Turnkey
project or product constructed so it can be sold to a buyer as complete
A turnkey project (or turnkey operation) is one constructed so it can be sold to a buyer as a completed product. This is contrasted with build to order, where the constructor builds an item to the buyer's exact specifications, or when an incomplete product is sold with the assumption that the buyer would complete it.
A turnkey project or contract as described by Duncan Wallace (1984) is
…. a contract where the essential design emanates from, or is supplied by, the Contractor and not the owner, so that the legal responsibility for the design, suitability and performance of the work after completion will be made to rest … with the contractor …. 'Turnkey' is treated as merely signifying the design responsibility as the contractor's.
A turnkey contract is typically a construction contract under which a contractor is employed to plan, design and build a project or an infrastructure and do any other necessary development to make it functional or ‘ready to use’ at an agreed price and by a fixed date.
In turnkey contracts, most of the time the employer provides the primary design. The contractor must follow the primary design provided by the employer.
A turnkey computer system is a complete computer including hardware, operating system and application(s) designed and sold to satisfy specific business requirements.
Common usage
Turnkey refers to something that is ready for immediate use, generally used in the sale or supply of goods or services.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Turnkey” is project or product constructed so it can be sold to a buyer as complete. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Turnkey, project and product, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “project or product constructed so it can be sold to a buyer as complete” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1151244. The first chronological checks are 1984.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
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This entry incorporates text from “Turnkey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.