What are the 12 Principles of Agile?, The Agile Manifesto, which was crafted by 17 software developers in 2001, underscores four core values and 12 guiding principles. The 12 principles of Agile are meant to guide teams in their implementation of Agile methodologies and practices. They are:
- Customer Satisfaction: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
- Welcome Changing Requirements: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
- Frequent Delivery: Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
- Collaboration: Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
- Support, Trust, and Motivate: Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
- Face-to-Face Communication: The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
- Working Software: Working software is the primary measure of progress.
- Sustainable Development: Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
- Technical Excellence: Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
- Simplicity: Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.
- Self-Organizing Teams: The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
- Reflect and Adjust: At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
These principles emphasize aspects like collaboration, customer feedback, adaptability, and delivering tangible value. They serve as a foundational philosophy for Agile practices and guide the approach of Agile methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP).
