Testing for Agility

I endorse a post by Dean Leffingewell on evaluating enterprise agility. In it he explains three key test areas:

• Variable Scope. Fixed Quality
• Incremental Value Delivery
• Empowerment and Accountability

I am going to get picky here, so read the rest at your own discretion… Perhaps, I’d rearrange the sub bullets under different main headings. For example, as I compare this to my definition, I wonder whether the test for customer alignment should be more explicit?

I also notice my definition does not explicitly dictate variable scope or even iterations. To me, scope size is more about keeping lean and ensuring flow than a test itself. Effective workload management enables many benefits. If a company demonstrates rapid delivery, regular inspection, adaption, customer alignment, quality, etc. by other means (eg: kanban, FDD, etc.) then they pass the test. I’d perhaps change this to “Can teams effectively manage workload?” which allows for more flexibility in how scope gets managed. Test should be for the result, not necessarily for a specific means to that result.