Agile Values form the foundation of the Agile Manifesto, emphasizing collaboration, customer satisfaction, and adaptability. Teams prioritize individuals and interactions, working software, and customer collaboration over strict processes. Agile values transparency, continuous improvement, and rapid responses to changes, delivering valuable software through iterative development and customer feedback.
Agile Value
Description
Implications
Examples
Applications
Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools
This value emphasizes the importance of prioritizing people and their interactions within a team or organization over relying solely on processes and tools. It values collaboration, open communication, and the human element in achieving success.
– Fosters teamwork and collaboration. – Encourages open and transparent communication.
– Team members engage in face-to-face discussions rather than relying solely on project management software. – Developers pair-program to solve complex issues, promoting interaction and knowledge sharing.
– Promoting a culture of collaboration and open communication within development teams. – Encouraging cross-functional teams to work together effectively.
Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation
Agile values working software as the primary measure of progress. While documentation is important, it should not hinder the delivery of functional software. The focus is on delivering tangible value to customers through working software.
– Prioritizes delivering value to customers. – Minimizes bureaucratic documentation that doesn’t add value.
– Developers prioritize coding and testing over extensive documentation. – Frequent releases of functional software provide immediate value to end-users.
– Agile software development projects where delivering working software quickly is essential. – Reducing unnecessary documentation and focusing on functional outcomes.
Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation
Agile encourages active collaboration with customers and stakeholders throughout the development process. Instead of rigid contracts, the emphasis is on ongoing discussions, feedback, and adapting to customer needs.
– Builds strong customer relationships. – Allows for flexibility and adaptation.
– Regular meetings with customers to gather feedback and refine requirements. – Adjusting project scope based on evolving customer needs without renegotiating contracts.
– Agile projects where customer input and feedback are critical for success. – Contracts that include flexibility and room for changes based on customer input.
Responding to Change over Following a Plan
This value acknowledges that change is inevitable in complex projects. Agile teams are expected to adapt and respond to changing requirements, priorities, and circumstances rather than rigidly adhering to predefined plans.
– Embraces adaptability and flexibility. – Focuses on delivering the most valuable features first.
– Teams adjust project priorities based on changing market conditions. – Agile teams pivot quickly to address new customer needs or competitive threats.
– Agile projects in dynamic environments where requirements change frequently. – Developing a mindset of adaptability and responsiveness to change.
Example: When a new market opportunity arises, the team adapts its sprint goals and plans accordingly.
Impact: Agile responses to changing market conditions, increased competitiveness, and higher customer retention.
Customer Collaboration:
Example: The development team invites key stakeholders to sprint reviews to gather input and ensure the product meets their expectations.
Impact: Better alignment with customer needs, reduced misunderstandings, and improved product quality.
Transparency:
Example: The team maintains a visible task board that shows the status of each user story, making progress and bottlenecks transparent to all team members.
Impact: Improved visibility, better decision-making, and increased accountability.
Continuous Improvement:
Example: After each sprint, the team conducts a retrospective to identify areas for improvement and implements action items in the next sprint.
Impact: Enhanced team performance, increased efficiency, and a culture of learning.
Documentation Importance:
Example: Rather than creating extensive project documentation, the team focuses on keeping user stories and acceptance criteria up to date.
Impact: Reduced documentation overhead, better alignment with changing requirements, and faster development.
Frequent Delivery:
Example: The team releases a minimum viable product (MVP) to gather user feedback early and make iterative improvements.
Impact: Rapid product evolution, quicker time-to-market, and reduced development risk.
Adapting to Changes:
Example: The product owner welcomes changing requirements, even late in development, to accommodate evolving customer needs.
Impact: Greater customer satisfaction, a responsive product, and a competitive advantage.
Key Highlights
Agile Values: These values underpin the Agile Manifesto and include a focus on collaboration, customer satisfaction, adaptability, and delivering valuable software.
Individuals and Interactions: Agile emphasizes communication and teamwork over rigid processes and tools.
Working Software: The priority is to deliver functional software over excessive documentation.
Customer Satisfaction: Meeting customer needs and satisfaction is more important than strict contract negotiations.
Responding to Change: Agile values flexibility to respond effectively to changing market demands.
Customer Collaboration: Involving customers and stakeholders throughout development ensures their needs are met.
Transparency: Open and transparent communication is promoted within the team and with stakeholders.
Continuous Improvement: A culture of learning and constant improvement enhances team performance.
Documentation Importance: While recognizing the value of documentation, the primary focus is on delivering working software.
Frequent Delivery: Regularly delivering working software in small iterations allows for early feedback.
Customer Value: Prioritizing features that bring the most value to customers and users.
Adapting to Changes: Embracing changes in requirements to maximize customer satisfaction.
Collaborative Decision: Involving customers and stakeholders in decision-making processes.
