Every company needs an agile assessment occasionally to have a mature team that fully understands its strengths and weaknesses. Whether this would mean creating an agile framework, adapting cross-functional teams' methods, striving for technical excellence, or just overall – following an agile manifesto from managers, it’s good to have this process under control.

In this article, we will go over some of the critical elements of having an agile mindset, how to introduce agile concepts in your company, and what agile frameworks you can work with. Let’s dive in!

Agile maturity assessment is a process that allows you to enhance your team’s ability to adopt agile practices. The right approach will help you improve the inner workings of one group and allow you to create a cross-functional team that will enhance the workflow in general. As most agile coaches could tell you, having an agile maturity assessment should include all the different parts of the company, from culture, the basic practices in the company, the mindset of employees, and essentially – if anyone could do better. 

Some individuals may express skepticism towards the agile transformation process, as it inevitably uncovers weaknesses and requires people to adapt to the new agile methodology. Nevertheless, it can give you an excellent opportunity to assess your organization’s ability to be even more productive, understand its flaws and strengths, and become a self-aware company that knows how to proceed into the bright future.

Focus Areas

With the right scrum team framework, you can create an agile community where every team member will have an agile approach to the critical aspects of the main focus areas. Let’s now see what are some of the elements of every agile journey:

• Evaluate — first of all, you need to evaluate the criteria or framework based on which you will be doing your assessment. There are plenty of possibilities in that regard, with some of the most popular ones being the Agile Maturity Model (AMM), Agile Capability Assessment (ACA), or Agile Maturity Matrix (AMM).

• Data Gathering – the next important element of agile assessment is data gathering. In most cases, you will get data through many different channels, but mostly with surveys, interviews with employees, personal observations, and document reviews. Remember that you need to allow the team responsible for the assessment to access different levels of the organization.

• In-Depth Analysis – the following characteristic of agile maturity assessment is the in-depth analysis of collected data. That will help you identify problematic patterns in your company, strengths, areas to improve, and the company's overall well-being. 

• Maturity Level Identification – you can determine the organization's maturity level with that knowledge. Those can be further broken down into smaller pieces of information that different stakeholders can easily digest. It will help you to inform the states of other teams and how it relates to the company’s health and agility.

• Action Plan – next, based on the results of your assessment, you will be able to give recommendations on improving the organization’s agile practices. Recommendations can be general or more specific. They can include some initiatives like training programs, cultural adjustments, additional changes to the company’s structure, or something as simple as providing a better line of communication between teams.

• Continuous Improvement – and finally, agile maturity assessment is a constant process. It means it should be performed not once but regularly. You would never say: "I implemented a new marketing strategy in 2014, so it should be effective forever." Businesses need to adapt and evolve to stay competitive, and there's always an opportunity for improvement in areas like marketing, customer service, product development, or operational efficiency.

Let’s now find the best software for agile maturity assessment on the market. This kind of project is not a one-page document where you just put in the information and everything seems fine. It’s a much more complicated process that demands many additional features to combat all the necessary agile maturity assessment elements. So, in this case, we recommend Microsoft Office.

And it’s not an expensive thing anymore. You can find a Microsoft Office Key at Royal CD Keys for just a few dollars. It’s a lifetime subscription, so that you can use it for office-related endeavors or something completely out-of-ordinary. Additionally, by using templates, you can further enhance the viability of this suite and create an even more advanced assessment. Here are some free templates for you to check out on your own.

Agile Maturity Assessment Template #1

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The first template on our list is the most classic example of an agile maturity assessment. As you can see, it has all the necessary elements, such as agile team dynamics, with teamwork, sustainable development aspect rated on a scale, and what could be improved upon, the product’s shipping, storage, backlog, plans, etc., and all the details about each aspect of the agile assessment.

The exciting thing about this particular template is that it has a great and interactive graph that changes if you tweak the levels. It gives you a great visual representation of the agile maturity in your company, the strengths and weaknesses, and where you can add something of value to the team.

Agile Maturity Assessment Template #2

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Next, we have a much simpler agile maturity model, with a more fundamental approach to the different levels of organization reach and mindset adoption. With this model, you can quickly identify the problems in your organization with levels of advancement attached to them, but it will give you only basic information. This template is excellent if you want something you can understand with only a glance. Otherwise, you should op-for something more complex.

Agile Maturity Assessment Template #3

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And finally, we have the Optimus-prime of agile maturity assessment templates. It’s mighty, with different aspects of assessment being color-coded, excellent graphics that let you understand the company's inner workings, and an overall excellent overview of your company's agile elements. 

If you need something glorious, this one will suit all your needs. Where it lacks, though, is the speed aspect. You can’t do this kind of assessment any day or week, as this significant project will surely need more preparation time. But if it’s something within your wheelhouse, you can check it out!

There are plenty of agile maturity assessment benefits, but it all depends on what kind of organization you are running. Those below are the most common examples of what an agile maturity assessment can bring to your organization. 

