This blog was originally written in April, 2012
I have incredible respect for the signatories of the Agile Manifesto. I believe it to be a great document. I say this for several reasons – the greatest being it created a new space for effective development to take place. It started a movement that has changed the lives of millions.
That said, I believe manifestos, by their very nature when they are effective, tend to be time dependent. In the case of the Agile manifesto, this is particularly so – it’s very success has created a vacuum.
The Agile Manifesto’s success has created opportunity for Agile to manifest (pun intended) throughout the organization. However, because it focused on the development organization, it has left a vacuum.
Some people have challenged me about my assertion that the Agile Manifesto focuses on the development team. Here’s my evidence that it does:
| Which Area / Role Is Referred to | ||||
| Principle | Business | Management | Developers / Work product | Customers |
| Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software | X | X | ||
| Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage. | X | X | ||
| Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. | X | |||
| Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project | X | X | ||
| Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. | X | |||
| The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation | X | |||
| Working software is the primary measure of progress. | X | |||
| Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. | X | X | X | |
| Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility | X | |||
| Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential. | X | |||
| The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. | X | |||
| At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. | X | |||
| Total Times Mentioned | 2 | 0 | 16 | 3 |
I am sorry if I can’t see how the numbers on that last row don’t make my case. However, be very clear, that this actually is evidence that the Agile Manifesto was great and worked! So no one should take this as an attack on it. By working so well, we have expanded Agile into a space outside of where the Agile Manifesto originally existed. I can’t think of a greater testament to it than that.
Agile is now as much, or more, about the enterprise as it is about teams. We don’t need a new manifesto, we just need to be open to expanding what we are going after.