How Do We Measure, Quantify and Assess a Team’s Maturity?

As we all know, having a strong team when working in an Agile way  is paramount for successful product development and quality. Measuring, quantifying and assessing the maturity and efficiency of one’s team is therefore an interesting topic in SAFe. In some organisations they could either measure nothing at all or measure too many things. I therefore always ask people what they intend to do with the  measurement results, and what decisions they would want to make based on those measures. When people struggle to answer such questions, they are measuring simply for the sake of measuring which renders the entire practice pointless. 

It is therefore very important to know and define: 

 

🚀 What are we measuring?

🚀 Why are we measuring it? 

🚀 What do we aim to answer?

🚀 What do you want to achieve? 

Something else that is important to mention is that there are two types of measures; System Wide Measures and Diagnostic and Learning Measures. 

System Wide Measures

These are types of measures that are long lasting and persistent. They give us a view of the overall health of the system. 

Diagnostic and Learning Measures

These are a bit more complex and require some thinking. A good analogy of this is when you go to the GP and the GP takes your temperature and blood pressure. If they suspect something is not quite right, they might conduct another type of measure for diagnostics such as a blood test, x-ray or an MRI. This is because they are trying to investigate what is wrong and determine how to respond. 

How We Can Measure A Team

So, when we are trying to measure a team, we may first define what a good team looks like and what qualities need to be present. We could also look at the quality of the team’s senior managers and inquire whether there are any issues they have identified in the team. From there on, we can assess whether there are any issues that go against this criteria and then investigate what is wrong and how to respond accordingly. 

We Are Not Micromanaging

This sometimes gets confused with micromanagement, which it is not. When people start to micromanage and ask for fine-grained details, that actually means that there is something wrong within the team. Because if everyone is happy with deliverables, then there is no need to stand over anyone. 

We Measure Performance Outcomes Not Labour 

Instead of micromanaging what our team is doing, we rather assess the actionable value they are bringing to the team, the organisation and our customers. So for example we may look at the reviews and recommendations that customers are leaving, or we may look at the quality and volume of deliverables. Other measurements may also include looking at how many Stories we are able to deliver, the quality, or what our revenue and customer reach look like. 

 

What all these types of measures have in common is that they are output measures, and in my opinion very good and acceptable early indicators of whether we are reaching our goals. And if we do identify defects in our quality, we should ask ourselves what we could have done to have identified and prevented that. We then build those practices so that we can improve the quality of our product(s) and team. 

And what about the maturity of our team? 

When we talk about the maturity of a team, people often look at the amount of time a team has been working together. In my opinion and experience, this does not adequately determine whether a team is mature or not. Rather, we should look at whether they are exhibiting the practices and behaviours that we believe will lead us to better outcomes. 

 

Checklist items of this could be:

🚀 Are we participating in Events proactively?

🚀 Are we using the correct framework?

🚀 Do we have a clear intention for what we are doing at each stage? 

A great team is therefore defined by what they contribute and achieve; quality over quantity. 

 

Are you interested in learning more about what makes a great team in SAFe? 

 

At Value Glide, through the application of  SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), we are able to offer agile consulting, agile coaching, and agile training specialists who work with organisations to align business objectives with customer needs and wants.

As deeply experienced agile coaches and practitioners, our team is invested in continuous learning through each client engagement and uses the data and evidence we gather from each implementation to inform our training, coaching, and consulting services.

In a nutshell, empirical process control or empiricism. 

If you are thinking of adopting agile within your organisation and have identified SAFe as a great agile framework to adopt, implement and improve your business agility, visit our SAFe Quickstart ART Launch program page or view our SAFe Consulting Services page.

If you have identified a need for an agile coach and SAFe coach to help your organisation adopt and implement SAFe, visit our SAFe Coaching Services page. We are committed to equipping organisations with the tools and knowledge to thrive in this ever-changing digital age, and achieve business agility through the Scaled Agile Framework. 

Sounds good to you? Then sign-up today, and learn more about this transformation and revolutionary framework that is changing the game in the world of Agile. It is truly remarkable what can be done when we put our heads together and decide to work as one.

If you want to know more about SAFe and how to lead SAFe, visit our SAFE Training page for a host of options, from Leading SAFe to a SAFe Release Train Engineer course.

#SAFe #scaledagileframework #scalingagile #agile #agileframework #agilecoach