Agile Notes (No. 27)

Recently, I was in an interview and the person asked me if I have ever “used” an Agile Maturity Model. I had not. I had never seen one. After the call I did my homework. I found this article by Ali Cox.

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Basically, her model is a rubric that lets you gauge where you are currently in your “agile journey” and it also lets you point to what the next stages look like. I also like the column on Business Agility but that is off topic for us. Don’t get me wrong, it is IMPORTANT to know the value to the business you are creating by adopting agile.

The problem is educating leadership that it will NEVER be as clean of a journey. You will not progress through the developmental steps. You may crawl and then start running and then settle in to a nice walk. You will move back and forth across the rubric throughout your “agile journey.” And that is OK. As long as you are continuously improving. As long as you are inspecting and adapting.

The trouble comes when some executive is pointing at the Flying stage and you are really in the butt-scooting across the floor stage. Slow and steady wins. If you try to skip steps, it will backfire on you. You have to build the Agile Discipline. You have to develop those muscles.

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