--- title: "AQ Score — Organisational Maturity Test" url: https://mkelango.com/diagnostics/aq-score/ description: "The AQ Score rates your organisation on twelve architectural traits, five maturity levels each — 60 points total, benchmark 27. Free, and takes four minutes." site: mkelango.com author: M. K. Elango updated: 2026-08-26 evidence_standard: "Every figure carries a grade [A] verified / [B] claimed / [C] estimate and an as-at date. See https://mkelango.com/evidence/" --- Free · no email to start From The Accelerated Organization # The AQ Score Twelve architectural traits, five maturity levels, one score out of sixty — benchmarked against published industry averages. - **Length:** 12 questions · about 4 minutes - **Scored out of:** 60 - **Benchmark:** 27 What it reads Where your organisation sits on the twelve properties that let a machine improve a million-fold in a decade. From [The Accelerated Organization](https://mkelango.com/books/accelerated-organization/) · ORGANISATION In short Updated 2026-08-26 The AQ Score is a free twelve-question instrument that rates an organisation on twelve architectural traits — parallel processing, distributed intelligence, feedback loops and nine others — at five maturity levels each, giving a score out of 60. The published benchmark is 27 out of 60, graded [B] as at 26 August 2026. It takes about four minutes. Why this one ## Your company is not slow because your people are slow. It is slow because it is running 1980s CPU architecture in 2026. Your company is not slow because your people are slow. It is slow because of how it is arranged. This instrument scores the arrangement — twelve traits, five levels each, sixty points total. It is the same instrument used in the Accelerated Organization Program, run on your own reading rather than an assessor's. Answer as the organisation actually behaves, not as the policy says it should. Every score is worth exactly as much as the honesty of the answer. The book behind it The Accelerated Organization Speed — because it comes from architecture, not exhortation. Read the argument [The Accelerated Organization](https://mkelango.com/books/accelerated-organization/) Where this gets fixed The Accelerated Organization Program 90 days: assess, pick three traits, run a parallel-processing pilot, re-score. The programme [The Accelerated Organization Program](https://mkelango.com/programs/accelerated-organization/) Method ## The benchmark, and how it was built. A score is only as good as the thing it is compared against. So the benchmark carries a grade and a method, exactly like every other figure on this site. The benchmark 27 /60 [B: Mean of published organisational maturity assessments across mid-to-large enterprises. composite of secondary sources, as at 26 August 2026. As at 26 August 2026] Mean of published organisational maturity assessments across mid-to-large enterprises. Grade [B] — composite of secondary sources, as at 26 August 2026. [A] Verified Traced to a primary source — a filing, an audited statement, a contract, a dataset held by us — and the source is named. [B] Claimed Reported by a credible party, including by us, but not independently traceable to a primary document. [C] Estimate Modelled, sampled or directionally derived. Method stated. Treat as a shape, not a number. [The Evidence Log](https://mkelango.com/evidence/) What we do with your result The score is computed in your browser. Nothing is transmitted unless you ask for the detailed report, and in that case only the score, the trait breakdown and your email address are stored. Your result is never published, sold, shared or attached to your name in any material. [Privacy](https://mkelango.com/privacy/) The questions ## All 12, published in full. Nothing is hidden behind the interaction. If you would rather read the instrument than run it — or run it on paper, in a room, with other people — here it is. **01 **Parallel processing** — When your organisation faces a decision that touches four functions, what happens?** Answer for the last real one, not the ideal one. - 1 It goes function to function, in sequence, and takes weeks - 2 It goes in sequence but someone chases it - 3 Two functions work in parallel; the rest wait - 4 All four work in parallel against a shared brief - 5 Parallel is the default and sequential needs a reason **02 **Distributed intelligence** — Where does the authority to decide sit?** Not where the org chart says. Where it actually sits. - 1 One person, and everything queues behind them - 2 A small executive group, meeting weekly - 3 Delegated by value threshold, reviewed after - 4 Delegated by domain, with published limits - 5 Decisions are made where the information is, by default **03 **Scalable architecture** — When volume doubles, what breaks first?** - 1 Everything — we would rebuild - 2 The people; we would hire proportionally - 3 One or two known bottlenecks we have listed - 4 Little; we scale most things without redesign - 5 Nothing structural. We have already run at that volume **04 **Data as infrastructure** — If I asked for your last quarter’s operating numbers, where do they come from?** - 1 Someone assembles them from spreadsheets - 2 A monthly pack, built by hand from several systems - 3 A dashboard, with known gaps people work around - 4 Systems of record, queried directly, mostly trusted - 5 A single governed layer everything reads from **05 **Continuous learning** — What happens after a project ends?** - 1 Nothing formal. We move to the next one - 2 A retrospective document nobody reads again - 3 A retrospective, and sometimes a process change - 4 A retrospective that must produce a named change - 5 Changes are made mid-project and the standard updates itself **06 **Pattern recognition** — How does your organisation notice a recurring problem?** - 1 When someone senior happens to notice it - 2 When it appears in a monthly report - 3 We track recurrence on the big categories - 4 Recurrence is instrumented and reviewed on a cadence - 5 Patterns surface automatically and trigger a route **07 **Feedback loops** — How long between an action and knowing whether it worked?