may safely proceed.
Missing inputs become governable when the readiness state creates a data-request blocker instead of a vague stop or a guessed value.
Release readiness is bounded by the release approval boundary: a generated "not-approved" status can organize review, but a release owner must still approve the actual release.