Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
4.4 Keys to Conducting a Gap Analysis for an Agile
Organization
There are multiple approaches to conducting a gap analysis. You can focus
on documentation including the products an organization produces, and
documented processes employed in developing those products. You can also
spend time interviewing people in the organization who use those processes.
I have seen a gap analysis conducted using exclusively the documentation
route, and at times, this can make sense. Most often, a traditional gap analy-
sis focuses on the documentation, supplemented with a few interviews.
When I do a gap analysis for an Agile organization, I switch this traditional
emphasis from the documentation to the discussions with the people. The
way I conduct these interviews is crucial to the success of the approach.
I conduct my interviews individually, not in groups as is often done with
more formal CMMI appraisals. I am particularly careful how I phrase my
questions during these interviews. I keep the interviews informal with an
emphasis on letting the people being interviewed just talk about how they
do their job. I have found that by phrasing questions as simply as possible,
most people tend to talk openly and with ease about their job. An interview
question I often start with is:
Can you tell me how you do your job?
I spend most of my time taking notes, letting the employee speak. My follow-
on questions flow naturally from responses that lead me to dig deeper. I don't
use any of the words from the CMMI model in asking the questions, but I do
keep the model practices in mind. I am using those practices to trigger more
detailed questions based on what I hear.
Late in the interview after I have learned how they view their responsibilities
and carry out their activities to achieve those responsibilities, I ask:
Do you follow a process when you do your job?
Almost everyone in Agile organizations that have just begun a process
improvement effort answers that question with:
No.
By the time I ask that question, I already know the answer, and most of the
people have answered it incorrectly.
