The most important aspect of transforming how your organization works is a clear statement of goals. As with any journey, it is critical to understand where you are in order to create a plan on how to get to your destination (your goals). Completing an assessment of your current practices is key to both. An assessment sets the stage for all other improvements, enabling you to tailor your approach effectively.
Once you know where you stand, the insights gained can drive collaboration, inform decision-making, and lead to more effective action plans. Ultimately, a clear understanding of your current state is essential for achieving meaningful progress in your Agile journey and discovering how to maximize value delivery.
What is an Agile Assessment?
An Agile assessment is a systematic evaluation of an organization’s Agile practices, processes, and culture. It aims to measure the effectiveness of Agile practices in delivering value and achieving desired outcomes. The assessment process typically includes gathering data through surveys, interviews, and observations, followed by a comprehensive analysis and actionable recommendations.
Why Conduct an Agile Assessment?
- Establish a Baseline: A thorough assessment gives you a clear understanding of current practices within your organization – how widely and consistently they are used, and how those practices are being put to use.
- Identify Strengths and Weaknesses: An assessment helps highlight what’s working well and what isn’t, providing a clear picture of the current state of Agile practices.
- Tailor Improvement Plans: With a clear understanding of challenges, organizations can develop targeted action plans to address specific issues.
- Measure Progress: Regular assessments allow teams to track their progress over time, ensuring continuous improvement.
- Align Culture with Agility: An assessment helps evaluate whether the organizational culture supports Agile values, such as collaboration, transparency, and adaptability.
- Bonus: Enhance the Understanding of Agile Practices: More on this in the section on conducting your assessment.
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Steps to Conduct an Agile Assessment
1. Define Objectives
Before starting the assessment, ensure the objectives are clear. Are you aiming to improve Feature selection, refine work-progress focus, shorten lead times, improve team performance, enhance collaboration, or align Agile practices with broader business goals? Clear objectives will guide the assessment process and put the focus on what’s important now.

The predefined Business Outcomes in the Path to Agility approach
2. Choose Assessment Framework or Approach
Select an appropriate assessment framework. Common frameworks and approaches include the Agile Maturity Model, Agile Velocity’s Path to Agility® approach, Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe ®), or custom surveys designed around your specific context. The chosen framework or approach should align with your organization’s goals and structure.
Whatever you choose, ensure that it is repeatable and can be aligned with your organization’s goals. Better yet, use an application that will help create, complete, analyze, and track trends over time within your organization.
3. Identify Participants
It’s essential to engage a diverse group of stakeholders in the assessment process. This should go beyond the development team and include representatives from business, technology, and all levels of management. Doing so will provide a more comprehensive picture of the process, from ideation to delivery.
4. Gather Data
Collect data through various methods:
- Surveys: Create surveys for team members to assess their experiences with Agile practices.
- Interviews: Facilitate interviews with key stakeholders, including team members, project managers, and executives to gather qualitative insights.
- Observations: Attend team meetings and events (like Daily Scrums or Sprint Retrospectives) to observe interactions and workflows in real-time.
Earlier, a bonus reason was mentioned in the “Why Conduct an Agile Assessment?” section. The bonus is that everyone who participates in the data gathering step will learn more about agile principles and practices. The conversations around each item in the assessment will reveal knowledge gaps that can frequently be filled in real-time. It is for this reason that I lean heavily on in-person facilitated interviews for the first assessment. I also shy away from trying to convince someone to change their response and instead focus on the educational opportunity.
5. Analyze Results
Once data is collected, analyze the findings to identify trends, strengths, and areas for improvement. Look for patterns in responses and consider both quantitative and qualitative data. Occasionally, you might not understand some of the results. Don’t hesitate to sit down again with participants to further clarify the results.
If this is your first assessment, proceed directly to creating an improvement plan. If it’s a follow-up assessment, take time to analyze the changes and emerging plans. This analysis can not only shape your improvement strategy but also foster greater enthusiasm for continuous improvement.

A screenshot from the Path to Agility® Navigator software showing areas for discussion and digging deeper.
It is also worth noting that first-time assessments are usually far more positive than expected. This is a typical pattern with organizations first embarking on a transformation. Don’t feel like the results have to be “correct.” This will happen organically in subsequent assessments as participants gain a better understanding of the concepts in question.
If you have them available, looking at team metrics as part of your analysis can also be valuable in understanding which practices seem to be driving superior results. This can help inform improvement plans in the next step.
6. Develop Improvement Plans
In the words of the immortal Ice Cube, “I think the worst thing you can do about a situation is nothing.”
Now that we know the situation, it’s time to act.
Based on the analysis, develop tailored action plans that address identified issues. Focus on practical, achievable steps that can be implemented over time with an emphasis on some things that can be done “right now.”. Engage teams in this process to ensure buy-in and ownership of the changes.
As you create plans, be sure that you can create a direct line between desired outcomes and the action you are about to take. Using the user story format of “take an action so that I get a benefit” is a simple way to lay out your action plan. Also, be realistic in the number of actions that can be taken in the time period between assessments and that each has a designated owner.

A screenshot from Path to Agility Navigator showing how assessment data is prioritized into a list of action items that will impact your desired business outcome (improved customer satisfaction).
7. Communicate Findings and the Improvement Plan
Share the results of the assessment and proposed improvement plans with the organization. It’s one thing to learn that something is making work more difficult and another to also say “Here’s how we are going to fix it.” Transparency helps build trust and encourages a culture of continuous improvement.
For organizations that have undergone previous assessment and improvement cycles, highlight the changes made and how they’ve improved their processes and outcomes. Communicating all wins, big and small, can generate excitement and sustain momentum in the transformation journey.
8. Implement Changes
Treat the items on your improvement plan as you would any other work. Place them in a backlog, make sure people understand why each is important, and make it clear the changes are as important as any other work. Communicate and celebrate when a change is successful. Talk up the benefits. Let people know they influenced the change.
You might already have an idea of who the people are that will make the changes. You may also get some unexpected volunteers. If you do, great, let them help!! Just make sure they can actually commit the time and have the backing of their leader. As with transparency and demonstrating wins, letting people participate builds credibility and momentum.
9. Measure and Repeat
One of the most important steps is going to get the fewest words. Establish a regular cadence for Agile Assessments. Continuous evaluation allows organizations to determine if they are changing the right things, better adapt to changing environments, and maintain alignment with business goals all to get one thing: better business outcomes.
Take the Next Step Today with Agile Velocity
Agile isn’t about following a set of practices or learning new vocabulary (we know companies love to relabel existing practices with agile names), it’s about achieving better business results. Periodic assessments are essential for maximizing the value your organization delivers. By identifying strengths, weaknesses, and growth opportunities, these assessments promote a culture of continuous learning and adaptability. When done right, they lead to enhanced collaboration, increased efficiency, and ultimately, better business outcomes. Embrace the journey of assessment as a pathway to greater agility and success. Contact Agile Velocity today to learn how their services can aid in the assessment of your organization and get you off on the right track to a successful Agile Transformation.