** - 1 A quarter or more, if at all - 2 A month - 3 A fortnight for most things - 4 Days, for the decisions that matter - 5 Hours. The loop is instrumented and closed **08 **Transfer learning** — When one unit solves something hard, what happens elsewhere?** - 1 Nothing. Other units solve it again later - 2 It spreads if the two leaders happen to talk - 3 We circulate it; adoption is voluntary and low - 4 There is a mechanism to port it, and it is used - 5 Solutions are packaged for reuse as a matter of course **09 **Network effects** — Does each new customer, partner or unit make the others more valuable?** - 1 No. Each is served independently - 2 Marginally, through brand - 3 In one area — data or channel — deliberately - 4 Yes, in several areas, and we can point at the mechanism - 5 Yes, and the mechanism is measured and managed **10 **Self-optimisation** — Who improves your processes?** - 1 A consultant, occasionally - 2 A central improvement function, on a programme - 3 Team leads, when they have capacity - 4 The teams themselves, with a standing mandate - 5 The system adjusts within governed limits, and reports what it changed **11 **Modular composability** — How much of what you do could be recombined into a new offer in a quarter?** - 1 None. Everything is bespoke and entangled - 2 A little, with significant rework - 3 Perhaps a third, in known combinations - 4 Most of it. Components are defined and documented - 5 Recombination is how we launch, and it takes weeks **12 **Emergent intelligence** — Does your organisation produce answers no individual in it held?** This is the hardest trait to score honestly. - 1 No. Output tracks whoever is most senior in the room - 2 Rarely, and by accident - 3 Sometimes, in the teams that work well - 4 Often. We have arranged for it deliberately - 5 Routinely, and we can describe the arrangement that produces it Scored out of 60. Published benchmark 27. Method and grade above. The bands ## What each range means. Published before you take the test, so the reading cannot be tuned to flatter afterwards. 0–23 Level 1–2 · Sequential The organisation is arranged for sequential decisions. The good news is that at this level the first three moves are cheap and highly visible — usually one approval layer and one instrumented feedback loop. The gap to a peer at level four is not effort. It is arrangement. 24–35 Level 2–3 · Transitional Some traits have moved and others have not, which is the most common and most frustrating position — because the accelerated traits are held to the pace of the traditional ones. A machine is held back by its weakest part. Fix the laggards, not the leaders. 36–47 Level 3–4 · Accelerating The architecture is genuinely different from a traditional organisation, and the compounding has begun. The risk at this level is the opposite of the usual one: you will be tempted to add capability rather than remove the two remaining structural brakes. 48–60 Level 4–5 · Accelerated This is a rare score, and the honest first question is whether it was scored generously. Re-run it with a sceptic and compare. If it holds, the useful work is now benchmarking decision velocity externally rather than improving traits internally. FAQ ## Questions about The AQ Score Answered plainly, with the real figures. If something here is wrong, [tell us and it goes in the log](https://mkelango.com/evidence/). ### How is the AQ Score calculated? Twelve architectural traits, five maturity levels each, scored one to five — twelve times five is sixty. The bands are published before you take the test so the reading cannot be tuned afterwards: 0–23 is Sequential, 24–35 Transitional, 36–47 Accelerating, 48–60 Accelerated. Scoring happens in the browser and nothing is transmitted unless you request the report. ### What is a good AQ Score? The published benchmark is 27 out of 60 — the mean of published organisational maturity assessments across mid-to-large enterprises, graded [B] as at 26 August 2026. Anything from 24 to 35 is the Transitional band and is the most common position. Scores of 48 and above are rare, and the honest first question is whether the run was scored generously. ### What are the twelve traits? Parallel processing, distributed intelligence, scalable architecture, data as infrastructure, continuous learning, pattern recognition, feedback loops, transfer learning, network effects, self-optimisation, modular composability and emergent intelligence. Each is scored on the same five-level ladder, from the sequential behaviour at level one to the arrangement that produces the trait by default at level five. ### How much does the AQ Score cost? The instrument is free and requires no account or email to start. The AQ Deep Report — trait-by-trait breakdown, the full benchmark set with sources and dates, and the three moves that shift the score fastest — is listed at ₹4,900. Payments are not yet connected; that figure is the intended band as at 26 August 2026. ### What should I fix first after scoring? The lowest-scoring Foundation or Quick-Win trait — not the most interesting one. A machine is held back by its weakest part, not its strongest, which is why a mixed profile is the most frustrating position: the accelerated traits are held to the pace of the traditional ones. The Accelerated Organization Program runs this as ninety days, then a twelve-month track, at ₹25L – ₹1.2cr banded by headcount. The other instruments ## Five more, one per altitude. [All six](https://mkelango.com/diagnostics/) Free The Flywheel Locator Where your AI capability actually sits on the powertrain — and which part is holding the wheel. 6 questions · about 3 minutes [The Flywheel Locator](https://mkelango.com/diagnostics/flywheel-locator/) Free Do You Actually Have a Moonshot? Whether the thing at the top of your ladder is an objective you could be held to, or a sentence that sounds good in a deck. 7 questions · about 3 minutes [Do You Actually Have a Moonshot?](https://mkelango.com/diagnostics/moonshot-test/) Free The Coherence Matrix, lite Whether the things your group holds build anything the objective needs — or merely make money. 5 questions · about 3 minutes [The Coherence Matrix, lite](https://mkelango.com/diagnostics/coherence-matrix/)