Agile Maturity Models – Everything to Know About it

When you embrace Agile practices, the effects are far more prominent in any company. They impact the entire organization and influence across teams. With such a crucial methodology around, how do you ensure that it is delivering value as intended? How to know the level of Agile culture and practices?

Finding the level is effective and easier by using Agile Maturity Models.

My team lead gave me an idea about agile maturity models while sharing knowledge about the project with me. Knowing the benefits, I joined SAFe agile certification to learn in detail. I will try to get into the gist of this particular evaluation tool with this blog. In my experience, the knowledge will help you drive the virtues of Agile better into the company.

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What is the Agile Maturity Models?

It is an assessment that delivers valuable insights. You get to know how far the company is in the process. Plus, you get to understand how well the team members have embraced this model. It is used to check what areas need improvement for better penetration of the methodology within the firm. 

Using this agile maturity models you can completely access the status and take the respective actions required. By this method, you can improve the production of agile processes effectively in various companies.

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Why is it Needed?

When you carry out a maturity evaluation, you can see the extent to which the team has adapted to agile principles and practices. You get a clear picture of how effectively the company uses it to boost productivity. It shows that your team has progressed from ‘Unaware’ to ‘Highly Effective’. An agile maturity matrix can create a clear idea about the status of agile practice with the different projects.  

So, if you have rolled out Agile but don’t see much improvement, you can act accordingly. Such timely action will let the team adapt well to this approach.  The Agile maturity models will also give more muscle to tasks like planning and documentation within this space.

What are the levels in the Agile Maturity Models?

I will try to simplify the discussion on this topic. Hence, the below would be the 5 levels of this model.

a. Initial Level

• Agile adoption is fragmented or nonexistent.

• Little or no formal process for managing this approach

• Isolated or ineffective communication

• Planning is short-term and unpredictable

• Some people or projects may start with this methodology as an experiment   

• Proper planning can’t be seen

b. Just Started Level

• The team is exposed to basic Agile practices like Scrum master and Kanban boards

• Short iterations and regular meetings start becoming common

• Attempt to secure management buy-in begins

• Processes are still inconsistent 

• Collaboration and communication become more effective

• It marks the beginning of a structured Agile approach

• Consistency will be a big point to concentrate on.

c. Defined Level

• Agile practices start getting formed and enforced across a bigger section of the firm.

• A clearer understanding of roles and responsibilities.

• Implementation of continuous integration and automated testing

• Use of Sprint meetings and Retrospectives

• Further refinement is possible as we move to the next stage

d. Measured Management Level

• KRAs and processes become well-etched out

• Better predictability and quality of deliverables under Agile

• Strong emphasis on continuous improvement

• Start exploring advanced practices like SAFe

• This level denotes a mature Agile company

 e. Optimizing Level

• All team members know how to operate under the Agile framework

• Innovative practices start protruding within the team

• All-time high productivity levels

• Strong focus on value delivery to customers 

• This level is the pinnacle of excellence in Agile, with an eye on refinement potential

These levels define the state of actions within the company from the beginning to the continuous adoption of agile methods in project management.

What are the Benefits of Such an Assessment?

When you evaluate the Agile readiness, you can avail of significant benefits as under –

• Team members can be aligned to the Agile methodology better with such an evaluation

• It becomes easy to chart the progress of a firm. This is especially beneficial for those who have just started out

• Such companies get to know the direction to take to denote Agile maturity

• Employees in mature companies know better about their roles within the team

• As maturity grows, your organizational processes will improve.  

• When the team completes sprints and facilitates version releases, it leads to better employee morale. 

• With proper assessment metrics, setting goals and tracking them becomes simpler. 

What are the challenges of the Agile Maturity Models?

There are some challenges to look out for while transforming to the agile methodology, like the following:

• It might be wrong to think that growth is linear in each of the Agile maturity levels

• Several models have sprung up (depending on their niche requirements). This may lead to confusion about what constitutes maturity.

• Employees tend to be discouraged by the low scores in the model instead of being motivated by it to perform better.

How to Use the Model?

Below are some steps to help you make the most out of this model. 

• Check initial state: You need to know what level of maturity is applicable to your firm. This will drive further planning and execution towards the journey to Agile maturity.

• Find out key areas of focus: You need to list down actions that can help propel your journey ahead in the right direction. You need to then collect the resources and time needed to carry out these actions.

• Execute the plan: You will implement the action as per the above two points. The team members need to collectively put in their efforts and be motivated by the impending status of a mature organization.

• Measure the progress: You have a starting point. You will now have a point of the distance covered till now. It will help you assess if the progress is optimal or needs to speed up.

• Repeat it:  Once you reach the next level, you need to re-do the process from the first stage in this list. Carrying out all these points will help you move to the next level till you reach the mature level.    

Conclusion

When your companies are transforming to agile methodology you need to track the efficiency and processes. Only with regular updates, productivity can be increased, but to track it you need a tool. Measuring Agile readiness becomes easy with the Agile Maturity Models. 

This post took a look at the various aspects of this framework and its assessment. We also saw how you can move from the initial state to the next Agile maturity levels. Get to know about advanced Agile maturity by enrolling in the SAFe Agile Certification Course by StarAgile. 

FAQs

Q1. Why is the Agile Maturity Models important?

This is a structured way of evaluating Agile practices and the level of their adoption. The model gives a baseline against which you can gauge your Agile maturity readiness. This assessment helps give a direction in your journey toward becoming a mature organization.  

Q2. What benefits can organizations expect from improving their Agile maturity?

It guides the team members about their present state of Agile readiness. It shows them how they can become more mature in adopting Agile best practices

Q3. How do you increase Agile maturity?

You need to take stock of the present scenario. With this insight, you can plan for actions that will help you get to the next stage of maturity. Once you reach the new stage, you can repeat the process to move further ahead.