Chapter 4. The fitness test: all about readiness assessments
Imagine the average Joe hears about a marathon that is being run for a great cause. He gets motivated and decides to participate. Joe thinks that running a marathon is no big deal and does absolutely no preparation. He starts the marathon and gets off to a great start. But after half an hour or so, Joe’s body can’t take it. He doesn’t have what it takes to run the marathon.
Similarly, organizations may hear about agile and its benefits and get motivated to adopt agile practices. Although becoming agile is about adopting a new mindset toward software development, many organizations think that adopting agile is only about embracing some new practices, and that’s it. Hence, those organizations do no preparation for the transition to agile. The danger is that those organizations and/or teams may not have what it takes to adopt certain agile practices.
Just as people have to go through fitness training before they can run a marathon, organizations and teams need to go through an agile-readiness test before they begin their journey to agile. This assessment shows organizations if they have what it takes for the transition and which areas they need to improve to prepare for the transition.
In this chapter, we’ll talk about the importance of readiness assessments and show how you can conduct a quick agile-readiness assessment for your team or organization.