Agility Assessment Survey

2. How do we assess AGILITY?
@selleithy

3. “Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I
go?
Cat: That depends on where
you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter
which way you go.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
You've got to be very careful if you don't know
where you are going, because you might not get
there.
Yogi Berra

4. 15years
Agile Coach
supporting organizational
transformation
Enabling agility and enhancing team
capabilities serving as a Business
Analyst, Project Manager, Team
Facilitator, Scrum Master, Agile Coach
and Trainer.
4
Salah Elleithy
salah@sidkycg.com @selleithy

5. What are the Common Questions?
• Where do we start?
• What Agile methodology should we use?
• How do we scale across the organization?
• How do we know where to improve and if we are
improving?
• What does success look like for us? And when do
we know when we get “there”?
Are we asking the RIGHT questions?

6. It begins with awareness and
honest assessment.
Where do we start?
Where do we stand? Where do we want to go?

7. 1. What characteristics can help improve
our agility?
2. What are our strengths as an
organization? (enablers)
3. What are the opportunities for
improving our agility? (sustainers)
It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best.
- W. Edwards Deming

8. Agility Analytics “Engine”
Mindset of Value
Driven Delivery
Willingness to
adapt
Culture of trust
Work Visibility
Balancing
tradeoffs
Understanding
frequent feedback
Trust between
silos
Regard for
process
Reward systems
Understanding of
Work in Progress
Our organization
defines project success
in terms of the value
realized by the business
and the user, rather
than "delivered on
time, on budget, and as
specified."
Indicators
Plans and milestone
dates are held against
the delivery team
causing resistance to
accept any new
changes or feedback
from the business.
During meetings, the
most important and
difficult issues are
put on the table to
be resolved.
Our procedures and
processes are
obsolete and do not
represent the way
we actually work
I work on multiple
tasks at a time to
increase efficiency
and finish the
project faster
Process Culture
Mindset Buy-in
Technical
Maturity
…………………..
Organizational Characteristics
Core Competencies
Collaborating
on
requirements
Face to Face
Communication
Retrospectives
Practices

9. Agility Analytics ‘BIG’ Picture
……….
Organizational Characteristics
Process
Core Competencies
Culture
Mindset Buy-in
Technical
Maturity
Practices
Each Organizational
Characteristic is related to one
of the Core Competencies and
one or more of the Practices.
ReadyforAgile reporting are
mostly based on either the Core
Competencies or the Practices
Indicators
Each Organizational
Characteristic is assessed
through one or more Indicator

10. 5-Step Systematic Approach
1. Define Purpose &
Outcomes
2. Identify Participants &
Demographics
3. Define Indicators
4. Gather Data
5. Share INSIGHTS

11. • What’s the purpose of the
assessment?
– Organizational Readiness
– Benchmarking (How are we doing
today?)
– Longitudinal Analysis (How are we
doing compared to last time we took
the survey? (Usually quarterly)
• What actions are we planning to
take?
1. Define Purpose & Outcomes

12. 2. Identify Participants & Demographics
• Who will participate?
• What’s an
“acceptable” response
rate?
• What’s the participant
role or region/dept.?
• How long have they
been with the
organization?
Role
Category
Participants Responses % of
Response
Executives 30 16 53%
Non-
Executives
390 200 51%
Totals 420 216 51%
Overall, standard response rate based on employee engagement surveys that is
in the range of 60% - 80%.

13. 3. Define Indicators
Indicator Executive
Project
Manager
Product
Owner
Scrum
Master
Business
Analyst Developer Tester DBA
Our organization defines project success in terms of
the value realized by the business and the user,
rather than "delivered on time, on budget, and as
specified." X X X X X X X X
The entire project plan is created at the beginning
of the project. X X X X
Project plans are created at a high-level at the
beginning of the project and the details are defined
at the last responsible moment (Release by
release). X X X X X
Plans and milestone dates are held against the
delivery team causing resistance to accept any new
changes or feedback from the business. X X X X
The culture here is to view plans as commitments
and with no flexibility for changing them. X X X X X X X X
The culture here is to accept regular updates to the
project plan based on new and emerging
information about the project. X X X X X X X X
My job's effectiveness is challenged if the business
keeps changing which requirements they want to
see developed next. X X X X X X X X

14. 4. Gather Data

15. 5. Share INSIGHTS
Characteristic
Continuous Improvement
Buy-in for maintaining a backlog
Buy-in for retrospectives
Buy in for frequent delivery process
Cross-Training Opportunities
Autonomy
Buy-in for Value Oriented
Requirements
Maturity for self-organized teams
Management's trust of employee
Enablers
Sustainers
* Characteristics with a ‘High’ Impact Factor. Impact factor is determined
based on the number of practices it impacts and real life experience of
large agile implementations.
Characteristic
Impact
Factor
Over commitment High
Trust Between Silos High
Mindset of Value Driven Delivery High
Understanding of Work in Process High
Preferring email over face-to-face Med
Engaging in discussions to create shared
understandings Med
Balancing tradeoffs Med
Employing multiple planning horizons Med
* Characteristics in bold represent a ‘High’ Impact Factor. Impact factor is
determined based on the number of practices it impacts and real life
experience of large agile implementations.

16. Core Competency Analytics
100806040200
Strength
(Enabler)
Opportunity
(Sustainer)

17. Agile Practice View

18. Characteristic Over Commitment
Survey Question Over commitment is common here, causing stress and compromising the quality of our work.
Results by Role Category
Results by Detailed Roles
INSIGHTS
Drastic variance in response
based on the role especially
Scrum Master and
Directors/Executives. While
Executives are in
agreement, other roles tend
to lean more towards the
disagreement end of the
scale.
This indicates that the team
is working at an
unsustainable pace.
The team could potentially
burnout down the road and
quality may also suffer.
Management needs to
continue encouraging the
team to maintain a
sustainable pace.
A Detailed View

19. Characteristic Trust between silos
Survey Question
I feel that other silos (organizations, departments, etc.) are not looking out for the entire organization's best
interest, but more focused on their interests and what makes them look good and stand out
Results by Role Category
Results by Detailed Roles
INSIGHTS
Executives and Non
Executives responses are
not aligned. While there is
disagreement among Non
Execs on this question,
detailed roles shows a
different look. This indicates
that while there is a level of
trust within a department,
trust between silos (across
departments) is low.
This is particularly obvious
when looking at responses
those who interact with a
cross functional teams such
as Customers, Scrum
Masters and Product
Owners.
TRUST is a key ingredient to
developing a high
performing team. Refer to
the 5 dysfunction of team by
Patrick Lencioni.
A Detailed View

20. We see what we believe NOT the
other way around.
- Seth Godin

21. Contact Information
Salah Elleithy
salah@sidkcg.com
410.262.5550
linkedin.com/in/selleithy