For organizations implementing or that are already using Agile, assessments focused on asking the right questions provide insights that indicate what is going on within teams, product lines, portfolios or throughout the enterprise, whether team members are in the office or distributed. Agile assessments create transparency for leaders by identifying obstacles to remove and opportunities to grow. As a result, teams can reach their highest potential and organizations thrive in their Agile transformation journey.
Uses for Agile Assessments
Here are some uses for an assessment, whether it be for a single team, multiple teams or a talent development assessment for specific Agile roles.
- Baseline current level agile adoption and measure progress over time
- Gain insight into the health and performance of teams
- Track progress against your adoption or transformation goals and where support needs to be provided
- Celebrate what has been mastered and what teams and individuals are able to do with the new skill or capability
- Help teams and individuals target their focus on what is working well and where improvements can be made
- Identify patterns amongst teams or team members in the same Agile role and areas where coaching and training can be provided
What does an Agile Assessment measure?
A team can be measured by improvement of a few Agile practices or against more extensive measures that are part of a competency framework. It can be hard to decide what to measure because every organization, journey, team, etc. is different. Using a known competency framework can be useful to bring a level of consistent language and understanding across teams in the organization. It also facilitates alignment of metrics as you plan and measure your transformation progress.
Our most popular method for measuring team health and performance is the TeamHealth® Radar, which focuses on the competencies of Foundation, Clarity, Performance, Culture and Leadership. The assessment questions are answered using a maturity scale of Crawl, Walk, Run and Fly and provide examples for each stage to ensure teams are measuring themselves consistently and accurately.
Other assessments we offer include those focused on DevOps practices, lean product practices, program health, Enterprise Business Agility® and we have several related to the SAFe® framework. Talent Development assessments focus on specific roles such as Product Owners/Managers, Scrum Masters, Release Train Engineers, Agile Coaches and more. You can preview many of our Radars here.
What is the process for an Agile Assessment?
At AgilityHealth®, we utilize an assessment as part of a strategic retrospective. This team retrospective is made up of three parts. First, team members take the assessment, then the team analyzes the results in a radar, such as our TeamHealth® Radar and works together to build growth items, establishing an actionable growth plan. We encourage organizations to utilize this radar in our Virtual Big Room Retrospectives (VBRR), which allow multiple teams to participate simultaneously.
As teams and individuals build their actionable growth plans, they are going to need to ask leaders for assistance in removing obstacles. If leaders are on board from the start and they start removing the obstacles without resistance, this creates an atmosphere of psychological safety where teams can be honest about what they need and leaders can be honest about what they expect. This also helps organizations build a “measure and grow” program that is more likely to succeed.
Establishing a measure and grow program allows you to assess teams and individuals on a recurring schedule so you can monitor progress over time. You can learn more about building a measure and grow program here.
Get Started with Agile Assessments
An important part of an organization’s Agile journey is to measure progress and understand where to focus resources for improvement. We’d love to assist you in utilizing Agile assessments with your teams and individuals. Learn more about rolling AgilityHealth out across your organization with our Organization Baseline Jumpstart or book time to speak with an expert at AgilityHealth.
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