Assessing Your Learning Needs

There are lots of resources for continuing to learn about agile, the roles, engineering and test practices and adoption approaches, but where do you start and how much of an effort can you expect to invest? Well, it depends. As a rough guide, use the grid below. Chose one item per column that matches your situation, and score yourself according to the following:

First Row: 1 point each

Second Row: 4 points each

Third Row: 10 points each

Experience Level	Likely Future Number of Teams
Advanced	1 - 3 Teams
Intermediate	4 - 9 Teams
Basics\Boot Camp	10+ Teams
Business or Project Environment	Business, Stakeholder Attitude
Basic Environment	Eager, Supportive
Complicated Environment	Listening, Cautious
Complex Environment	Hostile, Contrary

Add up the values you selected for each column. For example, a common situation I see is:

Experience Level	Likely Future Number of Teams
Advanced	1 - 3 Teams
Intermediate	4 - 9 Teams
Basics\Boot Camp	10+ Teams
Business or Project Environment	Business, Stakeholder Attitude
Basic Environment	Eager, Supportive
Complicated Environment	Listening, Cautious
Complex Environment	Hostile, Contrary

This would yield a formula of 10 + 1 + 1 + 4 = 16

For scores below 15, you may only need to drive through the several items from a few learning areas, and then more at your leisure and discernment on what next from items referenced on this blog or lists elsewhere on the web. 

If your score is near 20 or above, you likely need to go through a lot of material of it at a good pace, and those beginners items are critical. Not only that, but you likely need to go through the material with others in your group in some fashion. More on that (Community) later. 

If your score is higher than 25, you need to power through all basic and intermediate material, and cover the advanced topics as soon as you can, with several others in your organization. Education will be instrumental, if not critical, to the success of agile in your company.

I'll provide a list of my recommended materials in a follow-up post.

agile, management, scrum, leadership