Team Agile Maturity Matrix Tool Instructions

Overview: The Agile Maturity Matrix Tool can be used to set transformation goals, monitor progress, and get the team in cohesion regarding
agile development. This includes: Agile Coaches, team members, managers, and senior leadership. This tool can also be used many
other creative ways, such as to focus retrospectives and to help people at all levels do a self-assessment of their own understanding
of agile practices. This encourages self-paced learning and allows people the opportunity to learn from others that may have more
agile experience.

Purpose: The purpose of the Team Agile Maturity Matrix Tool is to assess the agility health for an organizations team.
Instructions: The Team Agile Maturity Matrix Tool is designed to gauge agile team maturity. The instructions are as follows:
1. In the 'Team' sheet, assign a rating in the 'Current Level' field based on the health levels: Impeded (0), In Transition (1),
Sustainable (2), Agile (3), and Ideal (4).
2. Place the desired health level in the 'Target Level' field. This will monitor and identify areas of improvement.
3. Place notes in the 'Comment' field to show what is needed and how to reach desired goals.
4. Once completed, review the 'Radar Chart' to see your teams maturity level. The blue line represents your maturity level. For
optimal maturity, the blue line should reach the outer rim of the chart.

Note: Teams should evaluate their maturity level on a quarterly basis.

Team Agile Maturity Matrix
Team Name:
Current
Target
AREA Level
Level
Impeded (0) In Transition (1) Sustainable (2) Agile (3) Ideal (4) Comments
Date: (0-4)

Being Agile
80% of the team can explain the workings and
Doing the mechanics of a specific methodology
benefits of Agile and a specific methodology Actively pursuing new ways of working in an
Team Dynamics

0 Not yet doing or being Agile. that supports Agile such as Scrum, Kanban, Working in an Agile manner
and believe in them. The team is making Agile manner
SAFe, Enterprise Agility, XP, etc.
improvements on a regular basis

Regular occurance of behaviours such as

Morale blame game, finger pointing, denial, anger,
There are still elements of the previous state,
shouting, backstabbing, passive Most team members feel like this is one of the
but there is steady progress away from those The team is generally happy, engaged,
aggressiveness, and/or scapegoating. Active For the most part people are getting along and best teams they have ever worked on, they are
0 behaviors, problems are being actively productive, and genuinely enjoy working
resistance to change. There is churn or people happy at work. excited to come in to work and are looking
addressed, and there is a general feeling that together.
are frequently making references to quitting or forward to the next day when they leave.
morale is improving
how much they dislike their work or work
environment.
Between each individual and every other
Teamwork individual on the team, each believes that the
0 Non-existent Teamwork is improving At at least 70% of the ideal column At at least 80% of the ideal column other has the necessary skills, has high
integrity, wants and helps them to succeed,
and is dependable.
Storming. The team is just starting to figure out Norming. The team has mostly figured out how
Forming. New team or a team member just left Have been performing consistently for at least Have been performing consistently for the past
Tuckman Stage 0 how to work together and there is an unusual to work together as a team and is well on their
or was added. 8 weeks 6 months
amount of conflict. way to high performance.
The team has support from the organization to
Consensus is that the team is working at a pace
Sustainable pace People are tired, irritable, burnt out, working There is a recognition that the current pace is work at a sustainable pace. Consensus is that Steps are actively taken by the organization
that is close to sustainable indefinitely, though
0 overtime on a regular basis. Current situation is not sustainable and steps are being taken to the team is working consistent with the and the team to support working at a
the workload is still inconsistent with bursts of
considered business as usual. improve the situation. elements of sustainable pace in their team sustainable pace.
heavy work loads
agreement 80% of the time.
There is a documented team working
Some defacto team norms that are generally Followed by the team and includes elements
Team working agreement agreement, ageed on by the team, clearly Followed naturally, exceptions are quickly
0 Non-existent recognized, but haven't yet been written down related to the process the team follows,
visible in a public area such as the team room identified and addressed.
and agreed on by the team. teamwork, and maintaining a sustainable pace.
or online and kept up to date.
Team Agile Maturity Matrix
Team Name:
Current
Target
AREA Level
Level
Impeded (0) In Transition (1) Sustainable (2) Agile (3) Ideal (4) Comments
Date: (0-4)
Environment

Team size
Team

It is recognized that a smaller team size is

0 >20 people on team needed and there is either a near term plan or < 20 people on the team < 10 people on the team 7 +/- 2 people on the team
the team is actively being reduced in size.

