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
Team Dynamics

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

Morale Regular occurance of behaviours such as blame

game, finger pointing, denial, anger, shouting, There are still elements of the previous state, but
Most team members feel like this is one of the
backstabbing, passive aggressiveness, and/or there is steady progress away from those The team is generally happy, engaged,
For the most part people are getting along and best teams they have ever worked on, they are
0 scapegoating. Active resistance to change. There behaviors, problems are being actively
happy at work.
productive, and genuinely enjoy working
excited to come in to work and are looking
is churn or people are frequently making addressed, and there is a general feeling that together.
forward to the next day when they leave.
references to quitting or how much they dislike morale is improving
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 8 Have been performing consistently for the past 6
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. weeks months
amount of conflict. way to high performance.

Sustainable pace The team has support from the organization to

Consensus is that the team is working at a pace
People are tired, irritable, burnt out, working There is a recognition that the current pace is not work at a sustainable pace. Consensus is that the Steps are actively taken by the organization and
that is close to sustainable indefinitely, though
0 overtime on a regular basis. Current situation is sustainable and steps are being taken to improve
the workload is still inconsistent with bursts of
team is working consistent with the elements of the team to support working at a sustainable
considered business as usual. the situation. sustainable pace in their team agreement 80% of pace.
heavy work loads
the time.

There is a documented team working agreement,

Team working agreement Some defacto team norms that are generally Followed by the team and includes elements
ageed on by the team, clearly visible in a public Followed naturally, exceptions are quickly
0 Non-existent recognized, but haven't yet been written down
area such as the team room or online and kept up
related to the process the team follows,
identified and addressed.
and agreed on by the team. teamwork, and maintaining a sustainable pace.
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 the < 20 people on the team < 10 people on the team 7 +/- 2 people on the team
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.
More than 70% of the team is constant over the
Continuity Constant churn of people on the team and/or 50%+ of the team is constant over the past 9
There is an understanding that this is important, past 9 months and team has made multiple
team was formed for a single release or a single months and team has made multiple production More than 90% of the team has been constant
0 major initiative and will be disbanded after
progress is being made, and further steps are
releases or worked on multiple major initiatives
production releases and worked on multiple
over the past 12 months
being taken to get to the next stage major initiatives without being reformed each
shipping. without being reformed each time.
time.

Cross functional 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 the Some of the skills necessary to get the stories to All of the necessary skills for performing the
0 stories to done exists outside of the team done exists outside of the team work exist on the team
work exist on the team and there is some cross work exist on the team and most of the team is
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 other Most team members sit within hearing distance Most team members are sitting in a team area
Collocation 0 each other. close to each other as is currently feasible. team member within 30 seconds of each other together.

Self organization Teams are pulling work from the product The roles and responsibilities of the Scrum
Most people do not have the ability to choose
backlog themselves, doing their own team-based Master are shared by the entire team and the
what they work on, estimates are not determined
Some of the behaviors from the next stage are estimation, choosing what to work on need for a designated and/or dedicated Scrum
0 by the team. Team does not feel like it can make
being discussed, encouraged, or tried themselves, and using the definitions of ready Master is significantly reduced. When some
The team is self organized
decisions on its own. Some members just want
and done to guide interaction with those outside members of the team are not present, the team is
to be told what to do.
the team. able to adjust and continue getting stories done.

Impediments Raising impediments is becoming routine and

Raising impediments is actively encouraged and Impediment raising and resolution are a cultural
there is a high degree of comfort in doing it.
Invisible and/or ignored. Fear of reprisals. is frequently done. Some impediments are norm. Individual and team impediments that can
Impediments are usually resolved. Root cause Root cause analysis and resolution is a cultural
0 Reluctance to raise impediments. Impediments resolved. The team is beginning to see the
analysis is sometimes performed and there is a
be addressed at those levels are addressed. Root
norm
that are raised are not resolved. benefits of this practice and feel comfortable cause analysis is frequently performed and acted
growing recognition of the value of raising
practicing it. on.
impediments.
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)

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

Team level product

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

Cycle time All work goes from concept to release in 2

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 in 3 months or less
months or less and it is possible to get from
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

Use of INVEST Team understands INVEST and is starting to

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

Definition of ready There is a strong, clear, comprehensive (yet

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

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

It is understood that consistent and frequent

Backlog grooming Stories are rarely ready to be worked on prior to 60%+ of the time there are stories ready when
0 the team starting to work on those stories
grooming is an important goal and steps are
needed
There are usually just enough stories ready There are always more than enough stories ready
being taken to get there.

