Shallow Agile Transformation: Do you have one?

Over the past two decades, many organizations have adopted Agile, but most have seen only Process Transitions, with limited value realization. True cultural transformation - essential for driving sustainable performance and growth - remains elusive for many. Organizations stuck in a "Shallow Transformation" often don't realize there is a need to unshackle and unlock Agile's full potential.

What do we mean by a Shallow Transformation?

A Shallow Transformation is one where the organization’s Agile efforts provide them some benefits in the beginning (1 to 3 years), before complacency (or discontent) stalls further improvement efforts, and the organization settles with a complex mix of legacy practice and Agile practices, often with varying degree of process maturity in different pockets of the organization.

HITS – Early Accomplishments

Most of the accomplishments in the initial phase of Agile adoption are related to process changes, with some positive outcomes at the team level:

1. Agile/Scrum Language – Everyone is using terms like Sprints, User Story, Retrospective, Backlog, etc.

2. Team-level Scrum Adoption

   1. Scrum Master and Product Owner are well established

   2. Team starts using most of the Scrum events

3. Adoption of ALM tools (JIRA, etc.) across the organization:

   1. Decent adoption at team-level. You can see a team’s backlog and progress in the tool. [Limited adoption among Product and Business teams. Higher level planning and tracking is mostly done in Excel.]

   2. Aligned Sprint Cadence across teams (not really an achievement by itself)

4. Improvement in requirements management

   1. Team starts using User Stories and Story Point Estimation (mixed success)

   2. Improved clarity of requirements

5. Metrics at team level (Burndown and Velocity) – Some improvements visible.

MISSES – Few accomplish it, Most miss it

The following accomplishments reflect a deeper impact of Agile ways of working, yet many organizations struggle to achieve them.

1. Visualization of work beyond team level:

   1. Initiative level E2E workflow defined in ALM tool (no more Excel)

   2. Workflow defined for Product teams (Discovery kanban board, Portfolio kanban)

2. Metrics beyond team-level

   1. Progress metrics – Initiative Burnup, Release Burnup, etc.

   2. Flow Performance metrics - Pace, Quality, Turnaround Time

      • Initiative/Feature/Epic Throughput

      • Initiative/Feature/Epic Lead Time

3. Consistency in delivery performance and predictability – validated by metrics

4. Collaborative culture and Trustful (not transactional) relationships:

   1. Across Business, Product and Engineering

   2. Across teams with frequent inter-dependencies

   3. Among team members

5. High Employee Engagement

   1. Psychological Safety in team environment – team members speak up without hesitance

   2. Job satisfaction – High Org-NPS and Team-NPS

6. Changes in Leaders' Behaviour - Leaders transition from ‘Expert Manager’ stance to ‘Facilitator/ Coach’ stance:

   1. More ‘asking/listening’ and less ‘directing/ telling’

   2. Leader’s presence is seen as ‘support’ rather than ‘a new set of instructions or critical assessment’

How to Assess your own Agile Transformation Journey?

While there are many Agile assessments out there, most of them (unfortunately) have two common limitations:

1. They focus on the Process, not Outcomes. You will see questions like ‘Do you use X practice?’ instead of assessing the effectiveness of that practice.

   • Example: the assessment might ask if a team uses User Stories to document requirements instead of asking how well the team members understand requirements before they pick it up for planning.

2. The assessment is based on subjective input instead of objective data.

   • Example: the assessment might expect a leader to answer if the team velocity is consistent, or if the team collaboration is good.

I understand some things are subjective, like team collaboration or the quality of requirements understanding. In such cases, a common approach to reduce personal bias is to get inputs from multiple people (say, all team members) using an anonymous survey. Please note that ensure anonymity is crucial here.

So, if not Process, what should we Measure exactly?

As depicted in the picture below, workflow creates product/features (output) which in turn creates value (outcomes) for the customer and for the organization:

Logically, we should assess everything – the flow of work (Process), Output and Outcomes. If that sounds like too much, we can take an incremental approach and pick a few important aspects for each dimension, starting from right (outcomes). By focusing on outcomes first, organizations can better understand where to direct their improvement efforts, creating a strong foundation for lasting change.

Below are some broad ideas on what you could consider for your organization’s self-assessment efforts.

1. Outcomes/ Value – Are we able to create value for our customers, the organization, and employees?

   1. Customer Satisfaction – How happy are our customers?

   2. Business Outcomes – Are we able to survive and grow as an organization?

   3. Employee Satisfaction – How happy are our employees working for our organization?

2. Outputs/ Flow Performance – Are we able to complete work at a decent pace, with quality:

   1. Throughput/ Pace – Do we finish enough work regularly?

   2. Quality – Do the finished work items meet expected quality standards?

   3. Turnaround Time – Do we finish work items (initiatives, epics, features, stories) fast enough?

3. Process Maturity – Do we have a process that is reliable, and works consistently?

   1. Process Adoption - Do we follow good practices that are considered effective for our line of work?

   2. Process Quality – Does our process make it easy for us to finish work faster, without delay or rework? Do we have clarity on requirements, do we get timely support from others, do we get an opportunity to learn from others, etc.?

4. Positive, Inspiring Culture

   1. Leadership Behaviour – Do our leaders inspire and support us to work at our best?

   2. Team Dynamics – Are we able to engage people at the team level to harness their collective intelligence?

You might have noticed that the above list is framework agnostic. Some might feel it is Agile agnostic as well. Well, that is the idea – if our Agile process is really good, you should see its impact in the outcomes rather than strict compliance.

Effective self-assessment is not just a step in your Agile journey – it is the compass that keeps you on track to deliver meaningful results. 

Hope this article gives you some guidance and confidence to get started with your self-assessment. Please share your thoughts and questions in comments.

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