Agile Self Evaluation

Based on your answers to these 20 questions, you will receive a customized report (PDF) with your team's Agile profile. The report will also identify key themes and ideas for immediate improvement.

Before we begin, let's make one thing clear. A multiple question test like this is, by its nature, superficial. Any real-world organization has lots of constraints that defy cookie-cutter solutions. We do think this self-assessment can help identify which areas are important for deeper digging. So with that in mind, on to the questions.

Management Practices

There are 12 questions across 5 dimensions.

Requirements Analysis

1. Which of the following most closely resembles your up-front requirements analysis process?

We capture as many high-level statements that we can within a short period of time and then begin development.

We employ user stories. We time-box the initial analysis work and then grow the story list while developing the solution.

We develop a comprehensive list of requirements and as much detail as we possibly can before committing to development.

We employ use-case analysis, supporting UML models and other artifacts. Use cases are 1 to 5 pages long as needed.

Not Sure.

2. What is the longest amount of time expected to develop any single business requirement?

Every requirement can be developed in less than 5 days.

Every requirement can be developed in less than 10 days.

Some requirements will require more than 10 days of development time.

Not Sure.

3. Which of the following most closely describes the ratio of business analysts to developers within your organization?

1 business analyst to 4 or fewer developers.

1 business analyst to 7 or fewer developers.

1 business analyst to 8 or more developers.

Not Sure.

Business Responsiveness

4. How are change requests handled?

We have a formal change control process; all changes require approval and sign-off.

Change requests tend to come in constantly and be of high priority, so we do what we can to get them into the next release.

It joins the backlog and gets prioritized along with everything else.

Not Sure.

Collaboration and Communication

5. How is work assigned?

People are given specific tasks to perform (coding, analysis, etc.) by leads / managers.

People choose what they are going to work on from a backlog.

Not Sure.

6. When significant new technical tasks are discovered and estimates change:

The Product Owner re-prioritizes the backlog and the Development Team determines how work should be re-assigned.

The Project Manager re-assigns tasks.

The Development Team works as hard as possible to accommodate the change and get the project back on track.

Not Sure.

7. The project team consists mostly of:

Generalists who can work on just about any part or section of the project.

Specialists who work on specific areas of the code or within specific technologies.

Not Sure.

8. Team communication takes places primarily through which of the following:

Requirements and specifications are explicit and detailed; developers reach out to analysts with any questions; change requests and defects are logged and / or coordinated.

Meetings are held frequently (daily / weekly) among developers, analysts and users all in the same forum to discuss requirements.

People generally seek out whoever they need to see to get an answer.

Not Sure.

Project Management

9. Which of the following most closely describes how you manage the release plan?

We're feature driven: we'll delay a deployment to make sure all features are included in what we deploy.

We're date driven: we'll defer a feature to make sure we have something to deploy on a target release date.

Not Sure.

10. Planning activity is best described as:

We plan up-front and periodically review performance of the team against the plan.

We plan frequently, periodically adjusting the plan.

We plan constantly, making new plans as things change.

Not Sure.

11. What is the length of time of the typical project plan?

We plan for a very short period of time, rarely more than a week or two forward.

We plan for a short period of time, in detail for only a month to 6 weeks forward. Plans are high-level beyond that.

We plan for a long period of time, with details mapped out for 6 months or more.

Not Sure.

Governance

12. Which of the following most closely describes the role of governance for your project (or within your organization)?

Governance is a formal, structured process requiring periodic process and/or technical audits conducted by an independent organization.

Governance is an informal activity implemented via "management by walking around" by senior leaders who "spot audit" projects at irregular intervals.

Governance is a shared responsibility. Standards are developed jointly by project teams and senior technology management; and compliance is enforced via unobtrusive processes.

Governance is a bit chaotic; everyone seems to thinks that they have governance responsibility over some part of IT.

Governance is limited or non-existent.

Not Sure.

Agile Self Evaluation

Management Practices

There are 12 questions across 5 dimensions.

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