Agile values

The agile values are the four suggested ways of working, outlined in the Agile Manifesto. As is the philosophy of Agile, the values focus on being adaptable and collaborative, prioritizing people over processes and using “working software” to get products to market as quickly as possible.

Although the Agile Alliance documented the original Manifesto twenty years ago, it continues to evolve. The agile values still hold true and the agile approach continues to gather momentum used by teams and departments across many organizations. The Agile values are not a methodology, framework or set of rules in themselves. Instead, the Agile Manifesto can be understood as a collection of ideas and beliefs in which teams can learn new and improved ways of working collectively for a common purpose and outcomes.

Benefits of using Agile values

Through professional coaching and training and when applied appropriately, the Agile values enable teams to be more flexible and adaptable to change. This in turn, allows teams and organizations to quickly identify and respond better to changing environments. If something changes in the marketplace, an agile organization is better prepared to react and adjust its product offering to fit into the new environment. Agile teams can address development issues more effectively and resolve customer problems faster. However, without professional coaching throughout the Agile journey, the values can be open to misinterpretation. Applying the Agile framework along with having a strategic vision and road map are essential to delivering sustainable business value and customer capabilities.

How Agile values add value for your team?

As humans we want rules to govern how we do certain things. However it’s important to note that the Agile values are not a set of explicit rules or a strict methodology, process, or a specific way of developing products or software. They are a collective system of thinking - - a set of values and beliefs that help encourage creativity, enhance product and software development more effectively and reactively, and allow teams to respond faster and more directly to what their customer’s needs. Development teams benefit in a number ways from adopting an Agile mentality. They include:

• Superior quality products
• Customer satisfaction
• Better control over work demands
• Better control over the project due to its transparency, feedback integration, and quality-control features
• Improved project predictability
• Increased flexibility
• Continuous improvement
• Improved team morale and much more

Agile teams tend to be higher performing teams because they are self-organized and self-managed, with an increased level of autonomy and authority over their decisions and daily work load.

The four Agile values in action

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

The manifesto puts people front and center. In agile, people are the most important resource for any team. The success or failure of your project relies on the people involved. Therefore individuals and interactions require considerable attention and investment. People are truly the key to delivering your product or company vision. A full stack comprehensive team of dedicated, inspired, and collaborative individuals is enormously more valuable than any process or tool they might use. 

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Before the Agile Manifesto, feature and product teams were required to complete enormous amounts of documentation before developers could begin writing code. However, Agile values prioritize getting software to the customer as quickly as possible and closing the feedback loop to get direct feedback from users as early on in the process. This does not mean detailed documentation isn’t important, it’s fundamental to code development.

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

As noted above, in Agile people are the key to success. The third Agile value highlights the specific importance of working closely with customers during the development process. This means getting direct feedback from business stake holders and costumers. Traditional product development processes preferred sticking to negotiated contracts with a detailed list of Work Breakdown Structures (WBS), milestones, phase gates, and date driven deliverables. The Agile philosophy incorporates user feedback into the development process and allows for constant collaboration and integration between the customer and the development team as emerging changes take place.

Responding to change over following a plan

Change is often associated with cost, time, and money. In typical project management methodology the project manager did their best to avoid making changes to the project plan. Plans were designed to be very detailed, to cover every possible outcome and scenario, and acted as a blueprint for step-by-step actions. The Agile view is different. According to the Agile Manifesto, change actually adds value in the long term and meaningful change is welcomed and embraced. Organizations must be quick to react and maintain short iteration cycles. This way, change can be a constant part of the development process, priorities need to be flexed, and new features or updates can be added when necessary. Doing so transforms the project plan from a static map into a dynamic roadmap. If changing direction or priority makes practical sense, the Agile value encourages organizations to be adaptable and to not get stuck going in a direction that no longer makes sense.