- Today’s realities are driving organizations to digitize faster and become more Agile.
- Agile transformations are difficult and frequently fail for a variety of reasons.
- To achieve the benefits of Agile, organizations need to be ready for the significant changes that Agile demands.
- Challenges to your Agile transformation can come from a variety of sources.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Use Info-Tech’s CLAIM+G model to examine potential roadblocks to Agile on six different organizational dimensions.
- Use survey results to identify and address the issues that are most likely to derail your Agile transformation.
Impact and Result
- Better understand where and how your organization needs to change to support your Agile transformation.
- Focus your attention on your organization’s biggest roadblocks to Agile.
- Improve your organization’s chances of a successful Agile transformation.
Agile Readiness Assessment Survey Research & Tools
Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
1. Agile Readiness Assessment Deck – A guide to help your organization survey its Agile readiness.
Read this deck to see how an Agile Readiness Assessment can help your organization understand its readiness for Agile transformation. The storyboard guides you through how to collect, consolidate, and examine survey responses and create an actionable list of improvements to make your organization more Agile ready.
- Agile Readiness Assessment Storyboard
2. Survey Templates (Excel or MS Forms, available in English and French) – Use these templates to create and distribute the survey broadly within your organization.
The Agile Readiness Assessment template is available in either Excel or Microsoft Forms (both English and French versions are available). Download the Excel templates here or use the links in the above deck to access the online versions of the survey.
- Agile Readiness Survey – English
- Agile Readiness Survey – French
3. Agile Readiness Assessment Consolidated Results Tool – Use this tool to consolidate and analyze survey responses.
The Agile Readiness Assessment Consolidated Results Tool allows you to consolidate survey responses by team/role and produces your heatmap for analysis.
- Agile Readiness Assessment Consolidated Results Tool
Further reading
Agile Readiness Assessment
Understand how ready your organization is for an Agile transformation.
Info-Tech Research Group Inc. is a global leader in providing IT research and advice. Info-Tech’s products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with ready-to-use tools and templates that cover the full spectrum of IT concerns.
Analyst Perspective
Use the wisdom of crowds to understand how ready you are for Agile transformation.
Agile transformations can be difficult and complex to implement. That’s because they require fundamental changes in the way an organization thinks and behaves (and many organizations are not ready for these changes).
Use Info-Tech’s Agile Readiness Assessment to broadly survey the organization’s readiness for Agile along six dimensions:
- Culture
- Learning
- Automation
- Integrated teams
- Metrics
- Governance
The survey results will help you to examine and address those areas that are most likely to hinder your move to Agile.
Alex Ciraco
Principal Research Director, Application Delivery and Management
Info-Tech Research Group
Executive Summary
Your Challenge
- Your organization wants to shorten delivery time and improve quality by adopting Agile practices.
- Your organization has not yet used Agile successfully.
- You know that Agile transformations are complex and difficult to implement.
- You want to maximize your Agile transformation’s chances of success.
Common Obstacles
- Risks to your Agile transformation can come from a variety of sources, including:
- Organizational culture
- Learning practices
- Use of automation
- Ability to create integrated teams
- Use of metrics
- Governance practices
Info-Tech’s Approach
- Use Info-Tech’s Agile Readiness Assessment to broadly survey your organization’s readiness for Agile.
- Examine the consolidated results of this survey to identify challenges that are most likely to hinder Agile success.
- Discuss and address these challenges to increase your chances of success.
Info-Tech Insight
By first understanding the numerous challenges to Agile transformations and then broadly surveying your organization to identify and address the challenges that are at play, you are more likely to have a successful Agile transformation.
Info-Tech’s methodology
| 1. Distribute Survey | 2. Consolidate Survey Results | 3. Examine Results and Problem Solve | |
| Phase Steps | 1.1 Identify the teams/roles you will survey. 1.2 Configure the survey to reflect your teams/roles. 1.3 Distribute the Agile Readiness Assessment Survey broadly in the organization. |
2.1 Collect survey responses from all participants. 2.2 Consolidate the results using the template provided. |
3.1 Examine the consolidated results (both OVERALL and DETAILED Heatmaps) 3.2 Identify key challenge areas (those which are most “red”) and discuss these challenges with participants 3.3 Brainstorm, select and refine potential solutions to these challenges |
| Phase Outcomes | An appreciation for the numerous challenges associated with Agile transformations | Identified challenges to Agile within your organization (both team-specific and organization-wide challenges) | An actionable list of solutions/actions to address your organization’s Agile challenges. |
Blueprint deliverables
Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals.
| Agile Readiness Assessment Survey
Survey the organization to understand your readiness for an Agile transformation on six dimensions.
|
Agile Readiness Assessment Consolidated Results
Examine your readiness for Agile and identify team-specific and organization-wide challenges.
|
Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
DIY Toolkit |
Guided Implementation |
Workshop |
Consulting |
| "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." | "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." | "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." | "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project." |
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options
Guided Implementation
A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.
A typical GI is between 6 to 8 calls over the course of 1 to 2 months.
What does a typical GI on this topic look like?
- Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges (identify potential participants).
- Call #2: First call with participants (introduce Phase 1 and assign survey for completion).
- Call #3: Gather survey responses (prep for Phase 2 calls).
- Call #4: Consolidate all survey responses using the template.
- Call #5: Conduct initial review of consolidated results (prep for Phase 3 calls).
