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Agile Principles

The twelve principles behind the Agile Manifesto. They are the bridge between the four abstract values and the concrete practices of Scrum, XP and DSDM.

Delivery

  1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
  2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
  3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

Collaboration

  1. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
  2. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
  3. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

Progress and pace

  1. Working software is the primary measure of progress.
  2. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Craft

  1. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
  2. Simplicity, the art of maximizing the amount of work not done, is essential.

Self-organization

  1. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
  2. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

The principles as one loop

graph LR
    C[Customer states a need] --> B[Small increment built]
    B --> D[Delivered, principles 1 and 3]
    D --> F[Feedback from real use]
    F --> R[Reflect and adjust, principle 12]
    R --> C
    B -.->|technical excellence, principles 9 and 10| B
    D -.->|sustainable pace, principle 8| B

The dotted edges are the ones teams drop first. Without them the loop still turns for a while, then slows down as the codebase and the people wear out.

Where each principle shows up

Principle Practice that implements it
1, 3: frequent delivery Sprints, small releases
2: welcome change Product Backlog re-prioritized every Sprint
4: daily collaboration On-site customer, Product Owner
7: working software as measure Definition of Done, Sprint Review
9, 10: excellence and simplicity TDD, refactoring, continuous integration
12: reflect and adjust Sprint Retrospective

Check Your Understanding

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Principle 7 says "working software is the primary measure of progress." What does it rule out as a progress metric?

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Principle 8 asks for a "constant pace indefinitely." Which practice violates it?