Delivering Value: Consistently delivering valuable products that align with expectations and business goals.
Planning Importance: While planning is important, Agile prioritizes responding to change.
Iterative Development: An iterative approach allows adjustments based on feedback.
Fast Feedback: Obtaining quick and frequent feedback facilitates timely improvements.
Related Frameworks, Models, Concepts
Description
When to Apply
Agile Values
– Central to Agile methodology, these values include Individuals and interactions over processes and tools, Working software over comprehensive documentation, Customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and Responding to change over following a plan. These values guide practices in Agile project management and software development.
– Used in environments that require flexibility, rapid iteration, and active customer involvement, especially in software development.
Scrum
– A framework that implements Agile principles through specific roles, events, and artifacts. It emphasizes iterative progress, team collaboration, and reflection at regular intervals to continually improve.
– Ideal for projects that benefit from regular feedback loops and where teams can self-organize to address complex problems.
Kanban
– A visual workflow management method that enables teams to see work progress and optimize the flow of tasks. Kanban practices help manage work by balancing demands with available capacity and improving the handling of bottlenecks.
– Utilized in continuous delivery environments to manage and optimize workflow, ensuring a steady pace and quality of work.
Extreme Programming (XP)
– A methodology designed to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements through frequent releases in short development cycles, which enhances productivity and introduces checkpoints for adaptation.
– Suitable for projects that require a high level of quality and where customer requirements may change frequently.
Lean Software Development
– Adapts Lean manufacturing principles to software development, focusing on optimizing efficiency and minimizing waste by delivering value and eliminating activities that do not add value.
– Applied in software development processes aimed at streamlining production, reducing costs, and increasing customer value.
Feature Driven Development (FDD)
– An iterative and incremental software development methodology that focuses on building and designing features one at a time. FDD promotes modeling each feature and building by feature for efficient tracking and reporting.
– Employed in larger projects where specific, well-defined features can be developed incrementally to enhance clarity and progress tracking.
User Stories
– Short, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the person who desires the new capability, usually a user or customer. User stories are a common practice in Agile frameworks to ensure the product development aligns with user needs.
– Used to capture concise and clear descriptions of a feature from an end-user perspective to guide functional development.
– CI involves the automatic integration of code changes from multiple contributors into a single software project. CD automates the delivery of applications to selected infrastructure environments. These practices are fundamental components of Agile development.
– Critical in development projects that require high frequency of updates and deployments, ensuring the codebase is always deployable.
Agile Coaching
– The practice of guiding and mentoring individuals and teams to transform their mindset and improve their understanding and enactment of Agile practices.
– Necessary when organizations are transitioning to Agile methodologies to ensure successful adoption and ongoing improvement.
Sprint Planning
– An event in Scrum where the team determines what can be delivered in the upcoming sprint and how the work will be achieved. Sprint planning sets the foundation for a productive sprint.
– Conducted at the beginning of each sprint to outline the work to be done, ensuring the team has a clear roadmap and objectives.
Retrospectives
– Meetings held at the end of each sprint or iteration to discuss what went well, what could be improved, and what will be committed to in the next cycle. Retrospectives foster a culture of continuous improvement.
– Scheduled at the end of each sprint to reflect on past actions and plan for improvements in upcoming cycles, crucial for team development and project success.
AIOps is the application of artificial intelligence to IT operations. It has become particularly useful for modern IT management in hybridized, distributed, and dynamic environments. AIOps has become a key operational component of modern digital-based organizations, built around software and algorithms.
Agile started as a lightweight development method compared to heavyweight software development, which is the core paradigm of the previous decades of software development. By 2001 the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was born as a set of principles that defined the new paradigm for software development as a continuous iteration. This would also influence the way of doing business.
Agile Program Management is a means of managing, planning, and coordinating interrelated work in such a way that value delivery is emphasized for all key stakeholders. Agile Program Management (AgilePgM) is a disciplined yet flexible agile approach to managing transformational change within an organization.
Agile project management (APM) is a strategy that breaks large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. In the APM methodology, each project is completed in small sections – often referred to as iterations. Each iteration is completed according to its project life cycle, beginning with the initial design and progressing to testing and then quality assurance.
Agile Modeling (AM) is a methodology for modeling and documenting software-based systems. Agile Modeling is critical to the rapid and continuous delivery of software. It is a collection of values, principles, and practices that guide effective, lightweight software modeling.
Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA) is certification in the form of guidance and training for business analysts seeking to work in agile environments. To support this shift, AgileBA also helps the business analyst relate Agile projects to a wider organizational mission or strategy. To ensure that analysts have the necessary skills and expertise, AgileBA certification was developed.
Agile leadership is the embodiment of agile manifesto principles by a manager or management team. Agile leadership impacts two important levels of a business. The structural level defines the roles, responsibilities, and key performance indicators. The behavioral level describes the actions leaders exhibit to others based on agile principles.