- Call #6: Present consolidated results to participants and agree on most pressing challenges.
- Call #7: Brainstorm, identify, and refine potential solutions to most pressing challenges.
- Call #8: Conduct closing and communication call.
Phase 1: Distribute Survey
Phase 2: Consolidate Survey Results
Phase 3: Examine Results and Problem Solve
Phase 1 — 
Customize and distribute the survey
Decide which teams/roles will participate in the survey.
Decide which format and language(s) you will use for your Agile Readiness Assessment Survey.
Configure the survey templates to reflect your selected teams/roles.
Distribute the survey for participants to complete.
- 1.1 The Agile Readiness Assessment Survey will help you to identify both team-specific and organization-wide challenges to your Agile transformation. It is best to distribute the survey broadly across the organization and include several teams and roles. Identify and make note of the teams/roles that will be participating in the survey.
- 1.2 Select which format of survey you will be using (Excel or online), along with the language(s) you will use (links to the survey templates can be found in the table below). Then configure the survey templates to reflect your list of teams/roles from Step 1.1.
- 1.3 Distribute your Agile Readiness Assessment Survey broadly in the organization. Give all participants a deadline date for completion of the survey.
| Format | Language | Download Survey Template |
| Excel | English | Agile Readiness Assessment Excel Survey Template – EN and FR |
| Excel | French | |
| Online | English | Agile Readiness Assessment Online Survey Template – EN |
| Online | French | Agile Readiness Assessment Online Survey Template – FR |
Phase 2 — 
Consolidate Survey Results
Collect and consolidate all survey responses using the template provided.
Review the OVERALL and DETAILED Heatmaps generated by the template.
- 2.1 Collect the survey responses from all participants. All responses completed using the online form will be anonymous (for responses returned using the Excel form, assign each a unique identifier so that anonymity of responses is maintained).
- 2.2 Consolidate the survey responses using the template below. Follow the instructions in the template to incorporate all survey responses.
Download the Agile Readiness Assessment Consolidated Results Tool
Phase 3 — 
Examine Survey Results and Problem Solve
Review the consolidated survey results as a team.
Identify the challenges that need the most attention.
Brainstorm potential solutions. Decide which are most promising and create a plan to implement them.
- 3.1 Examine the consolidated results (both OVERALL and DETAILED Heatmaps) and look at both team-specific and organization-wide challenge areas.
- 3.2 Identify which challenge areas need the most attention (typically those that are most red in the heatmap) and discuss these challenges with survey participants.
- 3.3 As a team, brainstorm potential solutions to these challenges. Select from and refine the solutions that are most promising, then create a plan to implement them.
3.1 Exercise: Collaborative Problem Solving —
60 Mins
Input: Consolidated survey results
Output: List of actions to address your most pressing challenges along with a timeline to implement them
Materials: Agile Readiness Assessment Consolidated Results Tool, Whiteboard and markers
Participants: Survey participants, Other interested parties
This exercise will create a plan for addressing your most pressing Agile-related challenges.
- As a team, agree on which survey challenges are most important to address (typically the most red in the heatmap).
- Brainstorm potential solutions/actions to address these challenges.
- Assign solutions/actions to individuals and set a timeline for completion.
| Challenge | Proposed Solution | Owner | Timeline |
| Enrichment
lack of a CoE |
Establish a service-oriented Agile Center of Excellence (CoE) staffed with experienced Agile practitioners who can directly help new-to-Agile teams be successful. | Bill W. | 6 Months |
| Tool Chain
(lack of Agile tools) |
Select a standard Agile work management tool (e.g. Jira, Rally, ADO) that will be used by all Agile teams. | Cindy K. | 2 Months |
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Research Contributors and Experts
- Columbus Brown, Senior Principal – Practice Lead – Business Alignment, Daugherty Business Solutions
- Saeed Khan, Founder, Transformation Labs
- Brenda Peshak, Product Owner/Scrum Master/Program Manager, John Deere/Source Allies/Widget Industries LLC
- Vincent Mirabelli, Principal, Global Project Synergy Group
- Len O'Neill, Sr. Vice President and Chief Information Officer, The Suddath Companies
- Shameka A. Jones, MPM, CSM, Lead Business Management Consultant, Mainspring Business Group, LLC
- Ryland Leyton, Lead Business Analyst, Aptos Retail
- Ashish Nangia, Lead Business System Analyst, Ashley Furniture Industries
- Barbara Carkenord, CBAP, IIBA-AAC, PMI-PBA, PMP, SAFe POPM, President, Carkenord Consulting
- Danelkis Serra, CBAP, Chapter Operations Manager, Regions & Chapters, IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis)
- Lorrie Staples-Ellis, CyberSecurity Integration Strategist, Wealth Management, Truist Bank
- Ginger Sundberg, Independent Consultant
- Kham Raven, Project Manager, Fraud Strategy & Execution, Truist Bank
- Sarah Vollett, PMP, Business Analyst, Operations, College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia
- Nicole J Coyle, ICP-ACC, CEAC, SPC4, SASM, POPM, CSM, ECM, CCMP, CAPM, Team Agile Coach and Team Facilitator, HCQIS Foundational Components
- Joe Glower, IT Director, Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI)
- Harsh Daharwal, Senior Director, Application Delivery, J.R. Simplot
- Hans Eckman, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group
- Valence Howden, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group