Management loves measurements, especially those who work in traditional companies.
When management wants to assess how much the team has improved after adopting Agile development, things like the Agile maturity model are usually presented to them. Everyone celebrates the results as the scores have improved from negative to positive after three months of hard work and dedication.
Several years later, we revisited that team. Unfortunately, the team continues to practise the same things since we celebrated the improvement in Agile maturity. They continue practising what they learned, even if the industry has already abandoned some of the practices for years. They believe they are mature and that everything is going well. They refuse to change their current way of working.
Agile maturity models can be oversimplified and one-dimensional. A Scrum Master brought me a checklist of items in the Agile maturity model, asking me which grade his team should rank if a Grade-A item is fulfilled but a Grade-B item isn’t fulfilled.
Agile maturity isn’t as straightforward as a simple checklist. – Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Let’s revisit the Agile Manifesto.
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.
The Agile Manifesto doesn’t state that we have uncovered better ways, but rather that we are uncovering better ways. It emphasises the ongoing journey of discovering better approaches and methods.
Agile maturity models and similar tools should be used as guides for finding better ways, but we shouldn’t rely on them too heavily. There are still many things for us to learn. If you have reached the goal set a few months before, congratulations, you should look for the next target. This is a never-ending journey. You should always be able to find something to improve efficiency.
Stay hungry. Stay foolish.