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Bimodal Portfolio Management (BimodalPfM) helps an organization manage both agile and traditional portfolios concurrently. Bimodal Portfolio Management – sometimes referred to as bimodal development – was coined by research and advisory company Gartner. The firm argued that many agile organizations still needed to run some aspects of their operations using traditional delivery models.
Business innovation is about creating new opportunities for an organization to reinvent its core offerings, revenue streams, and enhance the value proposition for existing or new customers, thus renewing its whole business model. Business innovation springs by understanding the structure of the market, thus adapting or anticipating those changes.
Business modelinnovation is about increasing the success of an organization with existing products and technologies by crafting a compelling value proposition able to propel a new business model to scale up customers and create a lasting competitive advantage. And it all starts by mastering the key customers.
A consumer brand company like Procter & Gamble (P&G) defines “Constructive Disruption” as: a willingness to change, adapt, and create new trends and technologies that will shape our industry for the future. According to P&G, it moves around four pillars: lean innovation, brand building, supply chain, and digitalization & data analytics.
That is a process that requires a continuous feedback loop to develop a valuable product and build a viable business model. Continuous innovation is a mindset where products and services are designed and delivered to tune them around the customers’ problem and not the technical solution of its founders.
A design sprint is a proven five-day process where critical business questions are answered through speedy design and prototyping, focusing on the end-user. A design sprint starts with a weekly challenge that should finish with a prototype, test at the end, and therefore a lesson learned to be iterated.
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Product discovery is a critical part of agile methodologies, as its aim is to ensure that products customers love are built. Product discovery involves learning through a raft of methods, including design thinking, lean start-up, and A/B testing to name a few. Dual Track Agile is an agile methodology containing two separate tracks: the “discovery” track and the “delivery” track.
eXtreme Programming was developed in the late 1990s by Ken Beck, Ron Jeffries, and Ward Cunningham. During this time, the trio was working on the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation System (C3) to help manage the company payroll system. eXtreme Programming (XP) is a software development methodology. It is designed to improve software quality and the ability of software to adapt to changing customer needs.
Feature-Driven Development is a pragmatic software process that is client and architecture-centric. Feature-Driven Development (FDD) is an agile software development model that organizes workflow according to which features need to be developed next.
A Gemba Walk is a fundamental component of lean management. It describes the personal observation of work to learn more about it. Gemba is a Japanese word that loosely translates as “the real place”, or in business, “the place where value is created”. The Gemba Walk as a concept was created by Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System of lean manufacturing. Ohno wanted to encourage management executives to leave their offices and see where the real work happened. This, he hoped, would build relationships between employees with vastly different skillsets and build trust.
GIST Planning is a relatively easy and lightweight agile approach to product planning that favors autonomous working. GIST Planning is a lean and agile methodology that was created by former Google product manager Itamar Gilad. GIST Planning seeks to address this situation by creating lightweight plans that are responsive and adaptable to change. GIST Planning also improves team velocity, autonomy, and alignment by reducing the pervasive influence of management. It consists of four blocks: goals, ideas, step-projects, and tasks.
The ICE Scoring Model is an agile methodology that prioritizes features using data according to three components: impact, confidence, and ease of implementation. The ICE Scoring Model was initially created by author and growth expert Sean Ellis to help companies expand. Today, the model is broadly used to prioritize projects, features, initiatives, and rollouts. It is ideally suited for early-stage product development where there is a continuous flow of ideas and momentum must be maintained.
An innovation funnel is a tool or process ensuring only the best ideas are executed. In a metaphorical sense, the funnel screens innovative ideas for viability so that only the best products, processes, or business models are launched to the market. An innovation funnel provides a framework for the screening and testing of innovative ideas for viability.
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The innovation loop is a methodology/framework derived from the Bell Labs, which produced innovation at scale throughout the 20th century. They learned how to leverage a hybrid innovation management model based on science, invention, engineering, and manufacturing at scale. By leveraging individual genius, creativity, and small/large groups.
The Agile methodology has been primarily thought of for software development (and other business disciplines have also adopted it). Lean thinking is a process improvement technique where teams prioritize the value streams to improve it continuously. Both methodologies look at the customer as the key driver to improvement and waste reduction. Both methodologies look at improvement as something continuous.
A startup company is a high-tech business that tries to build a scalable business model in tech-driven industries. A startup company usually follows a lean methodology, where continuous innovation, driven by built-in viral loops is the rule. Thus, driving growth and building network effects as a consequence of this strategy.
As pointed out by Eric Ries, a minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort through a cycle of build, measure, learn; that is the foundation of the lean startup methodology.
Kanban is a lean manufacturing framework first developed by Toyota in the late 1940s. The Kanban framework is a means of visualizing work as it moves through identifying potential bottlenecks. It does that through a process called just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing to optimize engineering processes, speed up manufacturing products, and improve the go-to-market strategy.
