How to prepare for your agile maturity assessment.
An Agile Maturity Assessment is most valuable when it reflects how work actually happens—not how teams hope it happens. Preparation is less about “studying for the test” and more about ensuring the right people, data, and context are available so the results are accurate, credible, and actionable. This article outlines practical steps leaders and teams can take to prepare, what to expect during the assessment, and how to get the most value from the results.
What an Agile Maturity Assessment Is (and Is Not)
What it is
- A structured evaluation of how effectively Agile principles, practices, and ways of working are applied
- A combination of quantitative data (surveys, metrics) and qualitative insight (leader and team interviews, observations)
- A baseline to inform improvement priorities, sequencing, and investment decisions
What it is not
- A performance review of individuals or teams
- A compliance audit or certification exercise
- A comparison against other companies
The goal is clarity, not judgment.
Step 1: Clarify the Purpose and Scope
Before the assessment begins, leadership should align on why it is being conducted.
Common objectives include:
- Improving delivery predictability
- Reducing dependency and coordination issues across teams
- Establishing a shared improvement roadmap
- Informing decisions around training, tooling, or operating model changes
Key scope decisions to confirm up front:
- Which parts of the organization are included (IT, business teams, or both)
- Whether the focus is team-level execution, cross-team coordination, or enterprise alignment
- The time horizon the results will inform (near-term improvements vs. longer-term transformation)
Clear intent prevents misinterpretation of results later.
Step 2: Identify the Right Participants
An accurate assessment depends on hearing from the people who do the work and the leaders who set direction.
Typical participants include:
- Senior leaders and executives
- Business owners and product leaders
- Delivery leaders and managers
- Team members across roles (engineering, operations, shared services)
Guidelines for participation:
- Include a representative cross-section of teams and functions
- Avoid limiting input to only high-performing or pilot teams
- Ensure leaders understand this is about learning, not evaluation
Balanced participation improves both credibility and buy-in.
Step 3: Prepare Leaders for Interviews
Leader interviews are a critical input. Preparation should focus on context, not rehearsed answers.
Leaders should be ready to discuss:
- Describe how work is prioritized and funded today
- Explain how dependencies and shared resources are managed
- Discuss challenges related to unplanned work and delivery predictability
- Share what is working well and where friction exists
Encourage leaders to:
- Speak candidly
- Acknowledge constraints and trade-offs
- Focus on system-level issues rather than team performance
Honest input leads to more useful recommendations.
Step 4: Set Expectations for Surveys
Most assessments include standardized Agile or business agility surveys to gather broad input.
To improve survey quality:
- Communicate the purpose and how results will be used
- Reinforce that responses are anonymous
- Encourage participants to answer based on lived experience, not aspirational goals
- Avoid coaching teams on “correct” answers
Survey data is most valuable when it reflects reality—even if the results feel uncomfortable.
Step 5: Gather Supporting Artifacts (Optional but Helpful)
While not required, existing artifacts can add important context.
Examples include:
- Planning and funding models
- Portfolio or roadmap views
- Delivery metrics already in use
- Tooling landscape (e.g., multiple systems vs. a single system of record)
These materials help validate themes emerging from surveys and interviews.
Step 6: Create Psychological Safety
Teams must feel safe to be honest.
Recommended actions:
- Communicate clearly that results will not be used for performance management
- Avoid attaching incentives or penalties to outcomes
- Share how insights will inform improvement, not blame
Psychological safety directly impacts the accuracy of the assessment.
What to Expect After the Assessment
A well-run Agile Maturity Assessment typically delivers:
- An overall maturity score using a clearly defined maturity model
- Strengths to preserve and scale
- Risks tied to delivery, predictability, and coordination
- Prioritized improvement recommendations
- Clear linkages between findings, risks, and proposed initiatives
Results should be positioned as a starting point for improvement—not an end state.
How to Get the Most Value from the Results
To maximize impact:
- Review findings with leadership as a group to build shared understanding
- Focus first on foundational enablers (e.g., governance, decision-making, alignment)
- Treat training, tooling, and practice adoption as outcomes of clarity—not prerequisites
- Reassess periodically to measure progress and adjust priorities
Organizations that treat the assessment as a living baseline see far greater returns.
Final Thought
Preparation for an Agile Maturity Assessment is less about readiness and more about openness. When leaders and teams engage honestly, the assessment becomes a powerful tool to reduce delivery risk, improve predictability, and align the organization around meaningful change.
If you prepare for learning instead of validation, the results will speak for themselves.