4 values, 12 principles – how do they hold up?

Twenty years on, the Agile Manifesto is controversial and provokes heated debate in some circles, shrugs in others. For some, it is an inspirational guiding document and revelation. For others, it’s out of date, or at least showing signs of wear.

AgileManifest.Com is not affiliated with the Agile Manifesto, though all contributors have had considerable experience exploring, testing and adapting every aspect of the original Manifesto in the field. Over and over and over again.

“Agile in the Real World” means acknowledging that the real world as you read this is different than last month, last year, last decade, and certainly two decades ago when the Manifesto came into being.

A fundamental truth of any mental model or organizing principle, even at the level of physics, is that context is paramount. There is context in time, place, culture, lifecycle – to what extent are the Agile Manifesto’s values and principles durable and adaptable? What additional information or color might help maintain or enhance its relevance or value today? Or, are there parts of the Manifesto that are awkward, impractical or unhelpful to the extent they should be cut or deprecated?

We’ll sponsor discussions about each, with a mix of open forum and curated discussions. As a working agreement with our visitors and contributors, we will 1) not just tee up a battle, we will have a point of view based on field experience and a widening array of expert practitioners and 2) we won’t present anything as one-size-fits-all or settled dogma. There are few hard and fast rules these days in organizational performance or “agile” practices, but avoiding endless loops or claims of absolute truth are a good working agreements. 🙂