The 12 Agile principles Explained with Examples
It takes a great deal of practice to safely say we are doing Agile on a project, but what if we don’t put enough thought into being Agile? Agile methods often leave room for interpretation and acknowledge that you may have to go off-script. It’s at these times that teams are likely to revert to non-Agile habits – that is unless they truly embrace the ideology that’s behind Agile.
By following the 12 Principles of Agile in your projects you’ll be able to keep things on track even when it’s not clear what steps you need to take. In this article, we will dissect these agile principles and explain how employing them can benefit your team, and in doing so, we’ll see the true flexibility and power that Agile can bring to a project.
Table Of Contents
- The 12 Agile Principles of the Agile Manifesto
- #1 Customer Satisfaction is the highest priority
- #2 Welcome changing requirements, even late in development
- #3 Deliver working software frequently
- #4 Business people and developers must work together daily
- #5 Build projects around motivated individuals
- #6 Face-to-face conversations for conveying information
- #7 Tracking outputs instead of done tasks
- #8 Agile processes promote sustainable development
- #9 Technical excellence and good design
- #10 Simplicity is essential
- #11 Self-organized teams
- #12 Ensure teams inspect their process and adapt frequently
- Final Thoughts
The 12 Agile Principles of the Agile Manifesto
The 12 Agile Principles are a set of rules created to unite our understanding of different Agile methodologies. They were drafted in the “Agile Manifesto,” a document written in 2001 by the leaders in the world of Agile and SDLC practices at the time. These principles are shared regardless of what Agile framework you may be using, like the most popular ones such as Scrum or Kanban, or something else. Following them helps guide your project and ensures that no matter what your process is, you’re being truly Agile along the way.
#1 Customer Satisfaction is the highest priority
“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.”
In short, this means we should release early and often to benefit our customers. Iteration and feedback are at the core of what it means to be Agile, referred to here as “early and continuous delivery.” Early delivery is important because the longer it takes a customer to see the direction of a project the more likely it is to diverge from their expectations and requirements. Meanwhile, continuous (and consistent) delivery helps the project maintain a rhythm while allowing for iterative review along the way. As we’ll see in the other agile principles, sustainable development is key to being Agile!
Another core feature of Agile is the ability to adapt to change which is shown here by describing this method of delivery as “our highest priority.” Despite being written like 12 commandments, Agile is not set in stone, so instead of saying “Thou shalt deliver continuously,” this principle urges you to prioritize this wherever possible. Phrasing and semantics aside, this agile principle also highlights that we should aim to “satisfy the customer” with “valuable software” by proactively meeting their needs, which goes without saying but is all the more important to not lose sight of.