Most people are at least 50% allocated to the

Most team members are on multiple teams or Most people are >=70% allocated to the team. Most people are >=90% allocated to the team. Most people are 100% allocated to the team,
Dedicated team 0 team. Nobody is less than 30% allocated to the
working on multiple projects Nobody is less than 50% allocated to the team. Nobody is less than 70% allocated to the team. nobody is less than 60% allocated to the team.
team.
50%+ of the team is constant over the past 9 More than 70% of the team is constant over the
Constant churn of people on the team and/or
Continuity There is an understanding that this is months and team has made multiple past 9 months and team has made multiple
team was formed for a single release or a single More than 90% of the team has been constant
0 important, progress is being made, and further production releases or worked on multiple production releases and worked on multiple
major initiative and will be disbanded after over the past 12 months
steps are being taken to get to the next stage major initiatives without being reformed each major initiatives without being reformed each
shipping.
time. time.
All of the necessary skills for performing the All of the necessary skills for performing the
A significant portion of what is needed to get Some of the skills necessary to get the stories All of the necessary skills for performing the
Cross functional 0 work exist on the team and there is some cross work exist on the team and most of the team is
the stories to done exists outside of the team to done exists outside of the team work exist on the team
training of skills cross trained on most of those skills
Team members have very little proximity to Plans are in place to move team members as Most team members are accessible to any Most team members sit within hearing distance Most team members are sitting in a team area
0
Collocation each other. close to each other as is currently feasible. other team member within 30 seconds of each other together.
The roles and responsibilities of the Scrum
Teams are pulling work from the product
Self organization Most people do not have the ability to choose Master are shared by the entire team and the
backlog themselves, doing their own team-
what they work on, estimates are not need for a designated and/or dedicated Scrum
Some of the behaviors from the next stage are based estimation, choosing what to work on
0 determined by the team. Team does not feel Master is significantly reduced. When some The team is self organized
being discussed, encouraged, or tried themselves, and using the definitions of ready
like it can make decisions on its own. Some members of the team are not present, the team
and done to guide interaction with those
members just want to be told what to do. is able to adjust and continue getting stories
outside the team.
done.

Impediments Raising impediments is becoming routine and

Raising impediments is actively encouraged
there is a high degree of comfort in doing it.
Invisible and/or ignored. Fear of reprisals. and is frequently done. Some impediments are
Impediments are usually resolved. Root cause
0 Reluctance to raise impediments. Impediments resolved. The team is beginning to see the
analysis is sometimes performed and there is a
that are raised are not resolved. benefits of this practice and feel comfortable
growing recognition of the value of raising
practicing it.
impediments.
Impediment raising and resolution are a
cultural norm. Individual and team
Root cause analysis and resolution is a cultural
impediments that can be addressed at those
norm
levels are addressed. Root cause analysis is
frequently performed and acted on.
Team Agile Maturity Matrix
Team Name:
Current
Target
AREA Level
Level
Impeded (0) In Transition (1) Sustainable (2) Agile (3) Ideal (4) Comments
Date: (0-4)
No stories shippable in less than four weeks
60% of story points go from ready to done in 90% of story points go from ready to done in
Shippability 0 from ready to done or not measured or Shippability is measured and visible Team strives for shippability
less than four weeks less than two weeks
shippability is not measured and visible
Product

Product management There is an amazing repoir and aligement

strategy1
Someone is fulfilling the organizational
product management needs including market
0 Non-existent Working towards the next level over.
and product strategy. Closely aligned with the
team's product management needs.
between strategic level product management,
team level product management, and the
Delegates the day-to-day team level product
team. Everybody understands and is executing
management work to the team level product
on the product vision and all interaction within
management person 80% of the time.
product management and the team and
everybody follows well understood patterns
and works smoothly.

Team level product There is a single product-oriented person that

management1 does all of the following: making sure that There is an amazing repoir and alignment
80% of the time, people that have an opinion
there are sufficient ready stories at all times, between strategic level product management,
on the content or priority of a user story go to
attending all team-oriented planning meetings, team level product management, and the
the team-level product person and not to
accepting stories (for instance during iteration team. Everybody understands and is executing
0 Non-existent Working towards the next level over. members of the team. There is very close
review), prioritizing the backlog. This person is on the product vision and all interaction within
alignment between any product management
available to fully answer questions about product management and the team and
people outside of the team level and the team
stories that are for the next 2-4 weeks everybody follows well understood patterns
level product person.
immediately most of the time and within a and works smoothly.
couple of hours once in a while.