Of course, some of those will be more suited for your organization than others. Nevertheless, these are some of the most common examples of how the agile maturity assessment can help your business. Let’s dive in!

Agile Practices

First, we have the agile maturity assessment practices to discuss. It can give you a lot of understanding regarding your place with agile adoption. With a vast knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of agile practices, you will be able to see the areas that need improvement and the possible ways to change your company's current state of affairs.

Agile Values

Next, we have the agile values. An agile maturity assessment can help you ensure that all the practices in your company are within the core values of agility. It can help you focus on delivering valuable products and services for customers and keep the stakeholders in check regarding common goals and practices.

Team Engagement

Additionally, with a well-drafted agile maturity assessment, you will have even better team engagement among many levels within the company. You will see how different companies work with each other, encourage open communication, and create a culture of teamwork. Additionally, it can provide additional lines of contact if you are having trouble transferring information among different teams.

Finding Weak Spots

One of the key benefits of agile maturity assessment is finding the weak spots in knowledge and skills within teams. It can be helpful in training programs and skill development, as it can ensure that all the team members can perform well and coordinate their work among different teams.

Goals Setting

Additionally, we cannot overlook the goal-setting example, as the agile maturity assessment can give you great insight into how your company works compared to the industry standard. That way, you can set realistic goals and see places where you can improve.

Resource Allocation

Next, we have the resource allocation aspect of agile maturity assessment. It works excellently for data-driven decision-making process optimization. Additionally, it can help you improve your initiatives based on the identified gaps you have found. 

Agile Processes Enhancement

Next, we have the agile process enhancement. With the well-drafted agile maturity assessment, you will be able to identify opportunities for improvement in your agile processes and see the current maturity level of your organization. That way, the targeted fixes can be adapted to better agile methods.

Adaptability

And finally, we have the adaptability aspect of agile maturity assessment. Here, it’s all about improving the maturity level within your organization and making it more agile when it comes to changing market realities. In most cases, the more prominent organization is, the more stale it becomes when adapting. Hence, running an agile maturity assessment from time to time is essential to deliver value to customers more efficiently. 

Agile maturity assessment is not an easy process, and plenty of particular elements go into creating this document for a specific organization. Still, a couple of features are typical among many different practices. Of course, implementing those elements is totally up to you, but we see them as a boilerplate for all the possible outcomes. So, let’s look at some key features to have in your agile maturity assessment.

Agile Principles and Values

First of all, you need to clearly understand what you are trying to achieve and how you are going about it. Whether this would mean creating core principles and values of agility or setting your organization some goals to look forward to, you need to clearly understand your end-game for agility principles and what you are willing to do to accomplish that.

Agile Practices

Next, we have the evaluation of the agile practice. Here, you must put all the elements for adopting agile methods in the organization. That would include such elements as:

• Backlog management

• Data-driven decision-making process

• Daily calls

• Iterative development, among other things.

How you will go about those is up to the specificity of your company.

Agile Roles and Responsibilities

Next, we have the agile roles and responsibilities in your company. Here, you need to assess all the roles and responsibilities when it comes to agile implementation. That would mean including such figures as Scrum Master, the development team, and all the critical stakeholders in your company. See their responsibilities and how they perform from the agility angle and evaluate their status accordingly.

Agile Culture and Mindset

Additionally, create a set of agile culture and mindset for your organization. The essential elements in that regard are the willingness to change of the stakeholders and teams, being open for experimentation regarding the agility of their work, and how to collaborate between different teams. The most crucial element is your organization’s ability to learn and adapt to the ever-changing environment. 

Agile Metrics and Measurement

The next stop is the agile metrics and measurement tools. Here, you need to assess your organization’s way of measuring and tracking the critical agile metrics. Those would usually be customer satisfaction, velocity, and cycle time. Be sure to evaluate your stakeholders based on those metrics or other, more suitable for your organization, and see if there is a chance for improvement.

Agile Scaling and Integration

Additionally, be sure to present agile scaling and integration practices. Those would mean the methodologies of different branches of your organization. Here, you must evaluate their effectiveness in scaling and integrating and how it impacts their overall agility.

Agile Tools and Infrastructure

Next, we have the agile tools and infrastructure element of your agile maturity assessment. In this particular case, you need to assess the availability and effectiveness of actions and infrastructure that can help support agile practices in your organization. You can implement best practices for management tools and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines with the right approach.

Team Engagement

Also, be sure to evaluate the team engagement aspect. See how the collaborations between different stakeholders are working in your organization, and find out if there is room for improvement in how the managers and team members collaborate. With the right approach, you can assess the mechanisms of the organization’s engagement and add some potential guidance in that department.

Continuous Improvement

Additionally, be sure to include the assessment of the organization’s constant willingness to improve itself, with the effectiveness scaled on different levels. See if the stakeholders are responsive to the retrospectives, usage of the feedback loops, and such. That can inform you even better about the organization’s learning culture and steps you can take to improve in that department. 

