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.
Table of Contents
Agile Values
Individuals and Interactions: Emphasize collaboration and communication among team members over rigid processes and tools.
Working Software: Prioritize delivering functional software over extensive documentation.
Customer Satisfaction: Focus on meeting customer needs and satisfaction over contract negotiations.
Responding to Change: Value flexibility and adaptability to respond to changing market needs.
Individuals and Interactions
Customer Collaboration: Engage customers and stakeholders throughout the development process.
Transparency: Promote open and transparent communication within the team and with stakeholders.
Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of learning and continuous improvement to enhance team performance.
Working Software
Documentation Importance: Recognize the value of necessary documentation but focus on working software as the primary deliverable.
Frequent Delivery: Deliver working software in small, frequent iterations to receive early feedback and validation.
Customer Value: Prioritize features and functionalities that bring the most value to customers and end-users.
Customer Satisfaction
Adapting to Changes: Embrace changes in requirements to maximize customer satisfaction.
Collaborative Decision: Involve customers and stakeholders in decision-making processes to meet their needs effectively.
Delivering Value: Consistently deliver valuable products that align with customer expectations and business goals.
Responding to Change
Planning Importance: Recognize the importance of planning but prioritize responding to change as it occurs.
Iterative Development: Adopt an iterative approach to development, allowing for adjustments based on feedback.
Fast Feedback: Obtain fast and frequent feedback to make timely improvements and enhancements.
Examples And Case Studies
Individuals and Interactions:
Example: Team members regularly hold stand-up meetings to discuss progress and challenges, promoting collaboration and communication.
Impact: Enhanced teamwork, improved problem-solving, and better alignment among team members.
Working Software:
Example: Developers prioritize completing functional features in each sprint rather than creating extensive design documents.
Impact: Faster delivery of working software, quicker response to changes, and reduced documentation overhead.
Customer Satisfaction:
Example: The product owner engages with customers to gather feedback and adjusts the product backlog accordingly.
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.
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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.
