Section 2.5. Agile Values

2.5. Agile Values

The Agile Alliance, a non-profit group supporting agile activities that was founded by many of the agile leaders, has an explicit statement of values that they call the Manifesto for Agile Software Development[1]:

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, we value the items on the left more.

Cockburn[4] gives an excellent description of this manifesto and its subtleties. This manifesto demonstrates the extent to which agilists believe they have been handcuffed by plan-driven processes. These values are rooted in a long history of unsuccessful plan-driven processes and a belief that by changing the focus of the process, software development activities can be more successful.

In addition to the Agile Alliance, many agile methods and techniques include explicit value statements. For example, XP values include communication, simplicity, feedback, courage, and respect. Scrum values self-organization for the teamit does not specify anything about how the team should function during an iteration (which Scrum calls a "sprint"). They are free to use any methods they think will help them achieve the sprint's goal.

These values underscore key principles that are shared across most agile methods that will be described in the rest of this chapter. These values match an engineer's perspective quite well because they promote quality designs that meet the customer's needs.