Agile Manifesto
"We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it
and helping others do it."
The Agile Manifesto
We follow these principles:
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous
delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes
harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple
of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the
project.
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile Explained
Agile is not a methodology; it is not a tool and there is no one set of prescribed
methods or techniques that must be followed to be anointed as an Agile project
team. Rather it is a culture that is founded on a set of values that the original
signees of the Agile Manifesto believed were the core to good software development.
Not tangible artifacts such as templates, instructions, rules or procedures,
but values. To quote liberally from the Agile Manifesto web site -
On February 11-13, 2001, at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch
mountains of Utah, seventeen people met to talk, ski, relax, and try to find
common ground and of course, to eat. What emerged was the Agile Software Development
Manifesto.
Now, a bigger gathering of organizational anarchists would be hard to find,
so what emerged from this meeting was symbolic, a Manifesto for Agile Software
Development signed by all participants.
But while the Manifesto provides some specific ideas, there is a deeper theme
that drives many, but not all, to be sure, members of the alliance. At the close
of the two-day meeting, Bob Martin joked that he was about to make a "mushy"
statement. But while tinged with humor, few disagreed with Bob's sentiments
that all felt privileged to work with a group of people who held a set of compatible
values, a set of values based on trust and respect for each other and promoting
organizational models based on people, collaboration, and building the types
of organizational communities in which we all would want to work.
Bob commented that at the core, he believed that Agile is really about the
"mushy" stuff, about delivering good products to customers by operating in an
environment that does more than talk about "people as our most important asset"
but actually "acts" as if people were the most important, and lose the word
"asset".
At the core of the Agile movement is the belief that we are uncovering better
ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, the Agile community
values the items on the left more.
Agile is not complex in it's beliefs. The most difficult aspect of the Agile
approach is to trust in it and believe that it will work. It will only work
if it is applied consistently and completely. The one comment that indicates
potential problems in an organization is "We are following Agile principles,
but ..."
Principles continued:
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and
support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within
a development team is face-to-face conversation.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers,
and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity - the art of maximizing the amount of work not done - is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing
teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective,
then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.