How Agile Are You?
I often get asked to assess how agile a team or organization is.
I hate the question, because I have no way of really doing this, and think it misses the point. The goal should never be to be agile. It should be about better meeting the needs of your customers, improving the quality of work, improving time to market, improving economics, and improving ourselves.
Nevertheless, I’m going to take a stab at creating a “How Agile Are You” model which you can score yourself against, or use to start a conversation in a retrospective.
Survey Part 1:
Does your team uncover and implement better ways of delivering value?
Do you help others uncover and implement better ways of delivering value?
Can you demonstrate that you value individuals and interactions over processes and tools?
Can you demonstrate that you value delivered work over comprehensive documentation?
Can you demonstrate that you value customer collaboration over contract negotiation?
Can you demonstrate that you value responding to change over following a plan?
Survey Part 2:
Is your highest priority to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery?
Do you welcome changing requirements, even late in your process?
Do you harness change for your customer’s competitive advantage?
Do you deliver production value frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale?
Does everyone involved in creating intent, delivering intent, and servicing intent, work together throughout the project?
Do you build projects around motivated individuals?
Do you work in the type of environment you need, with the support you need?
Are you trusted to get the job done?
Do you use the most efficient and effective method of conveying information to, and within, your team, through face-to-face conversations?
Is the value you deliver the primary measure of progress?
Does your process promote sustainable pace of work?
Can everyone involved with your work sustain a constant pace indefinitely?
Is continuous attention to technical excellence and good design a consideration for your team?
Is simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — an essential approach you take with your work?
Do you allow and encourage your structures, requirements, and designs to emerge from self-organizing teams?
At regular intervals, does the team reflect on how to become more effective?
Does the team tune and adjust its behaviour accordingly?
If you can answer “yes” to the majority of these, in my opinion, you’re well on your way. What do you need to get to being able to answer “yes” to all of these questions?
If you’re not answering “yes” to the majority of these questions, consider starting with question twelve: how can you make time to pause and reflect as a team to become more effective, and more importantly, does your team tune and adjust its behaviour accordingly.
There are other surveys out there, and lots and lots of opinions on this topic. This is just my offering as something to consider as you’re on your journey. Let me know if you find it useful!