How the 12 principles in the Agile Manifesto work in real life
The Agile Manifesto, celebrating its 21st birthday, is an umbrella term encompassing various frameworks and approaches to value delivery in complex environments. It was created in 2001 by 17 software practitioners looking for a more rational, human approach to complex work. The Agile Manifesto comprises four values and 12 principles that describe a better approach to complex work. Here’s a summary of the 12 principles and their real-world implications:
| # | Principle | Real-World Implication |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. | Agile teams focus on delivering valuable products frequently, ensuring customer satisfaction. |
| 2 | Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage. | Agile teams embrace change, allowing for adaptability and responsiveness to evolving requirements. |
| 3 | Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a few months, with a preference for shorter timescales. | Agile teams prioritize frequent delivery of usable increments, ensuring continuous value delivery. |
| 4 | Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. | Continuous collaboration between business stakeholders and developers ensures alignment and shared understanding. |
| 5 | Build projects around motivated individuals. Please give them the environment and support they need and trust them to do the job. | Empowering and trusting teams leads to higher morale, productivity, and better outcomes. |
| 6 | Face-to-face conversation is the most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team. | Direct communication, whether in-person or virtual, fosters clarity and reduces misunderstandings. |
| 7 | Working software is the primary measure of progress. | Agile teams measure success by the delivery of working software, emphasizing tangible outcomes over reports. |
| 8 | Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. | Agile promotes a sustainable work pace, avoiding burnout and ensuring long-term productivity. |
| 9 | Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. | Prioritizing technical excellence ensures that the product is maintainable, scalable, and of high quality. |
| 10 | Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential. | Agile teams focus on delivering the most valuable features, eliminating unnecessary work and waste. |
| 11 | The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. | Self-organizing teams, being closest to the work, are best positioned to make decisions about design and architecture. |
| 12 | The team regularly reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. | Regular retrospection ensures continuous improvement, allowing teams to adapt and enhance their processes. |
Revisiting the Agile Manifesto principles regularly can serve as a layer of accountability for teams. Discussing and embodying these principles can lead to more effective agile practices and better outcomes.
Note: The article was authored by Mary Iqbal, “How the 12 principles in the Agile Manifesto work in real life.” she has trained over 1,000 people in Agile, Scrum, and Kanban and has extensive experience in large-scale agile transformations.