Summary
- Well-designed surveys can provide data and other actionable insights in support of continuous improvement.
- Surveys can be used to collect employee feedback, measure team engagement levels, and gauge the overall agile maturity of an organization.
- The PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Adjust) cycle is an effective framework for incorporating surveys into the continuous improvement processes.
Like retrospectives, surveys are another mechanism for collecting feedback as input to continuous improvement. Surveys enable teams to provide feedback with ideas and suggestions for improving work processes, problem-solving, and innovation. This can help organizations adapt to change more quickly and effectively, and can lead to a more engaged workforce.
Surveys can be built into a PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) continuous improvement framework that helps teams and organizations improve the effectiveness of their operations. The Check step in the cycle is where we perform the collection and analysis of data including the gathering of end-user or team feedback. This enables informed improvement actions to be taken based on objective information and insights.
- Plan: The planning step involves setting goals and objectives. For example: All team members take Bootstrap training and certification by end of Q4. The planning step may be based on an outcome from the last survey.
- Do: The Do step is where the planned activities are executed. This is where the strategies and actions defined in the planning step are performed.
- Check: Collect feedback to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken. Analyze the collected data and survey feedback and compare the outcome against pre-established objectives. For example, < 10% deployed UI changes required remediation. Identify the root causes of variances to the plan.
- Adjust: Make improvements to the process to further advance on the goals.
The cycle repeats until objectives are achieved. At which point the improved process becomes the new baseline (aka raising the bar), and the overall process may be restarted with a return to the Plan phase.
Designing Surveys for Continuous Improvement
Well-designed surveys can be an effective tool for continuous improvement. Here are some recommendations for adopting this approach:
- Define your objectives. Before you start designing your survey, think about what you want to learn from it. For example, you might want to know about a team’s experience with maintaining a sustainable work pace. Always ensure that surveys produce results that are actionable.
- Keep the survey short and focused. Shorter surveys are more likely to get higher response rates and better completion rates. Focus on key areas that align with your objectives and keep the number of questions manageable.
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Collect feedback from multiple sources. This means everyone on the team, including the loudest and the quietest. Make sure you get a balanced view of opinions, preferences, and pain points.
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Use the feedback to improve. Use the information gathered to drive improvement towards your objectives. For example, you could use employee engagement survey results to make changes to training programs.
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Communicate the results. Keep the individual responses anonymous to preserve trust. However it is important to share the findings with relevant parties, such as key stakeholders whose help may be needed for any changes needed to help teams achieve their goals.
Team Agility Survey
Here is an example of a survey designed to evaluate an organization’s agile delivery capabilities in 3 fundamental areas. What we are surveying:
- Backlog Creation: Have we established the ability to create product backlog items that enable incremental delivery?
- Team Formation: Do teams have all the skills and structure to deliver the backlog items without bottlenecks in their workflows?
- Product Delivery: Is the output of every sprint a working valuable increment of the product meeting a Definition of Done?
| Category | Question |
| Team | The team understands how their work aligns to the strategy. |
| Team | Team members are dedicated to a single team |
| Team | The team is sized to enable agility (7 +/- 2 people) |
| Team | The team has all the skills to create working product increments |
| Team | Team members feel they are operating at a sustainable pace |
| Team | The team is empowered to make decisions on how best to do the work |
| Team | Team members value collective success more than individual achievement. |
| Team | Team members are committed to agreed-upon goals and decisions. |
| Team | The team consistently achieves its objectives. |
| Product | A Vision or Product Goal has been defined for the product |
| Product | The Product Backlog is the single source of work for the team |
| Product | The Product Backlog is owned and managed by a single Product Owner |
| Product | There is a Definition of Ready for Backlog Items |
| Product | Backlog items meet INVEST criteria |
| Product | Product Owner collaborates with team to refine Backlog Items |
| Increment | Each Sprint/Iteration has a clear goal |
| Increment | Completed backlog items meet Acceptance Criteria |
| Increment | Completed backlog items meet a Definition of Done |
| Increment | Majority of Backlog Items can be brought to Done in 1-3 days |
| Increment | The team delivers working tested product increments each Iteration |
Each question can be presented in a Likert-style formulation, for example:
Analyzing Survey Results
The true value of survey feedback is in the analysis of the results and extraction of actionable insights that can be used to drive improvement.
Survey Results can give an organization a comprehensive view of their strengths and weaknesses. Actions can then be determined to address areas in most need of attention.
Identify areas of strength and weakness. Take action on any areas scoring less than 3.0 on a 5-point Likert scale:
Monitoring Changes and Measuring Impact
Surveys allow for the collection and analysis of quantitative data, making it easier to identify trends and patterns over time. Survey results can be sampled say quarterly, and progress towards goals measured.
In this example, the team has made progress on all fronts, however backlog management seems to have stalled based on the most recent survey. This is worth exploring further to identify what is impeding progress and appropriate actions identified.
Maintaining a Survey Cadence
Like with retrospectives, maintaining a continuous survey cadence is essential for long-term success. Organizations should establish a cadence for surveys so they do not become one-off or ad-hoc events. This cadence should be based on the type of survey, for example, Team Health surveys could be run quarterly.
Combining Surveys and Retrospectives
Both retrospectives and surveys have their strengths and weaknesses. Retrospectives are excellent for fostering real-time interaction, immediate problem-solving, and building team cohesion but can be time-consuming and susceptible to dominant voices. Surveys offer flexibility, anonymity, and inclusivity but may lack the depth of discussion and immediate actionability of retrospectives. Combining both approaches can leverage the strengths of each. To maximize effectiveness, teams can combine retrospectives and surveys strategically, using surveys to focus on team dynamics and health, while using retrospectives to assess delivery performance. Example below:
| Retrospective | Team Health Survey | |
| Focus | Delivery Performance | Team health & engagement |
| Cadence | Per iteration | Monthly to Quarterly |
| Logistics | Whole team, face-to-face | Individual, Asynchronous |
| Interactivity | High | None |
Team Health surveys can help organizations diagnose fundamental issues impeding effective team operation. By balancing the focus and frequency of retrospectives and surveys, teams can ensure continuous improvement, timely issue resolution, and sustained engagement without overwhelming team members.
Conclusions
Surveys can be a powerful tool for driving continuous improvement. By using surveys to collect feedback, taking action on that feedback and operating a cadenced feedback loop, organizations can create a culture of improvement and innovation. Surveys and retrospectives can be combined strategically to leverage the strengths of each, ensuring a highly effective process for continuous improvement.
