Get Your Maturity Score in 5 Minutes

Software Development
Teams Maturity Assessment

Answer a few questions about your development team's processes and habits to get your maturity score. We'll also recommend how to implement them immediately to help your team achieve better software delivery performance.

What this DevOps & software team maturity assessment measures

This free assessment helps engineering leaders benchmark the maturity of their software development team in three areas that drive DevOps performance: how well you measure delivery, how aligned your stakeholders are, and how predictable your projects are.

It takes about 5 minutes. You rate 19 statements from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), get a score out of 100 for each area, and receive a guide of practical recommendations by email.

It isn't a DevOps tooling audit: there are no questions about your CI/CD pipeline or automation stack. Instead, it focuses on the practices behind strong DORA performance: making decisions with data, sharing a common view of delivery with stakeholders, and keeping the flow of work predictable.

1Ability to measure team performance

Do you have reliable, standardized data on how your teams deliver, and do you use it to find bottlenecks, confirm intuitions and measure the impact of change?

  1. We have standardized data to evaluate and compare our different software development teams.
  2. We use data to identify ways of optimizing our working methods.
  3. We have the ability to quickly identify inefficiencies within our software development teams.
  4. We are able to quantify the impact of bottlenecks on our development cycle.
  5. We use DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) metrics to measure our team's performance.
  6. We confirm our intuitions on a regular basis with quantitative data.
  7. We are able to measure the impact of changes in the way we work.

2Communication and alignment between stakeholders

Do engineering, product, leadership and customers share the same understanding of performance, challenges and progress?

  1. Senior management trusts us to deliver quality projects on time.
  2. Our team discussions are based on reliable data that illustrate our collective performance.
  3. Our customers, both internal and external, are satisfied with the speed at which our projects progress.
  4. Software development team members frequently discuss ways of optimizing their processes.
  5. The realities and challenges of the software engineering team are well understood by senior management.
  6. The engineering and product teams work together on a daily basis.

3Project predictability and planning

Does work flow steadily, are risks anticipated, and do projects land when expected, without end-of-sprint rushes or stabilization periods?

  1. We always deliver our projects on time.
  2. Most of our work is usually completed at the end of the sprint (or at the end of the week).
  3. We never get a "rush" feeling at the end of iterations.
  4. We have immediate visibility on project progress and the ability to make adjustments quickly.
  5. We have the tools in place to anticipate delivery risks and project overruns.
  6. We never need stabilization periods after the delivery of a new feature or version.

How your maturity score is calculated

Each answer is converted to points: 1 = 20, 2 = 40, 3 = 60, 4 = 80 and 5 = 100. Your score for each area is the average of its statements, and your overall maturity score is the average of the three areas. Scores therefore range from 20 to 100; answering "Neutral" to every statement gives 60.

The 4 levels of DevOps and software team maturity

Like most maturity models, the assessment places each area, and your overall score, on a four-level scale. Your level tells you where to focus next.

Emerging20–44

Decisions rely mostly on intuition and individual experience. Delivery data is scattered or missing, and deadlines are hard to predict.

Focus next: Start measuring a few delivery metrics consistently, such as the four DORA metrics.

Developing45–64

Some metrics are tracked, but they aren't yet part of how the team makes decisions. Alignment with leadership and product is partial, and end-of-sprint rushes still happen.

Focus next: Make metrics visible in team rituals and use them to target your main bottleneck.

Advanced65–84

Data guides team discussions, bottlenecks are identified and delivery is fairly predictable. Leadership understands the realities of engineering.

Focus next: Measure the impact of each process change and anticipate delivery risks earlier.

Optimized85–100

Continuous improvement is measured, risks are anticipated and stakeholders trust delivery commitments. The team rarely needs stabilization periods.

Focus next: Keep benchmarking across teams and share the practices that work.

How does this relate to DORA metrics?

DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) defined four key metrics of software delivery performance: deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate and time to restore service. Teams that score well on this assessment usually have the foundations to track and improve them: they measure delivery consistently, discuss performance with shared data and keep their flow predictable.

To see your actual metrics instead of self-reported answers, Axify's DORA metrics dashboard calculates them automatically from your tools, and value stream mapping shows where work is waiting.

Frequently asked questions

What is a software team maturity model?

A maturity model describes the stages a team goes through as its practices improve, from ad hoc and reactive to measured and continuously improving. It gives everyone a common vocabulary to assess where the team stands today and what to work on next. This assessment uses a four-level model (Emerging, Developing, Advanced, Optimized) applied to three areas: measurement, alignment and predictability.

How long does the assessment take, and is it free?

About 5 minutes, and it's free. You rate 19 statements, then enter your first name and email to see your results and receive the recommendation guide.

Is this a DevOps maturity assessment?

Yes, with a specific focus. It assesses the organizational practices behind DevOps performance (measurement, stakeholder alignment and delivery predictability) rather than your tooling or CI/CD automation.

Who should take the assessment?

Engineering managers, team leads, directors of engineering and CTOs. For a fuller picture, have several leads take it separately and compare results: the gaps between their answers are often as revealing as the scores themselves.

What should I do with my score?

Start with your lowest area. The guide you receive by email lists practical first steps for each area, most of which you can start on your own. To track progress objectively over time, measure the same areas with real delivery data using Axify's software engineering metrics.

How often should we retake it?

Once a quarter is a good rhythm, or after a significant change in process, tooling or team structure, so you can see whether things actually moved.