The Four Values of the Agile Manifesto

What are the 4 values of the Agile Manifesto?

Let us look at each of these 4 Agile values in detail.

1. Individuals and Interactions – Over Processes and Tools

The Agile Manifesto outlines that agile teamwork and communication are more important than software development processes and tools. Effectively, software development teams drive application development according to business requirements. While development processes and tools are important, they take lesser precedence.

Development projects would not create high-quality products without the right tools and technology. However, the main point is that software tools must adapt to business needs or requirements – and not the other way around.

Along with individual expertise, continuous interactions, and communication are also crucial in any application development project. In any agile environment, communication is dynamic and based on specific project needs. This is different from a "process-centric" approach, where team communication happens according to a predefined schedule.

2. Working Software – Over Comprehensive Documentation

In the traditional mode of development, product documentation often consumed a lot of time and energy. Typically, project documents included creating and approving the following:

This generally delayed the completion of the project. The Agile Manifesto shifts the focus from documentation to the actual working of the application. It emphasizes creating "great products" and not documentation. This means creating user-friendly and easy-to-use applications with self-explanatory features and satisfying customers' requirements.

The agile approach does not eliminate documentation but leverages it to help developers improve their work. For example, customer requirements documented as "user stories" are useful for developers to build a new product functionality. Furthermore, product documentation is a useful resource for users learning to use the product.

3. Customer Collaboration – Over Contract Negotiation

In the Waterfall model, customer contracts were more important than satisfied customers. After signing a contract, customers provided details of what they wanted. The final product reflected the terms mentioned in the contract instead of what customers needed. They could negotiate the contract terms only before (or after) the contract period.

This traditional procsources and time. Contract negotiations also created restrictions that did not help create a high-quality product. The Agile Manifesto shifted the eess resulted in the wastage of both development remphasis from contract negotiation to customer collaboration. This is easy to achieve through continuous development and improvement.

In the agile working model, the customer is now an integral part of the development process. With effective collaboration, customers can now provide their feedback throughout the development process. This is useful for product development teams to design the product according to the customer's needs.

4. Responding to Change – Over Following a Plan

In the modern business environment, enterprises must adapt quickly to changing market conditions and customer requirements. Change is also a key mantra for software development. This includes changes related to:

The traditional Waterfall model was regarded as inflexible and slow to adapt to external changes. This model involved creating and following a fixed project plan. Every project plan included a defined set of features and changes to be implemented until the project deadline. As a result, businesses faced project delays, leading to dissatisfied customers.

On the other hand, the Agile Manifesto defines shorter iterations that are better adapted to respond to sudden changes. An example of this value is the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which is easy to change (or improve) from one iteration to the next.

Besides these 4 values, the Agile manifesto is also based on 12 defining principles.