Jidoka was first used in 1896 by Sakichi Toyoda, who invented a textile loom that would stop automatically when it encountered a defective thread. Jidoka is a Japanese term used in lean manufacturing. The term describes a scenario where machines cease operating without human intervention when a problem or defect is discovered.
The PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle was first proposed by American physicist and engineer Walter A. Shewhart in the 1920s. The PDCA cycle is a continuous process and product improvement method and an essential component of the lean manufacturing philosophy.
RAD was first introduced by author and consultant James Martin in 1991. Martin recognized and then took advantage of the endless malleability of software in designing development models. Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a methodology focusing on delivering rapidly through continuous feedback and frequent iterations.
Retrospective analyses are held after a project to determine what worked well and what did not. They are also conducted at the end of an iteration in Agile project management. Agile practitioners call these meetings retrospectives or retros. They are an effective way to check the pulse of a project team, reflect on the work performed to date, and reach a consensus on how to tackle the next sprint cycle. These are the five stages of a retrospective analysis for effective Agile project management: set the stage, gather the data, generate insights, decide on the next steps, and close the retrospective.
Scaled Agile Lean Development (ScALeD) helps businesses discover a balanced approach to agile transition and scaling questions. The ScALed approach helps businesses successfully respond to change. Inspired by a combination of lean and agile values, ScALed is practitioner-based and can be completed through various agile frameworks and practices.
The SMED (single minute exchange of die) method is a lean production framework to reduce waste and increase production efficiency. The SMED method is a framework for reducing the time associated with completing an equipment changeover.
The Spotify Model is an autonomous approach to scaling agile, focusing on culture communication, accountability, and quality. The Spotify model was first recognized in 2012 after Henrik Kniberg, and Anders Ivarsson released a white paper detailing how streaming company Spotify approached agility. Therefore, the Spotify model represents an evolution of agile.
As the name suggests, TDD is a test-driven technique for delivering high-quality software rapidly and sustainably. It is an iterative approach based on the idea that a failing test should be written before any code for a feature or function is written. Test-Driven Development (TDD) is an approach to software development that relies on very short development cycles.
Timeboxing is a simple yet powerful time-management technique for improving productivity. Timeboxing describes the process of proactively scheduling a block of time to spend on a task in the future. It was first described by author James Martin in a book about agile software development.
Scrum is a methodology co-created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland for effective team collaboration on complex products. Scrum was primarily thought for software development projects to deliver new software capability every 2-4 weeks. It is a sub-group of agile also used in project management to improve startups’ productivity.
Scrumban is a project management framework that is a hybrid of two popular agile methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. Scrumban is a popular approach to helping businesses focus on the right strategic tasks while simultaneously strengthening their processes.
Scrum anti-patterns describe any attractive, easy-to-implement solution that ultimately makes a problem worse. Therefore, these are the practice not to follow to prevent issues from emerging. Some classic examples of scrum anti-patterns comprise absent product owners, pre-assigned tickets (making individuals work in isolation), and discounting retrospectives (where review meetings are not useful to really make improvements).
Scrum at Scale (Scrum@Scale) is a framework that Scrum teams use to address complex problems and deliver high-value products. Scrum at Scale was created through a joint venture between the Scrum Alliance and Scrum Inc. The joint venture was overseen by Jeff Sutherland, a co-creator of Scrum and one of the principal authors of the Agile Manifesto.
Six Sigma is a data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating errors or defects in a product, service, or process. Six Sigma was developed by Motorola as a management approach based on quality fundamentals in the early 1980s. A decade later, it was popularized by General Electric who estimated that the methodology saved them $12 billion in the first five years of operation.
Stretch objectives describe any task an agile team plans to complete without expressly committing to do so. Teams incorporate stretch objectives during a Sprint or Program Increment (PI) as part of Scaled Agile. They are used when the agile team is unsure of its capacity to attain an objective. Therefore, stretch objectives are instead outcomes that, while extremely desirable, are not the difference between the success or failure of each sprint.
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an early form of lean manufacturing created by auto-manufacturer Toyota. Created by the Toyota Motor Corporation in the 1940s and 50s, the Toyota Production System seeks to manufacture vehicles ordered by customers most quickly and efficiently possible.
The Total Quality Management (TQM) framework is a technique based on the premise that employees continuously work on their ability to provide value to customers. Importantly, the word “total” means that all employees are involved in the process – regardless of whether they work in development, production, or fulfillment.
The waterfall model was first described by Herbert D. Benington in 1956 during a presentation about the software used in radar imaging during the Cold War. Since there were no knowledge-based, creative software development strategies at the time, the waterfall method became standard practice. The waterfall model is a linear and sequential project management framework.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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