No knowledge of vertical slices or they can't be Using vertical slices for an increasing
Vertical slicing 0 done due to external constraints percentage of stories
Using vertical slices for 50%+ of stories Using vertical slices for 70%+ of stories Using vertical slices for 90%+ of stories

Work in progress 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 WIP limits are set and respected. Most of the
limits are set, most of the time members are simultaneously without increasing the cycle time
Amount of WIP unknown or no knowledge of understood and there is interest in doing it. Team time members are only working on one story and
0 one piece flow (e.g. small batch size) mebers are trying to work on as few stories at a
working on at most 2 stories and usually only
frequently more than one member is working on
of any of the work in progress. Most of the time
one. Sometimes, multiple members are working multiple members are working on the same
time as possible the same story.
on the same story. 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)

Standups, 80% of the team participates on a regular basis, Daily, short, effective. Runs well with or
Agile Process

check-ins, huddles, the main meeting is less than 20 minutes, real without somebody officially responsible for the
Mechanics

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

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

User stories exist for 50%+ of the work, but still User stories exist for 80%+ of work, but still
All work based It is understood that it is important to use user
using other artifacts for some work or translating using other artifacts for some work or translating
on user stories 0 Not being followed stories for all work and steps are being taken to
some user stories to other artifacts for some some user stories to other artifacts for some
All work based on user stories
get there.
work. work.

Estimation The whole team participates in estimation,

Ad-hoc, people other than those doing the work estimates are a single measurement of the work
90+% of the time estimation involves the whole Consistently done at least weekly by the whole
0 do the estimating, or estimation is based on the Done on a regular basis for the whole team (eg user points, t-shirt sizes,
team using whole team estimation team using whole team estimation
work of each function aggregated together. etc)ts are used. Most team members no longer
thinking in hours.

Progress tracking Progress is tracked and known using burnup,

Progress is tracked and frequently influences the Progress information usually influences the The team proactively uses progress information
0 Not implemented burndown, CFD or similar method and
behavior of the team behavior of the team to head off potential problems
sometimes iinfluences behavior of the team.

Reviews Happening at least once every six weeks, but The team proactively involves stakeholders on a
Reviews are a cultural norm. Every story is
some or all of the following are happening: not Happening at least once every four weeks, most regular basis and frequently delights
reviewed and the team is very well prepared.
Not happening, not happening on a regular basis, reviewing all stories, ill-prepared to do the stories are reviewed, team is fairly well stakeholders during reviews. The team and
0 or happening less often than once in 6 weeks review, trying to "sell" what was done as prepared, feedback is encouraged and
Active feedback is encouraged, the reviews are
stakeholders work closely together and often
well attended and perceived as valuable to
opposed to finding missed expectations and incorporated into future stories discover unexpected value as a result of that
stakeholders.
encouraging feedback 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 by designated architects up-front Primarily done on a just-in-time basis by the
0 prior to implementation
architects starting to delegate more decisions to team. 50% of architectural decisions made just- team. 80% of architectural decisions made just-
team in consultation with the architecture team.
Practices

the team in-time in-time

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 code 90%+ of user stories get tool-assisted peer code
Code reviews 50%+ of user stories get code reviews and test
0 Not doing code reviews or pair programming good thing and steps are being taken to move
reviews
and peer test reviews or are done by code / test and peer test reviews or are done by code / test
(software) towards it. pairs pairs

There is a recognition that holistic testing is a

Holistic testing (software) 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
0 integration, etc.) all done without coordination
good thing and steps are being taken to move
testers coordinated their testing efforts testers coordinated their testing efforts based around user stories
towards it.

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

Continuous Integration Set up, but manually run. Failures not fixed right Run every 10 minutes. Drop everything on
0 Not implemented
away.
Run every hour. Failures fixed fairly quickly.
failures until fixed.
Run on every check-in.
(software)

Unit testing 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
(software) 0 Not being used understanding that unit testing produces better
testing
of unit testing. Unit testing of stories included in testing. Deep knowledge of the latest unit testing
code and reduces overall effort the definition of done. techniques, using mock objects, etc.

Refactoring Some understanding of single responsibility

Refactoring around SRP and O/C principle. Hard to imagine a shop that is better at
(software) principle (SRP) and open/closed principle. Some Deep understanding of refactoring. True
0 Not understood and/or not being done
amount of refactoring done as needed when
Doing the appropriate amount of refactoring
refactoring is a cultural norm.
refactoring. Deep knowledge of the latest
with most user stories refactoring techniques. Refactoring to patterns.
implementing stories.
 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