All work goes from concept to release in 2

Cycle time Can get from concept to ready to release in 6 All work goes from concept to ready to release It is possible to get from concept to ready to
0 A year or more from concept to ready to release months or less and it is possible to get from
months in 3 months or less release in days
concept to ready to release in weeks

There is a compelling product vision which can

It is written down somewhere or the product There is a written definition which is accurate Simple, clear, compelling, everyone involved
Product vision 0 Not defined be clearly articulated by the product owner or
owner or similar person knows what it is and well known by everyone involved can articulate it well.
similar person

Team understands INVEST and is starting to

Use of INVEST 0 No knowledge of INVEST Following most of INVEST on many stories Following INVEST for most stories Following INVEST for all stories
follow parts of it on some stories.

There is a strong, clear, comprehensive (yet

Definition of ready
There is an understanding of the need for a
0 Does not exist definition of ready and/or there is a tacit
agreement for the content of one
There is a fairly good definition of ready which
simple) definition of ready which resulted from
resulted from the collaboration between In place, comprehensive, periodically reviewed
the collaboration of most of the members,
multiple members of the team. Definition of and updated, strictly followed
agreement and input from all, and it is publicly
ready includes existence of acceptance criteria
posted

There is a strong, clear, comprehensive (yet

Definition of done There is an understanding of the need for a
0 Does not exist definition of done and/or there is a tacit
agreement for the content of one
There is a fairly good definition of done which simple) definition of done which resulted from
In place, comprehensive, periodically reviewed
resulted from the collaboration between the collaboration of most of the members,
and updated, strictly followed
multiple members of the team agreement and input from all, and it is
publically posted

The team is starting to see the relationship Team has a rule of thumb encouraging small
Story size 0 Random Most stories can be done in a week or less Most stories shippable in 1-3 days
between small stories and success. stories

It is understood that consistent and frequent

Stories are rarely ready to be worked on prior 60%+ of the time there are stories ready when There are always more than enough stories
Backlog grooming 0 grooming is an important goal and steps are There are usually just enough stories ready
to the team starting to work on those stories needed ready
being taken to get there.
No knowledge of vertical slices or they can't be Using vertical slices for an increasing
0 Using vertical slices for 50%+ of stories Using vertical slices for 70%+ of stories Using vertical slices for 90%+ of stories
Vertical slicing done due to external constraints percentage of stories

Work in progress
Amount of WIP unknown or no knowledge of
0 working on at most 2 stories and usually only
one piece flow (e.g. small batch size)
One piece flow is actively being pursued, WIP Only as much work that can be done
WIP is tracked and visible. One piece flow is
limits are set, most of the time members are
WIP limits are set and respected. Most of the
simultaneously without increasing the cycle
understood and there is interest in doing it. time members are only working on one story
time of any of the work in progress. Most of the
Team mebers are trying to work on as few and frequently more than one member is
one. Sometimes, multiple members are time multiple members are working on the
stories at a time as possible working on the same story.
working on the same story. same story.
Team Agile Maturity Matrix
Team Name:
Current
Target
AREA Level
Level
Impeded (0) In Transition (1) Sustainable (2) Agile (3) Ideal (4) Comments
Date: (0-4)

80% of the team participates on a regular

Standups, Daily, short, effective. Runs well with or
Agile Process

basis, the main meeting is less than 20

check-ins, huddles, without somebody officially responsible for the
Mechanics

Being held regularly and on their way to stage minutes, real impediments are raised on a
or similar. 0 Not being held meeting. Team does an on-the-spot analysis of Positively adapted to the needs of the team
2. regular basis, the focus is on the workfor this
progress towards shippability and takes
team, the team understands that the meeting
corrective action if needed.
is for them.

Held regularly, well attended, enjoyable, Creatively run, format varied from time to time,
Retrospectives Held, but not regularly or not frequently Held regularly, well attended, produces action
0 Not being held produces action items that are recorded and forward looking, often produces breakthrough
enough items. Action items are frequently acted on
generally acted on ideas that are acted on and produce results

