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It is hard to imagine just how much software and activity has been born from the “The Agile
Contact Us (https://www.smartsheet.com/contact)
Manifesto.” Before(tel:8443242360)
844.324.2360 the “Manifesto,” software development wasn’t a particularly fast process.
This
situation often led to many projects in the pipeline being cancelled due to changing business
needs. As a result, the software development industry was prime for disruption. The Agile
Manifesto and the Twelve Principles of Agile Software sought to change things, speed up
development time, and a produce a quality.
The Agile Manifesto is at the core of the Agile Movement. Application for Agile outside of software
development has even been found, with its emphasis on lean manufacturing and collaboration and
communication, and quick development of smaller sets of features under the guidance of an
overall plan. The key to its success is that, it is always Agile and able to adapt to change. We will
discuss the four values and twelve principles that lead to higher-quality software delivered to
satisfied customers on a continuous basis.
History of the Agile Manifesto
The Four Values of The Agile Manifesto
The Twelve Agile Manifesto Principles
Use Smartsheet to Get Started with Agile
History of the Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto (http://www.agilemanifesto.org/) and the Twelve Principles of Agile Software
(http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html) were the consequences of industry frustration in the
1990s. The enormous time lag between business requirements (the applications and features
customers were requesting) and the delivery of technology that answered those needs, led to the
cancelling of many projects. Business, requirements, and customer requisites changed during this
lag time, and the final product did not meet the then current needs. The software development
models of the day, led by the Waterfall model (https://www.smartsheet.com/agile-vs-scrum-vs-
waterfall-vs-kanban), were not meeting the demand for speed and did not take advantage of just
how quickly software could be altered.
In 2000, a group of seventeen “thought leaders,” including Jon Kern
(https://www.industriallogic.com/people/Jon), Kent Beck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Beck),
Ward Cunningham (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham), Arie van Bennekum
(http://www.acm-software.com/en/trainer/arie-van-bennekum-2/), and Alistair Cockburn
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_Cockburn), met first at a resort in Oregon and later, in 2001,
at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in Utah. It was at the second meeting where the Agile
Manifesto and the Twelve Principles were formally written. The Manifesto reads:
“We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
“Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
“That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.”
The Four Values of The Agile Manifesto
The Agile Manifesto is comprised of four foundational values and 12 supporting principles which
lead the Agile approach to software development. Each Agile methodology applies the four values
in different ways, but all of them rely on them to guide the development and delivery of high-
quality, working software.
1. Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools
The first value in the Agile Manifesto is “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.”
Valuing people more highly than processes or tools is easy to understand because it is the people
who respond to business needs and drive the development process. If the process or the tools
drive development, the team is less responsive to change and less likely to meet customer needs.
Communication is an example of the difference between valuing individuals versus process. In the
case of individuals, communication is fluid and happens when a need arises. In the case of
process, communication is scheduled and requires specific content.
2. Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation
Historically, enormous amounts of time were spent on documenting the product for development
and ultimate delivery. Technical specifications, technical requirements, technical prospectus,
interface design documents, test plans, documentation plans, and approvals required for each.
The list was extensive and was a cause for the long delays in development. Agile does not
eliminate documentation, but it streamlines it in a form that gives the developer what is needed to
do the work without getting bogged down in minutiae. Agile documents requirements as user
stories, which are sufficient for a software developer to begin the task of building a new function.
The Agile Manifesto values documentation, but it values working software more.
3. Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation
Negotiation is the period when the customer and the product manager work out the details of a
delivery, with points along the way where the details may be renegotiated. Collaboration is a
different creature entirely. With development models such as Waterfall, customers negotiate the
requirements for the product, often in great detail, prior to any work starting. This meant the
customer was involved in the process of development before development began and after it was
completed, but not during the process. The Agile Manifesto describes a customer who is engaged
and collaborates throughout the development process, making. This makes it far easier for
development to meet their needs of the customer. Agile methods may include the customer at
intervals for periodic demos, but a project could just as easily have an end-user as a daily part of
the team and attending all meetings, ensuring the product meets the business needs of the
customer.
4. Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
Traditional software development regarded change as an expense, so it was to be avoided. The
intention was to develop detailed, elaborate plans, with a defined set of features and with
everything, generally, having as high a priority as everything else, and with a large number of
many dependencies on delivering in a certain order so that the team can work on the next piece of
the puzzle.
With Agile, the shortness of an iteration means priorities can be shifted from iteration to iteration
and new features can be added into the next iteration. Agile’s view is that changes always improve
a project; changes provide additional value.
Perhaps nothing illustrates Agile’s positive approach to change better than the concept of Method
Tailoring, defined in An Agile Information Systems Development Method
(http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/elektrik/issues/elk-04-12-2/elk-12-2-5-0404-6.pdf) in use as: “A
process or capability in which human agents determine a system development approach for a
specific project situation through responsive changes in, and dynamic interplays between
contexts, intentions, and method fragments.” Agile methodologies allow the Agile team to modify
the process and make it fit the team rather than the other way around.
The Twelve Agile Manifesto Principles

