KPI for an Agile Transformation

What is an Agile transformation?

 Agile transformation is an act of transforming an organization.The transformation is a holistic change, which works on various levels to enhance the organization as mentioned below-

• To increase its ability to create an environment that embraces creativity and innovation, flexibility to adapt to changing requirement, employee empowerment and self-organization.
• Decentralized decision making and leadership in place of management with an aim to create new customer value, innovative products, customer centric product and services, revenue growth, reduced time to market, stakeholders satisfaction, idea to cash generation, cost saving, new customers and remain relevant.

Agile transformation program provides a framework where other digital initiatives have been conceptualized, experimented and implemented. Through digital initiatives, organizations enable themselves to explore and exploit latest drivers in cloud, mobility, Artificial intelligence, Big data, Internet of things, UI/UX design, Analytics and Digital marketing.

Let us now understand how we can measure progress an Agile Transformation.

The key to measuring anything is by understanding the ingredients of the thing we want to measure. Thus as we break down the Agile transformation into what it is literally – Being Agile + Transforming.

 The next step we arrive is to now delve deeply into what it means to be Agile, which can be found in the core values of the Agile manifesto which are below:

1.   Individuals and interaction over processes and tools,

2.   Working software over comprehensive documentation

3.   Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

4.   Respond to change over following a plan.

These 4 essential value drive any agile transformation program, which eventually translate into one thing that is trust and be trusted.

How to measure trust is again tricky and hard to measure objectively. To measure progress we can look at answering following questions to each component of the program and aggregate.

1.   Agile Culture

2.   Team Credibility

3.   Team Commitments

4.   Output quality

5.   Team Health

Agile culture

What is an agile culture?

Agile is a fundamental shift in thinking, a philosophy that encourages organization models where people collaborate towards common goal, a mindset to accept paradox, multiplicity, contradiction without seeking to control it, encourage functioning effectively in the absence of complete information.

Agile culture is leadership over management where leader to know what problem to solve and serve and enable team to find solution to problem.

It is a culture of collaboration and cultivation.

In any transformation program, at first place, we need to assess stage of agile culture whether it is in adoption phase, or transforming phase or maturing phase. We can use It “shu ha ri” tool to assess state.

Secondly, trace agile values alignment in our process and activities. For example, check whether right stakeholders are aligned for feedback during sprint demo.

Thirdly how team and other stakeholders are engaged in sprint and its success.

Credibility

Credibility of team represents quality of being trusted and believed and being convincing. Measuring credibility ensure how credible team is in the eye of management and customer. Credibility can be ensured by measuring planned vs actual throughput.

Meeting commitments

Commitment is the quality of dedicating ourselves to an activity, a promise or firm decision to do something. Commitment can be measured by velocity. The velocity will reflect the team performance and the consistency or variance of the performance with committed sprint goals. This will help them in forecasting what they can accomplish in upcoming sprint.

Quality

Are we producing quality product and services? These can measured with the below

• Defects per story
• Defects per sprint
• Escape defects- Unnoticed defects which were made to production unnoticed
• No of failed code merge and integration
• Code quality - unit test, coding standards.

Team Health

This can be measure on two parameters – Happiness and team morale.