A data driven and competency-based approach to measuring maturity of agile teams and informing coaching plans.
Many organisations I work with usually have already begun their agile journey in some form. This is often the point where they decide they have taken the transformation as far as they can and look to me to help take them to the next level. It is vital at this point to take stock of what have been achieved to date but also to recognise what is not working well or where the organisation may be struggling with agile adoption. This is where the agile assessment comes in. The output of this assessment will inform me and the organisation as to the next most important areas to focus on and lay the foundations for identifying key training and coaching needs specific to that organisation.
Key Aims of an Agile Assessment
- Helps Scrum Masters, Product Owners and overall Squad members identify where they would like support with your Agile improvements.
- Help your organisation to identify themes to support decisions e.g., priority learning topics.
- Helps Coaches to form coaching plans for each squad.
- This is a Coach led assisted assessment – Not to be done in isolation.
- Data will not be recognisable in isolation. Aggregated reports will be used to plan coaching events etc.
Agile Assessment Steps
- STEP 1: Coach schedules a conversation with the PO, SM or squad (depending on assessment being carried out) to explain the purpose of the assessment and nature of the questions.
- STEP 2: Coach facilitates the very first assessment so everyone is comfortable and feels supported.
- STEP 3: Data is collated to identify individual requirements of squad. It is also used to track patterns in squads across the organization.
- STEP 4: Coach uses output to facilitate respondents to identify opportunities for growth, create outcomes and then define actions to achieve them.
- STEP 5: Build a Coaching Plan that includes goals for the teams and the organisation that can be achieved via agile ways of working. Identify training and coaching needs to support achievement of those goals.
- STEP 6: Repeat entire process (~ 3 months) to show Agile growth path.
Agile Training
Once we have identified the agile goals, its time to develop the skills and knowledge to support the teams.
Agile Coaching
The role of an Agile Coach is to support a group and/or squads to become high performing.