Taking an Agile Assessment is a great way to measure the progress of your Agile team. It provides a data-driven growth path to the desired business outcomes and is a great morale booster for your team. However, choosing the right assessment type for your organization is important.
A point-in-time assessment is helpful in the early stages of your agile journey. When done correctly, this type of assessment can be used to prioritize and score teams. But, unfortunately, it also opens the door to gaming the results. This can be a major problem when managers use the assessment results to punish their teams.
The point-in-time assessment is only helpful if managers are investing in acting on the feedback they receive. So, if you don’t take the time to do this, your assessment is another tool in the arsenal of metrics that will not help your team.
Assessing the progress of your Agile team can be daunting. This is because so many factors will determine the outcome. For example, you may need a portfolio assessment to determine your overall results. In addition, you may need to identify which areas of your product delivery are performing poorly. Again, using the Scaled Agile Framework as a guide can be helpful. While it isn’t the only tool you can use, it does allow you to visualize your performance.
To complete an assessment, you should consider what to measure and how to measure it. You will also need to decide how to communicate your findings. There are many options to choose from, so you will need to choose one that suits your needs.
During the assessment, you will need to set expectations for everyone involved. This will include your stakeholders and the team. Ensure that you communicate the purpose of the evaluation, the process, and the business benefits derived from the results. Providing a good overview of the scope of the assessment will help all involved make better decisions.
You will need to plan and create artifacts for sharing information. Specifically, you will need to map your observations to the correct questionnaire. In addition, your assessment will likely be accompanied by a report that identifies the most important items and the best practices to employ. These artifacts can range from the backlog to burn-down charts and iteration backlog.
To be successful, the ‘Agile’ assessment should be comprehensive. It should also be honest. Consider the following: If your team is still in the ‘early’ stages of Agile adoption, the results of your assessment may be very bleak. As the team gains experience with the techniques, your review should evolve. Identify the most important criteria to track and the metrics to help you reach these goals.
If your assessment is a comprehensive and accurate reflection of your team’s performance, you will know where you stand and what improvement needs next. At the same time, you will be able to celebrate your successes.
