02. Unveiling the Heart of Agile – Exploring its Core Values

In a world where organisations must react rapidly to technological and market changes, the traditional approaches to project management often fall short of delivering the agility required for organisations to succeed, especially when going through large-scale transformations. Unfortunately, many organisations focus on implementing agile tools and methodologies like Scrum and Kanban, ignoring the true meaning of Agile.

Is Agile a new thing? 

The introduction of ‘lightweight’ Agile methodologies goes back to the 1990s when Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum, two Agile methodologies, were created to address the challenges related to the sequential development process (called Waterfall) that was dominant during that period. 

In February 2001, seventeen software practitioners including the founders of XP and Scrum, met and discussed their experiences and ideas for future software development.

Agile, as we know it today, was officially crystallised with the creation of the Agile Manifesto that was agreed upon during that meeting. The manifesto consists of four core values and twelve guiding principles, which I will go through in this post.

As the Agile Manifesto gained popularity, different Agile methodologies emerged, some designed to address specific challenges such as scalability across large-scale organisations.  

What are the core values of Agile?

As we talked about earlier, the Agile Manifesto has four core values and twelve guiding principles. The following is an extract from the Agile Manifesto, which can be found here:

Core values:

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. 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.

Guiding Principles:

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software frequently, with a preference for shorter timescales.
4. Collaborate between business people and developers throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need and trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.

While the core values are interconnected and reinforce each other, the principles act as the conduit between the core values and the practices of Agile methodologies.

Let’s take a closer look at each Core value.

Core Value 1 – “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.”

Although all core values are equally important, I have a personal preference for this one as it highlights the significance of people, collaboration, and communication, something organisations need to keep in mind when going through a transformation journey. It reminds us to:

1. Communicate Effectively – clear, open, and transparent conversations with all stakeholders involved instead of relying on mass communication (like emails) is more effective in the short and long term.
2. Apply a Human-Centered Design – this emphasises the value of building strong relationships among individuals, including establishing cross-functional teams. The organisation would leverage each employee’s strength, moving closer to: (1) creating more innovative solutions, and (2) making better-informed decisions.
3. Continuously improve as fast as possible – one can learn and act quicker through personal interactions.

Finally, the first core value reminds us that while processes and tools are essential, they supplement human interactions rather than replace them.  This links back to the previous key message regarding adopting an Agile mindset rather than implementing tools.

Core Value 2 – “ Working software over comprehensive documentation.”

This statement does not suggest that documentation is unnecessary. 

The message here is that organisations should spend their energy delivering value to their customers (internal and external) as opposed to focusing on populating too-detailed documentation without producing any outcomes. This core value focuses on:

1. Fast Time-to-Market – delivering small pieces of functionalities allow organisations to achieve competitive advantage. 
2. Adopting an Iterative approach – apart from the competitive advantage, delivering small pieces of software means getting early feedback, allowing the organisation to adjust the plans accordingly. This emphasises even more how crucial it is to avoid spending excessive time on long-term project scope documents as they don’t truly reflect the project as it develops.
3. Risk mitigation – terminologies and technical jargon in documentation may lead to inaccurate outcomes, forcing organisations to go through rework and change control efforts. 

By focusing on delivering early working software and acting on feedback, the organisation would be demonstrating its commitment to becoming a truly agile and Customer-Centric organisation. 

Core Value 3 – “Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.”                                         

This core value emphasises the need to involve the customer throughout the whole development journey. Usually, this involvement is facilitated through what is known as “Product Owner”, who represents the end customer when they cannot be physically present. Through this approach the customer becomes an integral part of the team delivering the product. The organisation would be: 

1. Getting early feedback – Similar to what has been discussed in the second core value, having the customer onboard would mean testing assumptions and hypotheses as early as possible. 
2. Reducing miscommunication – working closely with the customer means that any clarifications could be sought immediately, and challenges tackled in real-time.
3. Fostering innovation – having the customer and the team working on the product together allows exchanges of ideas, insights, and experiences, leading to a faster and creative product delivery and resolution of issues.  

The reference to the “contract negotiation” doesn’t negate the significance of having contracts in place, but suggests a more agile approach. While I will be discussing Agile Contracts in future blogs, at this stage it is worth appreciating that too rigid contracts will hinder flexibility, creativity, and collaborative working.  

Core value 4 – “Responding to change over following a plan.”

The key focus here is the transition from following a rigid to a more adaptable and flexible plan. This is accomplished in various ways as discussed in the previous core values, all of which lead to a more customer-centric organisation that can respond swiftly to customer feedback with minimal investment.

Contrary to the popular belief, there is also an appreciation that too much change will lead to chaos. As a result, some Agile methodologies have their own way of controlling and monitoring changes. 

A short word about Principles

A brief word on the Agile principles as they are self-explanatory in nature. The scope of the principles is to serve as guiding guidelines for organisations to implement the core values of Agile regardless of the Agile methodologies used.

Now that we have discussed the core values of Agile, it should be clearer that tools, methodologies, and processes are merely vehicles for implementing Agile. The true Agile Mindset, which is one valuing individuals, prioritising working solutions, collaborating closely with customers, and embracing change, is what organisations need to aim for when going through transformation programmes. 

Agile has come a long way since 2001 and is no longer applied only in IT. It is now applied in different environments that are large scale and complex in nature, going far beyond software development.

I hope you found this post helpful. Stay tuned for much more!

As the objective of this post is to offer newcomers in the field of Agile a foundational understanding, I have intentionally simplified certain aspects of the content. If you seek more comprehensive and precise information, please don’t hesitate to reach out.