Agile Training and Skill Development

And finally, we have the agile training and skill development aspect. Here, you need to evaluate the effectiveness of the agile training programs you have implemented in the company and if those initiatives for team members and stakeholders bring the awaited results.

Let’s now get into the levels you can categorize the different aspects of your organization based on their agility adoption levels. Of course, all things within this guide will probably vary based on the used framework and the particulars about your organization. Nevertheless, some elements are essential when drafting your best agile maturity assessment.

The purpose of those levels is to get a snapshot of the organization’s status at the moment of assessment and if there is room for improvement when it comes to agile maturity. Of course, the assessment process will probably also be based on the person/team conducting it and their willingness to look at different aspects of the company. So, with that all in mind, let’s go over some of the most common assessment levels in practice.

Initial/Ad Hoc

First, we have the initial/ad hoc level, where there is almost no, or little to nothing, agile principles, and values adoption. Whether this comes from the lack of understanding of these practices, technical limitations, or something completely different, you can call it the beginner’s aspect of agile adaptation. Here, you need to work hard to get to the acceptable level, starting from scratch.

Developing/Defined

Next, we have the developing/defined level of agile practices. Here, it’s not terrible, like at the first level, but there is much work ahead of an organization. Usually, it means that the teams responsible for agile development are just starting to adopt best practices. 

All of the primary roles and responsibilities are established, and it will still take some time before the customer sees the effectiveness of the assessors work, but it’s a good starting point. And – you cannot expect any advanced level of consistency, as some teams are just learning how to implement those practices.

Standardized/Managed

The third level is where you can start to see the effects of implementing agile maturity assessment practices. Agile principles are visible in this case, and different stakeholders and teams follow Agile's best rules. Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined within the team, fostering effective communication, and providing a comprehensive understanding of agility levels. Nonetheless, despite these advancements, there is room for further improvement as the operational aspects still exhibit imperfections.

Measured/Optimizing

And finally, we have the measure/optimizing levels of agile implementation. Here, you can safely assess that the people involved in agile practices are deep within the structure of the organization, focused on continuous improvement. There are regular retrospectives, daily stand-ups, and scrum meetings, all the essential elements of the agile maturity of a company. With the high level of transparency and collaboration between different team members or between the teams, you can see that they are looking for new ways to improve and experiment.

Of course, the agile maturity assessment is not all bed and roses, as there are plenty of challenges to take into account. For starters, the process requires a lot of planning and synchronization necessary in order to perform the top agile maturity assessment. In that situation, there are numerous things that can go wrong. The one thing to keep in mind is to always carefully plan your next step, and even if some issues could arrive, be sure to have open communication with everyone and adapt your assessment approach for this particular situation. With that in mind, let’s go over some of the key challenges you can encounter in your assessment.

Bias

First of all – bias. Bias can be a great problem, as it involves a subjective judgment, and human beings are flawed with having their “personal perspective.” So, if we find something that we just instinctively don’t like, then it’s that much easier to make it visible. Sometimes – too visible. In order to combat that element, be sure to always be respectful and clear your expectations before assessing someone or interacting with them.

No Standards

The next issue you may come across is the fact that, well, there are no real standards regarding the assessment of the company’s maturity in the context of agility. There are some frameworks, of course, but it’s all based on perception and feeling rather than some advanced “hard” knowledge. Thus, approach the topic with a reserve and avoid being intrusive in terms of demanding some particular behavior from stakeholders.

Limited Viability

Ad-hoc to the last point – we know only as much as you tell us. This means – the assessment is based mostly on what information people in the company provide to the people responsible for that task. So, if they just lie, don’t have enough knowledge, or omit something, then the assessment will be flawed per-se. There is no way of finding that out rather than asking the people involved to be as precise and honest as they can be. 

Strictness

Next, some people may be quite resistant when it comes to the strict rules of agile practices. They may not like the way it is presented, feeling like it restricts their personal freedom, etc. There are plenty of things that can go wrong in that department, so be sure to keep that in mind while running the assessment.

Lack of Expertise

Additionally, some assessors can just lack the knowledge or experience. Then, it is likely that they will make the same mistakes in the case of agile methodologies again and again. 

Soft Skills Issues

The assessors need to have a lot of advanced soft skills and maturity themselves to assess the agile maturity of an organization. If they lack in that department, they will come onto many different issues regarding creating good assessments.

And here we are, at the end of this article. Thanks so much for checking it out. Agile maturity assessment is one of the most important things for an organization’s development. Whether those would mean implementing some new and exciting rules of conduct, experimenting with different approaches to the already existing standard, or just creating new ways of communicating with stakeholders, an agile maturity assessment can do a lot of good for the overall organizations’ well-being.

Of course, it’s not an end-all-be-all kind-of situation, as there are plenty of challenges that you may come across while drafting this assessment. From such basic things like inexperienced auditors, maybe having the whole process blocked by some employees, or anything else, you may have to face those head-first in your agile assessment journey. It may not be the easiest, but we are positive that it will be great for your organization in the long run.

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