This document describes an agility readiness assessment tool that evaluates an organization's preparedness for adopting agile methods. It identifies eight factors that indicate agility readiness: need, business change drivers, cleanliness, skills, resourcing, measures, innate change capability, and change energy. The assessment uses a questionnaire to score each factor from 1 to 5 based on qualitative questions, in order to generate a profile that shows where an organization is strong and needs improvement in becoming agile. Sample profiles demonstrate how the scores could indicate an organization that is agility ready, change fatigued, has low agile need, or is typically not very agile. The tool aims to define an organization's agility readiness and identify areas needing

1. CXO Advisor
Advise – Innovate – Change
Agile Readiness Assessment

2. Why Agility Readiness?
Business agility is much more than having an agile platform, capability and
team of enthusiastic people:
 The effects of agile methods, and results are felt in the business, and always
require a business change to the way they view, participate in, and react to
change (especially rapid change)
 While executives believe there is a need for agility, there is often limited
commitment to the necessary resourcing, revised mandates, environmental and
behavioural changes. Indeed often the organisation does not have a clear
understanding of agile impacts and business enablers
 Agility is not necessary at every level or in every area of business
 Even if the need is accepted and the willingness is there, agility can only be
achieved through correct resourcing, skilling, managing and through having agileappropriate governance

3. About the agility readiness assessment
This Agility Readiness Assessment is a quick way to:
 Define the readiness of the organisation, and if agility is indicated, identify areas
that need improvement or even identify the need for new processes
 Only once these agility factors have been acknowledged, should the agile
platform be put into production

4. Factors to establish Agile readiness
We have identified eight related factors which signal agility readiness, and
focus agility change management efforts
 These are explained on the next page
Need
Change
energy
BCD
Business
Change
Drivers
Innate
Clean
Measures
Skills
Resourcing

5. Agility Readiness Factors
Need
 The need for this organisation to be agile, based on external change – How quickly does the
industry, the environment, and the customer base change, and demand change of this
organisation?
BCD (Business Change Drivers)
 What drives change at the following process levels: Business in a box (HR, Finance,
Procurement, etc.) Industry (mining, travel, telco?) Customer choice (products/services,
interactions) , Originate (new products, markets, channels)
Clean
 How ‘clean’ is the organisation: Bureaucracy load, business simplicity, understood
processes, activities, environment, 80:20 mind-set, legacy inertia.
Skills
 Does the organisation have skills that match the BCD model? What are the competence
levels, what capacity levels? Skills apply to both business and IT.
Resourcing
 What levels of activity according to 3 role model? Funding levels by 3RM benchmark? Is
benefits realisation practiced?
Measures
 What are the organisation’s business measures of success? Do measures match / track
business activities? How are benefits measured?
Innate
 How innate is change in the organisation? How does change flow / get blocked? How is
demand managed? How well does the SLI process work?
Change energy
 How ready is the organisation for change? (Change energy/fatigue) How successful has
change been in the past? Are there effective change agents / power bases?

6. The agility factor wheel
• Industry
• Environment
• Customer base
•
•
•
•
∆ readiness
∆ success
∆ agents
Power bases
Need
BCD
Change
energy
Business
Change
Drivers
• Change flows
• Demand management Innate
• SLI process
Clean
Measures
• Measures of ‘success’
• BCD measures
• Benefits / cost ratios
•
•
•
•
Skills
Resourcing
• 3RM activity levels
• 3RM funding levels
• Benefits realisation
Business
Industry
Customer choice
Originate
•
•
•
•
•
Bureaucracy
Simplicity
Understandable
80:20
Legacy inertia
• BCD match
• Competence
• Capacity

