Most Agile maturity models focus on the Scrum team itself and the immediate organization around them such as DevOps (which should be part of a Scrum team anyway see my previous post). There is a fundamental problem with a model like this (which most everyone uses including surveys of the state of Agility such as the State of Agile Report) is that it focuses on the practices of the team and not the culture of the organization.

Culture is the most important aspect of Agile, what kind of culture the company has is the most reliable indicator of whether or not they are Agile (i.e. practicing the Agile principles and values described in the Agile Manifesto and the Scrum/Kanban values and lean principles). You have to ask questions like:

·      Is there a culture of trust or fear?

·      Is there a culture of continuous improvement?

·      Is there a ridged hierarchy and silos or a network of truly cross-functional teams?

·      Are Product Owners truly empowered to own their products?

·      Is there a culture of transparency?

·      Are products fully aligned with a declared corporate vision and strategy?

·      Does the culture value experimentation?

·      Does the culture value truth and integrity?

·      Does the culture value servant leadership?

 These are the kind of questions a company should be asking itself if it truly wants to be Agile. Team practices flow from corporate values not the other way around. A team can implement practices all day long but if the culture does not support them, they will be crushed, sooner or later.

When I evaluate Agile maturity, these are the first questions I ask (among others) and I get to the team practices last because they are the least important in the big picture.