When teams first start out on their Agile journey, they often have a number of goals in mind.
You may have similar ones: To improve product quality. For your people to operate more collaboratively. To benefit from embedded continuous development and improvement. The list goes on.
But ‘becoming Agile’ does not happen overnight. Often, it can take a long time to truly embed Agile working practices and foster a suitable working environment, where failure is valued and communication is open.
How do you know if you’re there yet? And how do you know how far you have to go? These are questions that an Agile Maturity Assessment (AMA) can answer.
As always, we’re going to start with the basics (for those of you completely new to the world of Agile) before moving on to AMAs in more depth. You’ll learn:
What is Agile maturity?
Agile maturity is the extent to which an organisation or team effectively implements and continuously improves Agile practices, processes and culture. In doing this, they can enhance flexibility, collaboration, and productivity, and deliver value, both internally and to customers.
How do you know when you’ve reached Agile maturity?
Whilst it’s tempting to simply say ‘Take an Agile Maturity Assessment and you’ll find out!‘, the truth is that Agile maturity level is not, of course, a static state. The very essence of Agile is fluid, with continuous improvement and feedback loops, a culture of failing fast and learning from mistakes, and the ability to respond to change and pivot accordingly.
As a general rule, we’d describe Advanced Agile Mastery as when Agile principles are deeply rooted in a team or organisation’s operations and culture.
What are the 12 Agile principles?
The 12 principles are based on the Agile Manifesto, and you can find them all here.
Now, many of you reading this will already have a strong understanding of Agile principles – especially if your teams are demonstrating high levels of Agile maturity.
But it’s always valuable to take a moment to remind ourselves of the background and drivers behind Agile…
What is the history of Agile?
Developed in 2001, the Agile Manifesto set out a new approach to software development – a mindset if you will. Favouring collaboration, responsiveness and people over documentation, rigid plans and tooling, Agile was a welcome alternative to the traditional Waterfall approach, whereby software development projects followed a more linear path to completion.
In the two decades since, there’s been a notable shift towards Agile in a range of industries, and at both the team and organisation-level. Agile frameworks have evolved to help organisations adopt Agile more cohesively, and we’re seeing more and more business teams embrace its principles. (Agile is no longer the sole preserve of software development teams.)
Alongside this, organisations are exploring enterprise Agility, embedding Scaled Agile frameworks for even greater cohesion across multiple teams, or even an entire workforce.
Challenges of adopting Agile
Some organisations – and yours may be included in this – tend to struggle implementing Agile from the start.
Ostensibly it’s a fairly light manifesto – more of a philosophy rather than a set of rules. But to truly embed Agile and achieve advanced mastery, you may have to overcome a number of challenges:
Lack of stakeholder engagement or understanding: This is a real blocker for a number of organisations. There needs to be a top-down approach to Agile adoption, with leadership understanding and valuing its purpose. It’s also important to secure this support because, as with any period of change, there may be some initial teething issues. You need your key stakeholders and leadership team to recognise that change doesn’t happen overnight.
Outdated tooling and processes: Whilst the Agile Manifesto favours ‘individuals and interactions over tools and processes‘, it’s still valuable to review your tooling. Jira, for example, is designed for Agile project management, with a number of dedicated templates and boards to support teams. Some platforms may be less Agile-friendly, which can hinder the flow of work.
An unsafe working environment: Agile teams need a safe and supportive working environment to flourish, where mistakes are recognised as learning opportunities. Again, this is where your leadership’s support is also vital.
If you’re struggling with challenges like these, AC’s Agile coaching services could be just the solution. Ranging from ongoing coaching support to stand-alone workshops, we can deliver you bespoke coaching to meet your needs and overcome your challenges.
What is an Agile Maturity Assessment (AMA)?
Sometimes referred to as an Agile Readiness Assessment, an AMA is a structured evaluation process used to measure and analyse an organisation’s level of Agile adoption and identify areas for improvement. We’ll identify gaps, offer actionable recommendations, and set you on a smooth path to successful Agile transformation.
Now, some organisations may approach this in different ways but, here at AC, our Agile Maturity Assessment model is based on five key areas:
People: This area includes cross-skills and continuous learning, levels of empowerment and motivation across your team, and how feedback and growth is embedded.
Strategy: From your team’s alignment with organisational vision to the use of measurement and analytics, this area explores how your work aligns with overarching goals and priorities.
Culture: This area assesses your working environment, including whether transparency and communication has been fostered, how committed your team or organisation is to Agile principles, and how failure is valued (or not as the case may be…).
Teams: In this section, we’d evaluate the autonomy and collaboration of your teams.
Operations: Encompassing tooling, delivery, testing and more.
We’ll guide you through each element, and award a score from 1-5 for each. At the end of the assessment, your total score will demonstrate at what level of Agile maturity you’re currently operating.
What happens after the assessment?
This is where the real gold happens.
It’s only once you know what a problem is that you can fix it. Once we’ve run you through your Agile audit, you’ll be assigned a level of maturity – and this could be ‘emerging’, ‘maturing’ or ‘advanced’.
We can then put together a plan of action for you, to help you adjust and improve your working practices and environment. Ultimately, all the action points we’d recommend will go towards helping your organisation be in a stronger position to truly embed Agile principles and experience long-term success – or to continually improve your existing processes.
He shared some guidance based on his two decades of experience in this field.
Benefits of an Agile Maturity Assessment
So, why take an audit like this? What benefits could it deliver?
Identifies gaps and areas for improvement: Sometimes outside eyes are needed to gauge where you can enhance your processes and how.
Celebrates your successes: It can also be valuable to demonstrate where elements of your Agile adoption are going well!
Reinforces the value of Agile: An Agile assessment, like the one we’ve described here, can help to reaffirm its importance and the benefits that the Agile mindset can deliver. This can be important for stakeholders and even reticent team members to remember.
Provides you with a bespoke action plan: Ultimately, you’ll end your Agile audit with a practical plan that you can use to make meaningful and pragmatic changes.
After-care: Here at AC, we don’t simply close the door after we deliver our post-audit recommendations. We also provide additional support and consultancy services. From Agile coaching to Jira Align implementation and consultancy, we can guide you through each step of your Agile journey.
How to assess your agile maturity model?
If you’d like to understand how Agile your organisation is, and how you can enhance your Agile adoption even further, simply contact us today to begin your journey to Agile mastery.
Our Agile Maturity Assessment offering provides a flexible and valuable way to enhance your workflow, culture and output.
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