In the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) for Azure, the methodology is organized into sequential stages that guide an organization from initial intent through operations. Microsoft describes the flow as:
"Strategy # Plan # Ready # Adopt # Govern # Manage." The guidance explains that before building landing zones or preparing environments (Ready), organizations should complete the Strategy and Plan work.
Microsoft states that the framework "helps you create and align your business strategy, define business outcomes, and justify cloud adoption" in the Strategy stage; then, in Plan, you "translate that strategy into an actionable adoption plan, rationalize portfolios, and prepare a cloud adoption backlog." Only after these two stages does the Ready phase occur, where you "prepare your cloud environment (landing zone) to host the workloads." Additionally, CAF emphasizes that Govern and Manage are ongoing disciplines that operate alongside and after adoption rather than preceding Ready: "Govern and Manage provide iterative guardrails and operational baselines that evolve as you adopt more workloads." Therefore, the two phases addressed before the Ready phase are Define Strategy and Plan, aligning with Microsoft's prescribed order and intent of the Cloud Adoption Framework methodology.