Agile for Everybody

Chapter 1. What Is Agile, and Why Does It Matter?

Understanding Agile as a Movement

On February 11–13, 2001, at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch mountains of Utah, seventeen people met to talk, ski, relax, and try to find common ground—and of course, to eat.

So begins the story of the Agile movement as told by one of its originators, Jim Highsmith. 

It is worth taking a moment to reflect on the humility—and humanity—of this statement. The Agile movement was not born out of an ambition to sell books or rack up consulting hours. It was born out of the very belief that animates its most successful implementations: when people come together, look beyond the tactical differences in their respective approaches, and seek common ground, amazing things can happen.

The 17 people who gathered at Snowbird had spent the better part of the prior decade looking for ways to bring this kind of collaboration to their day-to-day work as software developers. Some of them had begun implementing daily “stand-up” meetings to create more space for regular conversation. Some of them were encouraging their colleagues to work in pairs, maximizing the transfer of knowledge and revealing previously unseen solutions. Some of them were looking at how organizational processes themselves could become “stretch to fit” to better suit the needs of the specific individuals on a given team.

By the time the Snowbird summit took place, some of these practices had evolved into fully formed methodologies ...