7. The assessment tool (sample page)
The assessment uses qualitative questions to deduce a quantitative score for each agility
readiness sub-factor
1
2
3
4
5
High level of change in the Intense change. Often
environment. Fast
difficult to keep up with
changing, evolving
what is changing / has
legislation, or environment changed. Need constant
change forces many
industry response. Need
annual changes on the
constant environmental
industry
monitoring
How quickly does
the environment
in which your
industry / sector
operates change
Need
Virtually no change. The
industry changes within a
static environment. No
external pressures on the
industry to change
Low level of operating
environment change.
Some legislation, or
environmental change.
Medium level of
environment change.
Every year some change or
legislation occurs that
forces an industry
response
How fast
changing is your
industry / sector
Virtually no change in this
industry / sector. Things
stay the same from year to
year
Low level of change. Some
changes occur annually,
without much pressure to
keep up.
Medium level of change.
Some industry processes /
methods / products
change on an annual basis
High level of change. Most
methods / products /
processes have some form
of change in a year
Every now and then our
customers or suppliers
require us to change our
products / services or
channels
We need to make changes
on an annual basis to
accommodate customer /
supplier change demand
There is constant change
Our customers or
in our customer / supplier
suppliers change regularly,
base, requiring on-going
requiring us to change as
change to our products /
well
services / channels
Low level of change.
Occasionally we change
basic business processes
and rules.
We are constantly
Our basic business rules /
changing our rules /
We change our some of
processes / methods
business rules / processes
processes / methods.
change often. There may
/ methods every year
There is pent-up demand
be a backlog
to change the basics
We make occasional
changes to the way we
work in our industry
practices
Every year we change at
least one major process /
activity to keep up with
industry trends
Our customer / supplier
How often do
base is a constant. Very
your customers /
little change demanded
suppliers change
from them
How often are
basic business
rules / processes
/ practices
required to
Business
change
Change
How often do you
Drivers
need to change
the industry
practices /
methods that you
Almost never. We seldom
change our basic business
practices (HR, Finance,
Admin, Procurement,
Legal)
This is a very stable
industry. We seldom
change the way we
conduct industry specific
methods / practices (E.g.
We change numerous
industry practices /
processes and methods to
keep ahead of industry
practices and standards
Intense change. Industry
processes, products,
methods constantly
changing
We constantly change our
practices and processes.
Our industry approach is in
a state of flux. We see
ourselves as ahead of the

8. Sample assessment questionnaire
Factor x Maturity
Level Description
1
Factor does not exist, or is extremely immature. Very low scale.
2
Low maturity / low representation / low value. Factor tends to be accommodated
on an ad hoc basis (Sometimes / some place). Some understanding of need.
3
Moderately mature. Factor may be patchily represented, or have incomplete
implementation. However the intention is there and is proven.
4
Mostly mature, with some outliers. Usually documented / practiced. High scale.
5
Factor fully mature. Strategically inculcated. Full governance. “The way we do
things here”

9. Sample agility readiness profiles
Need
Need
Change
energy
BCD
Business
Change
Drivers
1
Innate
2
3
Measures
4
5
Clean
Skills
Change
energy
Business
Change
Drivers
1
Innate
2
3
Measures
Resourcing
4
5
Clean
Skills
Resourcing
Typical Agility Readiness: The need, and rates of change at different
business levels is high. Business is complex and slow to change .Change
is poorly resourced, executed, and tracked. Staff are fatigued.
Agility Ready: The need for agility is high, and the energy, methods and
approaches support agility. Need to upgrade skills, and improve
measures, but otherwise an agile ready oprganisation
Need
Need
Change
energy
Innate
BCD
BCD
Business
Change
Drivers
1
Measures
2
3
4
5
Clean
Skills
Resourcing
Low agile need: There is very little need for agility. The business is
simple and resourced adequately. And agility should occur in ringfenced environments as change is difficult to implement
Change
energy
Innate
BCD
Business
Change
Drivers
1
Measures
2
3
4
5
Clean
Skills
Resourcing
Change fatigued: The need to change is high and the desire to do so is
strong. However the business is exceptionally complex and previous
change efforts have caused change burn-out

11. Need
Change
energy
Innate
BCD
Business
Change
Drivers
1
Measures
2
3
4
5
Clean
Skills
Resourcing