Those of you who aren't external consultants might ask, "Why do I need to gather info about my own organization?"  It's true that this step is especially useful for those of us just being introduced to the organization but I think it's useful for internal agile champions as well.

Data gathering is all about diagnosis on the one hand and planning on the other.  You need to have a clear idea as to what your present strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are in order to do a good job in putting together an implementation plan. 

For insiders, data gathering might be a straightforward as sitting down (as a group of managers, say) and brainstorming answers to the question: "Where are we right now with respect to agile methods and continuous improvement?" 

That's a pretty broad question so you might focus on a number of specific areas:

Leadership

1. Do we have an overall plan for continuous improvement?
2. Do we have performance goals and objectives (other than financial)?  Does everyone know what they are?
3. Do we hold regular meetings to review our performance and tell employees how we're doing?

Metrics

1. What do we measure?
2. Are our measures in line with our performance goals?
3. Do our measurements drive continual improvement?
4. Do we communicate our measures to employees?

Work Systems

1. How do we make sure employees are oriented and trained?
   
2. Do employees participate in decision making and problem solving?
3. Do employees participate in implementing and assessing agile initiatives?
4. Does our approach to compensation and advancement promote our performance goals?
5. What is our approach to keeping a safe work environment?

Process Management and Control

1. Do we have good maintenance and preventive maintenance approaches?
2. Is equipment and tooling availability tracked?
3. Do we have documented work standards and task instructions?
4. Do we provide setup and run information for each work order?
5. Is the workplace well organized?
6. Do we have documented setup and changeover practices?  Do we track changeover and setup times?
7. Does our approach to quality control help or hinder production and customer service?

Vendor Management

1. How do we measure the quality and service of our vendors? 
2. What is the level of quality and service our present vendors provide?
3. Do we work with vendors to improve quality and performance?

Those of you with experience implementing lean and agile methods will, no doubt, have questions to add to a list like this.  The point is that it's important to get everyone on the same page with respect to the Current State of affairs.