This doesn t feel Agile.

Transcription

1 This doesn t feel Agile. How you can benefit from an Agile Maturity Assessment 1

2 Anyone, and any team, can just walk through the Agile process. That s the easy part. Much more difficult is an entire company embracing the mindset shift to make Agile truly successful. It doesn t happen overnight. It takes continued education, training, reinforcement, and communication. Along the way, it is very useful and motivating for a team to recognize what has been mastered. It s equally important to know what things that are anchoring them, or holding them back. Read on and we will outline some of the common roadblocks you may encounter along your journey to Agile proficiency. As well, we will outline how an assessment can help you overcome them, learn from your experience, and move on successfully to the next phase of Agile adoption. You may be surprised by what you are doing well and by what you need to work on! Working to display agility within an organization is all about self-improvement, self-awareness, and adaptability. An assessment in itself is Agile we inspect, we learn, and we adapt based on value. - Robert Woods MATRIX Agile Coach and Delivery Manager 2

3 Do These Impediments Sound Familiar? STUCK IN A RUT Without self-awareness, it may take a very long time for a company to advance through the five phases of Agile maturity (defined by MATRIX as Newborn, Toddler, Teenager, Graduate and Professional), without a roadmap to tell them how to improve. It is very common for Agile practitioners to get stuck at the Teenager stage and struggle to advance beyond the Agile equivalent of adolescence. Take our Quiz to learn your current phase of Agile maturity. Take Quiz An Assessment: Will baseline your current level of Agile adoption. It will clearly document what skills and techniques have been mastered, what to do with those new capabilities, and what it will take to get to the next phase of Agile adoption. 3

4 DOING AGILE, BUT NOT BEING AGILE Often we see people walking through ceremonies, like stand-ups and sprint reviews. They are doing Agile, but they are not being agile. Agile is so much more about how you think, and less about the ceremonies you walk through. An Assessment: Will help you see how you re tracking against your transformation goals. It will set the context for the mindset shift or organizational change required to truly embrace the collaborative culture specified in the Agile Manifesto. Agile is so much more about how you think, and less about the ceremonies you walk through. 4

5 MISUNDERSTANDING OF ROLES Think of the software developers who previously sat undisturbed in a cube while they hammered out code. With Agile, they are working on a team, with a much different discipline. Some developers seize this opportunity to be innovative and collaborative. Others need help. An Assessment: Will help make the case for needed coaching or training for team members who don t understand their role or the bigger picture. 5

6 Good Agile adoption will take a thin vertical slice through an organization top to bottom and include individuals from all key departments. STRUGGLING TO GET BUY-IN Do you have good business and IT alignment? Are your teams regularly speaking through the voice of the customer? Leadership support is not the same as buy-in. For teams to be successful they need to know leadership has bought in, and understands, what they are trying to accomplish. Good Agile adoption will take a thin vertical slice through an organization top to bottom and include individuals from all key departments. An Assessment: Identifies whether teams are well supported. It prescribes the steps needed to evangelize and grow your support within the organization. And it helps set the stage for future Agile adoption enterprise-wide. 6

7 TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING PRIORITY Working on the right thing, at the right time, with the right people. Without a clear understanding of priorities, our teams will thrash and have an unsustainable pace. This can lead to morale problems, lack of understanding on organizational objectives, and failure to deliver organizational value. An Assessment: Helps participants understand what real value is so they can be delivering on the right value with a lean portfolio and backlog. This is done at the story, project, and enterprise level. 7

8 The Assessment Process The steps we typically follow during an assessment are: 1) Observe 2) Inspect 3) Ask 4) Evaluate 5) Recommend At the Recommend stage, we present findings, develop an action plan, and make recommendations for moving forward with the Agile transformation or make improvements to existing practices which may include training and coaching. 8

9 Customized Agile Recommendations WE BELIEVE THERE IS NO ONE AGILE WAY, AND THAT EVERY COMPANY HAS DIFFERENT NEEDS. WHAT MAKES YOUR ORGANIZATION AGILE IS UNIQUE TO YOU. How do you make decisions? How does that impact teams? What does the morale look like? How do we motivate groups? What is the organizational alignment? Answers to these questions help us and you make conclusions that are customized for your company, not just a boilerplate that is supposed to work for anyone. 9

10 ADVANTAGES OF A THIRD PARTY ASSESSMENT INCLUDE: An objective third party brings additional credibility and structure often lacking in self-assessments. Management is often more willing to listen to an outside consultant. Without a baseline, self-assessments often are too critical or miss the mark on measuring progress. You benefit from an experienced guide who has been through dozens of assessments and can bring insight from others who have experienced similar challenges. It provides a template so that the teams can learn to do self-assessments on down the road. Whether you do it yourself, or bring in an objective outside resource, an assessment is key to moving forward. Ideally there is an experienced guide facilitating the process, and one who has no bias toward or against the teams being evaluated. 10

11 Get Started Today Learn more about how to get started with a MATRIX Agile Assessment here: Learn More Even the most competent teams require help in becoming Agile-proficient. An Agile assessment is a critical part of helping you evolve faster along your Agile journey. MATRIX has been doing Agile Assessments since 2003, with highly experienced PMI Agile Certified Practitioners (PMI-ACPs), Certified Scrum Masters (CSMs), Certified Scrum Product Owners (CSPOs), SAFe Program Consultants (SPCs), Agile Coaches, & Agile Trainers on our bench. And we have delivered many assessments for organizations with similar challenges to what you are experiencing right now. 11