The Twelve Principles are the guiding principles for the methodologies that are included under the
title “The Agile Movement.” They describe a culture in which change is welcome, and the customer
is the focus of the work. They also demonstrate the movement’s intent as described by Alistair
Cockburn, one of the signatories to the Agile Manifesto, which is to bring development into
alignment with business needs.
The twelve principles of agile development include:
Customer satisfaction through early and continuous software delivery – Customers are
happier when they receive working software at regular intervals, rather than waiting extended
periods of time between releases.
Accommodate changing requirements throughout the development process – The ability
to avoid delays when a requirement or feature request changes.
Frequent delivery of working software – Scrum accommodates this principle since the team
operates in software sprints or iterations that ensure regular delivery of working software.
Collaboration between the business stakeholders and developers throughout the
project – Better decisions are made when the business and technical team are aligned.
Support, trust, and motivate the people involved – Motivated teams are more likely to
deliver their best work than unhappy teams.
Enable face-to-face interactions – Communication is more successful when development
teams are co-located.
Working software is the primary measure of progress – Delivering functional software to the
customer is the ultimate factor that measures progress.
Agile processes to support a consistent development pace – Teams establish a repeatable
and maintainable speed at which they can deliver working software, and they repeat it with each
release.
Attention to technical detail and design enhances agility – The right skills and good design
ensures the team can maintain the pace, constantly improve the product, and sustain change.
Simplicity – Develop just enough to get the job done for right now.
Self-organizing teams encourage great architectures, requirements, and designs –
Skilled and motivated team members who have decision-making power, take ownership,
communicate regularly with other team members, and share ideas that deliver quality products.
Regular reflections on how to become more effective – Self-improvement, process
improvement, advancing skills, and techniques help team members work more efficiently.
The intention of Agile is to align development with business needs, and the success of Agile is
apparent. Agile projects are customer focused and encourage customer guidance and
participation. As a result, Agile has grown to be an overarching view of software development
throughout the software industry and an industry all by itself.
Use Smartsheet to Get Started with Agile

Smartsheet is a spreadsheet-inspired task and project management tool with powerful

collaboration and communication features that are crucial for Agile project management. You can
make real-time updates and alert your team about the new changes, and share your plan with
internal and external stakeholders to increase transparency and keep everyone on the same page.
Since Smartsheet is cloud-based you can track project requirements, access documents, create
timelines, and send alerts from virtually anywhere. Choose from broad range of smart views –
Grid, Calendar, Gantt, Dashboards – to manage projects the way you want. Plus, with our newest
view, Card View, teams have a more visual way to work, communicate, and collaborate in
Smartsheet. Card View enables you to focus attention with rich cards, give perspective with
flexible views, and prioritize and adjust work more visually. Act on tasks and change status of work
by dragging and dropping cards through lanes to immediately share decisions with the entire
team.
Create Your Agile Project in Smartsheet (https://www.smartsheet.com/try-it?
trp=8634&lx=AU2SjHVum3_OGeTRphD2ow&lpv=butbot)
Want more Agile project management tips and best practices? Don't miss our Project
Management Resource Hub (https://www.smartsheet.com/resources/project-management) for the
latest articles, templates, videos, and more!

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