Brief on Agile Maturity Index
How can we know if the company and team in which we work can be considered Agile? What things are done that are consistent with Agility and what goes against it? In which direction should we move? The Agile Maturity Index is the answer to all these questions. Beyond the result of the testing that this index supposes, it is interesting to explore when a company is considered to have the necessary things to survive and succeed in today's environment, in short, to know when we can say that it is Agile. If it is not, it is also important to know why not, and what can be done in order to change that.
But first of all, what is exactly the Agile Maturity Index? Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about this amazing tool and how to apply it now!
Agile Maturity Index:
The Agile Maturity Index is a test that companies undergo to position themselves within a series of levels in relation to how Agile they are or are not. At first glance, it is already intuited that Agility, beyond using Scrum and adopting other frameworks, includes from how the strategy is defined to the technology used. All this will influence how Agile an organization is and it will even be helpful to decide future actions for the business.
Agile teams are increasingly popular in organizations, at first they had enough strength in the areas of technology, but it has already dispersed throughout the organization, looking for operational improvement in the business areas, so it is normal to find Agile teams in all business units. One of the challenges we face is to look for more cohesive, efficient teams, and long-awaited high performance. However, sometimes we settle for the number of artifacts used by the team, the continuous improvement sessions, the number of roles among other practices that often remain in only perception, and it is complex to measure progress. If you don't know where you're headed, you may not be able to get there.
The objective of forming Agile teams is to deliver value early, ensuring that they stay together over time with the idea of evolving and being more effective in their execution. However, the complexity of organizations makes it an almost impossible practice, though we can adopt good alternatives to measure teams, how they are doing their work and what is the result of the adoption of their work method, the first can be with a team maturity model and the second with team metrics.
We know that it is very subjective to measure a team, however, these tools help to lower subjectivity a little and can be the compasses that guide the path of a team to achieve continuous improvement that is maintained over time.
How does it work?
Now that we know what it is, we have to know how it actually works and how we can get it done. There are many different methods in order to obtain an Agile Maturity Index. They all consist of looking for a way to know what the degree of maturity of the team is by applying some method, practice, or work technique, to know the level of mastery and the degree of adoption.
It helps us look for opportunities for improvement by challenging the team to implement the best-recommended behaviors to be more effective. You can use a set of questions where the team answers about their criteria, there are some ways to qualify such as a numerical scale (1 to 10), binary Yes or NO, or at what levels of questions (Always, Almost Always, Never).
Some of the most popular models are:
- Squad Health Check model (Spotify)
- Tuckman Team Development Model (Bruce Tuckman)
- TeamHealth Radar Assessment (Agility health)
- Scrum Team Maturity Model
Metrics serve to leverage continuous improvement, helping organizations focus people on what is most important and generate value.
For this, it is important to define periodic measurements to take data on the behavior of the equipment during the given cut such as:
- Time
- Tools
- People
- Value
- Functionality
- Quality
- Process
- Improvement
Lastly, these measurements of variables come with a report of all the results obtained, which can be analyzed to see how the company is actually doing and all the areas where it could use some improvement. In this way, teams can make strategies to make their Agility better and understand both their strong and weak points.
Benefits of Agile Maturity Index
Being one of the most used tools in the evaluation of companies and teams, there are many benefits that come with applying an Agile Maturity Index to your company. Now we will mention some of the most influential for its success and the best use of this tool:
1. Provides detailed/ personalized insight
Analysis of this type provides detailed and personalized insight into all the activities a company undergoes. This way, you can get to know your company and team, its strengths, and weaknesses, and how it works in every single area. All results are in real-time, so you can have an exact notion of performance at a specific given time.
2. Allows improvement
All the knowledge about your team and company will immediately allow you to identify all the areas that need improvement, which will make it much easier for you to plan strategies and changes within the team. Ultimately, your speed to market can also be improved with this information.
3. Allows you to create high performing teams
After analyzing your Agile Maturity Index, it will give you the possibility to make up some high-performing teams between different departments that will be responsible for delivering value as their task will also be to identify and break down silos in the communication across every area of work.
4. Increases employee’s well being
As a part of the process to obtain an Agile Maturity Index, sentiment analysis will also be undertaken within your teams. These will show that as you make improvements while you measure all other areas of the company, employees’ happiness and wellbeing in the workplace will also increase, as they feel you are interested in creating a better environment all in all.
5. Maximizes output
Of course, if you have knowledge of how your teams are connected to your company, you will know if you have to improve it and how. Ultimately, having a better connection will maximize your outputs as your vision and values are the same as your workers’.
6. Identifies influencers
As we already mentioned, a proper Agile Maturity Index analysis, specifically the conversational part, will show how individuals are connected to our company, but it will also identify influencers within the different departments, which can be very useful to modernize and innovate your company.
Importance of Agile Maturity Index
As we have already shown and mentioned throughout this whole article, the importance of the Agile Maturity Index lies in the information that it provides for ourselves and what all this information represents and means for the state of how things are working within our teams and company.
If we are unaware of how things are currently functioning and the level of optimality that they are in, it is impossible or very difficult for us to create a properly useful strategy on how to improve or where to keep up the good work.
Conclusion:
Undergoing an Agile Maturity measurement and later analyzing the index that our company is in will be the best strategy to get to know, improve, or continue on the different areas that both a team and company requirements. It is the only way to have everything under control and understand the current state and results of our activities.
References
- https://opinno.com/agile-maturity-index-insights
- https://netmind.net/en/a-simple-guide-to-assess-your-agile-maturity-level/
- https://mmtdigital.co.uk/product-pages/agile-maturity-index
