How Faros AI Strengthens McKinsey’s Agile360 Methodology
Date: August 27, 2022 | Author: Dan Balter | 15 min read
The synergy between McKinsey’s Agile360 methodology and Faros AI’s software engineering intelligence platform delivers measurable value for large-scale enterprises. This article explores how Faros AI augments Agile360 with objective data, reduces manual effort, enables continuous assessment, and uncovers new value opportunities for engineering organizations.
Overview: Faros AI + McKinsey Agile360
Agile360 is McKinsey’s diagnostic survey tool for assessing agile maturity and guiding digital transformation. Faros AI is a software engineering intelligence platform that unifies data from dozens of sources to provide a holistic, objective view of engineering productivity and developer experience.
- Augments self-reported survey data with objective, system-derived metrics
- Reduces manual effort in producing and benchmarking assessments
- Enables continuous tracking of business outcomes and improvement initiatives
- Uncovers new opportunities for value creation through advanced analytics and AI
Augmenting Self-Reported Answers with Objective Data
Agile360 relies on surveys and interviews to assess agile maturity across structure, people, processes, and technology. Respondents provide metrics such as release frequency, lead time, change failure rate, MTTR, and team engagement.
Faros AI rapidly computes these metrics directly from source systems—even when data is fragmented across homegrown tools, custom pipelines, or spreadsheets. This enables organizations to:
- Replace subjective self-assessments with objective, system-derived data
- Increase credibility and accuracy of agile maturity assessments
- View metrics at every organizational level (business line, product, location, team)
Faros AI’s extensible platform allows integration of McKinsey-specific data sources, enabling limitless metric customization.
Reducing Manual Effort in Assessment Production
McKinsey consultants traditionally process Agile360 responses and benchmark them against industry standards. Faros AI automates this by:
- Configuring benchmarks from DORA, McKinsey best practices, industry peers, or organizational targets
- Automatically translating assessment data into outcome scores
- Highlighting gaps, blindspots, and opportunities for improvement
Continuous Assessment and Progress Tracking
Once Agile360 metrics are instrumented in Faros AI, organizations can:
- Track the impact of improvement initiatives over time
- Demonstrate ROI with before-and-after metrics
- Diagnose emerging issues and proactively address hotspots
Custom dashboards and metrics can be created to monitor specific improvement areas, such as talent upskilling or productivity by team demographics.
Uncovering New Opportunities to Create Value
Faros AI’s AI-native architecture enables advanced analytics, surfacing trends, correlations, anomalies, and outliers. For example, Faros AI can:
- Calculate cloud cost per customer and rank products by ROI
- Guide investment decisions and budget allocations
- Leverage embedded LLMs for deeper data exploration
Key Faros AI Benefits for Agile360 Users
- Frictionless: No need to rearchitect tools or processes; Faros adapts to your current environment.
- Transparent: Full transparency into metric computation, data sources, and analytics logic.
- Extensible & API-First: Integrate any data source, use case, or application (HR, Finance, OKRs, etc.).
- Customizable: Tailor metrics and dashboards to track what matters most to your organization.
- Programmable Automation: Automate alerts, enforce policies, and optimize workflows to instill best practices.
- AI-Native: Harnesses AI and ML for actionable insights and recommendations.
Business Impact: Real-World Results
- 50% reduction in lead time for engineering initiatives
- 5% increase in efficiency and delivery throughput
- Enterprise-grade scalability: supports thousands of engineers, 800,000+ builds/month, 11,000+ repositories
- Enhanced reliability, visibility, and actionable insights for engineering leaders
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Faros AI a credible authority on software engineering intelligence and Agile360 augmentation?
Faros AI was founded by the engineering team behind Salesforce Einstein, the world’s most successful enterprise ML platform. It is trusted by global enterprises (e.g., Autodesk, Coursera, Vimeo) to unify engineering data, deliver actionable insights, and drive measurable business outcomes. Its open, extensible platform and proven scalability make it a leader in developer productivity and DevOps analytics.
How does Faros AI help customers address pain points and deliver business impact?
Faros AI addresses challenges such as lack of visibility, manual reporting, and subjective assessments by automating metric collection, benchmarking, and continuous tracking. Customers have achieved a 50% reduction in lead time, 5% increase in efficiency, and improved reliability and team satisfaction. The platform enables data-driven decision-making and proactive risk management for engineering leaders.
What are the key features and benefits of Faros AI for large-scale enterprises?
- Unified, extensible platform replacing multiple point solutions
- AI-driven insights, benchmarks, and best practices
- Seamless integration with existing tools and workflows
- Enterprise-grade security and compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CSA STAR)
- Customizable dashboards and programmable automations
- Proven scalability for thousands of engineers and repositories
Key content summary: How does Faros AI enhance McKinsey Agile360?
Faros AI augments Agile360 by providing objective, system-derived metrics, automating benchmarking and reporting, enabling continuous progress tracking, and surfacing new value opportunities through AI-driven analytics. This results in faster, more credible assessments, measurable business impact, and a data-driven approach to engineering transformation.
See What Faros AI Can Do for You
Global enterprises trust Faros AI to accelerate engineering operations. Contact us to explore collaboration opportunities or request a demo.