It is understood that it is important to use user
All work based
0 Not being followed stories for all work and steps are being taken to
on user stories
get there.
Ad-hoc, people other than those doing the
Estimation
work do the estimating, or estimation is based
0 Done on a regular basis
on the work of each function aggregated
together.
Progress is tracked and known using burnup,
Progress tracking 0 Not implemented burndown, CFD or similar method and
sometimes iinfluences behavior of the team.
Happening at least once every six weeks, but
Reviews some or all of the following are happening: not
Not happening, not happening on a regular
reviewing all stories, ill-prepared to do the
0 basis, or happening less often than once in 6
review, trying to "sell" what was done as
weeks
opposed to finding missed expectations and
encouraging feedback
User stories exist for 50%+ of the work, but still User stories exist for 80%+ of work, but still
using other artifacts for some work or using other artifacts for some work or
All work based on user stories
translating some user stories to other artifacts translating some user stories to other artifacts
for some work. for some work.
The whole team participates in estimation,
estimates are a single measurement of the
90+% of the time estimation involves the whole Consistently done at least weekly by the whole
work for the whole team (eg user points, t-shirt
team using whole team estimation team using whole team estimation
sizes, etc)ts are used. Most team members no
longer thinking in hours.
Progress is tracked and frequently influences Progress information usually influences the The team proactively uses progress
the behavior of the team behavior of the team information to head off potential problems
The team proactively involves stakeholders on
Reviews are a cultural norm. Every story is
Happening at least once every four weeks, a regular basis and frequently delights
reviewed and the team is very well prepared.
most stories are reviewed, team is fairly well stakeholders during reviews. The team and
Active feedback is encouraged, the reviews are
prepared, feedback is encouraged and stakeholders work closely together and often
well attended and perceived as valuable to
incorporated into future stories discover unexpected value as a result of that
stakeholders.
interaction.
Team Agile Maturity Matrix
Team Name:
Current
Target
AREA Level
Level
Impeded (0) In Transition (1) Sustainable (2) Agile (3) Ideal (4) Comments
Date: (0-4)
Agile Engineering

Architecture Team starting to work with architects and 50% of architectural decisions made by the 80% of architectural decisions made by the Primarily done on a just-in-time basis by the
Primarily done by designated architects up-
0 architects starting to delegate more decisions team. 50% of architectural decisions made team. 80% of architectural decisions made team in consultation with the architecture
front prior to implementation
Practices

to the team just-in-time just-in-time team.

Testing is done mostly within two weeks and For software projects, TDD with UI-based
Timeliness of testing 0 Testing is done long after implementation Testing is done within eight weeks Testing is done mostly within four weeks
mostly before the next story is started testing done immediately after story is coded

There is a recognition that code reviews are a 80%+ of user stories get tool-assisted peer 90%+ of user stories get tool-assisted peer
50%+ of user stories get code reviews and test
Code reviews 0 Not doing code reviews or pair programming good thing and steps are being taken to move code and peer test reviews or are done by code code and peer test reviews or are done by code
reviews
(software) towards it. / test pairs / test pairs
There is a recognition that holistic testing is a
Different kinds of testing (unit, functional, For 50%+ of user stories, the developers and For 80%+ of user stories, the developers and All testing coordinated ahead of coding and
Holistic testing (software) 0 good thing and steps are being taken to move
integration, etc.) all done without coordination testers coordinated their testing efforts testers coordinated their testing efforts based around user stories
towards it.

30%+ code coverage via test automation and 50%+ code coverage for all new user stories via
Test automation 0 Not being used 50%+ code coverage via test automation 90% + code coverage via test automation
plans are in place to increase this level test automation
(software)

Set up, but manually run. Failures not fixed Run every 10 minutes. Drop everything on
Continuous Integration 0 Not implemented Run every hour. Failures fixed fairly quickly. Run on every check-in.
right away. failures until fixed.
(software)
Some coding involves unit testing. There is an All new stories involve the responsible amount Hard to imagine a shop that is better at unit
All new stories involve some amount of unit
Unit testing 0 Not being used understanding that unit testing produces of unit testing. Unit testing of stories included testing. Deep knowledge of the latest unit
testing
(software) better code and reduces overall effort in the definition of done. testing techniques, using mock objects, etc.
Some understanding of single responsibility Hard to imagine a shop that is better at
Refactoring around SRP and O/C principle.
Refactoring principle (SRP) and open/closed principle. Deep understanding of refactoring. True refactoring. Deep knowledge of the latest
0 Not understood and/or not being done Doing the appropriate amount of refactoring
(software) Some amount of refactoring done as needed refactoring is a cultural norm. refactoring techniques. Refactoring to
with most user stories
when implementing stories. patterns.
 Team Agile Practices
Refactoring Being Agile
(software) Morale
Unit testing
(software) Teamwork

Continuous Integration
(software) Tuckman Stage
4

Test automation
(software) Sustainable pace

Holistic testing (software) Team working agreement

Code reviews
(software) Team size

Timeliness of testing 2 Dedicated team

Architecture Continuity

Reviews Cross functional

Progress tracking Collocation

Estimation Self organization

All work based Impediments

on user stories

Retrospectives Shippability

Standups, Product management strategy1

check-ins, huddles,
or similar.

Work in progress Team level product management1

Vertical slicing Cycle time

Backlog grooming Product vision

Story size Use of INVEST

Definition of done Definition of ready
Vertical slicing Cycle time

Backlog grooming Product vision

Story size Use of INVEST

Definition of done Definition of ready