At AgilityHealth®, our team has always believed there’s a relationship between qualitative metrics (defined by maturity) and quantitative metrics (defined by performance or flow) for teams. To prove this, a few years ago, we adjusted our Agile team assessments to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. Once we felt we had
sufficient data to explore through our AgilityHealth platform, we partnered with the University of Nebraska’s Center for Applied Psychological Services to undertake a review. The main question we wanted to answer was: What are the top competencies driving teams to higher performance?

At AgilityHealth®, we believe healthy, high-performing teams are the most mature. Healthy teams are those that are sized appropriately with skilled team members who understand their roles and what is expected of them. These teams are able to self-organize around the work and members are T-shaped, which enables each to contribute to the work. 

High-performing teams take these items even further and work together to find creative and innovative solutions while breaking the work down into smaller increments of value they then deliver on schedule. Improving team maturity takes time and it begins with measurement.

There are numerous ways to measure the success of Agile teams within an organization. Some companies rely on metrics tied to the team’s performance, such as how many story points are completed over a sprint or how few escaped defects the team’s work creates. Another way to gauge the success of a team is by looking at their churn rate, or the stability of the team. Still another measure is often focused on feedback from the team’s leadership and internal or external customers.

For organizations implementing or that are already using Agile, assessments focused on asking the right questions provide insights that indicate what is going on within teams, product lines, portfolios or throughout the enterprise, whether team members are in the office or distributed. Agile assessments create transparency for leaders by identifying obstacles to remove and opportunities to grow. As a result, teams can reach their highest potential and organizations thrive in their Agile transformation journey.

At AgilityHealth®, our team has always believed there’s a correlation for teams between qualitative metrics (defined by maturity) and quantitative metrics (defined by performance or flow). A few years ago, we adjusted our Agile team assessments to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. Once we felt we had a sufficient amount to explore, we partnered with the University of Nebraska’s Center for Applied Psychological Services to review the data through our AgilityHealth platform. The main question we wanted to answer was: What are the top competencies driving teams to higher performance?

Oftentimes, in order to move forward, people follow the ‘out with the old, in with the new’ train of thought. A focus on continuous improvement can certainly follow that pattern. But at AgilityHealth^®, we’ve learned that even though there’s a need for new developments, there’s frequently no reason to throw out the old when you can simply make a few improvements instead! With that in mind, we are thrilled to announce new AgilityHealth Radars to help further your transformation journey, as well as enhancements to some of our favorite radars and Growth Portals. Many of these new developments stemmed from feedback and ideas received from current customers. Here’s what we’ve done with those continuous improvement suggestions!  

Over the last few years, organizations have needed to make a shift from reacting in a disorganized manner when something unexpected happens to proactively addressing or responding to disruptions quickly and effectively. This approach has helped organizations to rapidly recover, thrive, and move forward, thus improving their business agility. 

As more and more companies are moving to remote/virtual team collaboration, there is a wealth of strategies we can leverage to shorten learning curves and enhance productivity.

In our recent webinar, participants shared their top suggestions for working remotely:

Russ Peña, Agile Methodologist, IHG

Russ Peña from IHG (Intercontinental Hotels Group) presented at our EBA Summit how work can be as easy as talking to each other.  In light of “just talking,” IHG uses an “Innovation Center” to give customers–their guests–a seat at the table. 

Evan Campbell, Accenture | SolutionsIQ

At AgilityHealth®’s EBA Summit, Evan Campbell shared an overview of Agile/Lean Finance and how it’s critical to business agility.