Simple Lifecycle Agility Maturity Model

Project Description
The Simple Lifecycle Agility Maturity Model is a fairly simple tool for creating an "agility metric" for software development teams working to become more agile in their approach to software development. It is based on the principles from the Agile Alliance. It is easy to use, and thus should be simple for teams in different situations, with different tool sets, to consume. The tool is a very simple Excel spreadsheet, complete with instructions and a single page for charts.

Background and Instructions
If you want to improve your agility, you need to be able to measure it. This idea is simple and repeatable. It is used in most "continuous improvement" processes.

I created this simple model for measuring the agility of a software development process. It is a single excel spreadsheet (Office 97-2003 compatible, virus free), complete with instructions, measurements, and a chart you can use or share.

Using this model, the team follows a simple process:

1. Write a simple story that describes the process you followed. Examples are included in the spreadsheet.
2. Rate your process on 12 criteria based on the Agile Alliance principles
3. Enter weights and view results
4. Create a list of steps to address deficiencies. Follow the normal agile process to estimate these steps and add to the backlog.

The weights came from careful reading of the principles on the Agile Alliance site (with a dash of my own experience). I invite the community to discuss the weights and create a consensus to change them if you'd like. Note that the biggest benefit of models like this is the ability to compare the agility of processes in DIFFERENT COMPANIES or organizations, so we need to stick to a single set of weights in order to have a standard for comparison.