Agile From First Principles

5 UNDERSTANDING THE AGILE PRINCIPLES

The principles are the details of what it means to ‘be agile’; seemingly straightforward, yet challenging to master

The second page of the Agile Manifesto⁴⁶ lists the 12 ‘Principles behind the Agile Manifesto’. Each principle stands alone as good advice, and together they show how the values on the first page can be applied.

Although several include the word ‘software’, there is little that is unique to software teams. The principles describe the behaviours and mindset that allow any project or product development to succeed.

It is common for people new to Agile to skip past the principles, particularly when their first introduction to Agile is learning an Agile framework or method. However, the principles ...