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What are 4 Agile Manifesto Values?

Software Professionals in systems development recognised the necessity of a change of focus to improve the production and delivery of software for clients. Agile manifesto values play a vital role in developing software. Agile, at its core, prioritises human innovation and creativity over everything else. It also requires that individuals and activities be valued as highly as, or more than, technology and equipment. The Agile manifesto values are credited with originating the idea of agile software development.

What does Agile mean?

Agile is a way of developing products that premium collaboration, craftsmanship, and adaptability to external factors and consumer needs. Many organisations in the software industry have shifted their strategy to product design due to this novel project operation and management technique.

What does the Agile Manifesto represent?

The Agile Manifesto lays forth a comprehensive framework of objectives and principles for developing meaningful, effective, and persistent software.

A clear preamble, four agile core values, and a single line that explicates them all constitute the Agile Manifesto.

Core Concepts of the Agile Manifesto Values 

4 core values are the cornerstone for each component of the Agile methodology. They highlight the change in emphasis from systems and techniques to individuals and interaction.

Agile’s best practices are influenced by these four values, focusing on adaptability so that groups of people can more effectively complete their work together. If people collaborate successfully, adjust to changing circumstances, and create, how they have done it is less significant.

The Process outlines four agile core values that should be adhered to ensure effective software development methodologies. 4 agile manifestos are:

  1. Individuals and interactions over processes and technologies
  2. Working software over Comprehensive documentation
  3. Customer Collaboration over contract Negotiation
  4. Responding to change over following a plan

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

The first manifesto emphasises the enterprises to focus on customers/end-users or clients. This manifesto prioritises the needs of the end-user. Organisations should quickly collect customer feedback and adapt the feedback to improve the value delievered to the customer. Agile manifesto emphasises more of face to face conversations than just following the defined processes and using the tools.  

2. Working software over Comprehensive documentation

Second Agile manifesto asserts the importance of the software components that are working, rather than just focusing on preparing the detailed documentation. In the traditional way of software development or waterfall model, more importance is given to  comprehensive documents like Business Requirement Document (BRD), HDD, LDD, Test Cases, Test Reports etc. In Agile, the smaller components which can be delivered as small increments to the Customers are preferred.

The Second Agile manifesto focuses on Creating software or a product based on user feedback. In conventional way of software development,  documenting individual activities was more vital than the actual output.

3. Customer Collaboration over contract Negotiation

The third agile manifesto reinforces that customers actively participate through out the product development cycle. This contributes to developing  products/services or systems that meet customer needs and enhance the business agility. In conventional development life cycle, there is no scope for modifying the contract that are made and signed off at the early stages.

However, in agile way of working, Customer is also included in the discussions and components are built based on the discussion with the customer. Demos of the components are given to the customer at the end of each iteration. Feedback is collected from the customer and are incuded in the following iterations.  

4. Responding to change over following a plan

In the past, the project plan was the most effective tool for improvement. If the planning fails, the entire effort fails. The process demonstrates that it is acceptable to adhere to a plan so long as there is flexibility for a set of circumstances modifications.

Because change is unavoidable, those in charge of leading programs and using the agile approach must be prepared to customise to the evolving requirements of their specific tasks. The fourth Agile manifesto accentuates the importance of accomodating the changes requested by the customer than rigidly following the plan as in conventional way of development.  Iteration review and Retrospections, System Demos help in collecting the customer feedback and helps in adapting those changes in the next iterations. 

In What Aspects do Agile Values vary from Agile Principles?

Specific rules or leading principles offer guidance in one or more areas. In comparison, agile values assist at the level of core values.

People keep values irrespective of their circumstances because they are higher-level, conceptual, or foundational concepts that govern conduct.

Another significant distinction is the primary focus of either agile values or rules. Rules outline the proper procedures, while values outline what is desired from a strategic perspective. They outline the steps and behaviours expected of agile teams.

Agile manifestos are core values or act as pillars of agile. So all the pillars are important, even if one pillar collapses, the whole agile structure crashes.

Agile Principles help in achieving the agile delivery. They act as more of enablers to strive the manifestos.

Leading SAFe Certification is a comprehensive course to lead the SAFe journey in the large-scale enterprises. On clearing the certification, one is awarded the title ‘SAFe Agilist’. Participants in the SAFe Agilist training learn how to master business Agility to do well in the market.

Agile core values work best when implemented by teams wherein members are prepared to change their behaviour for the group’s betterment. It is not simple, but once mastered, your team can use it for several years. Conventional Organizations which identify the need to follow Agile practices should build strong Agile teams. Agile teams are cross functional and self managed teams with small size of 5 to 11 members. 

Agile Manifestos act as pillars in this journey and Principles complement the manifestos.  Large enterprises, need to scale their agility in order to achieve overall Business Agility. Getting your SAFe Agilist certification is worthwhile since it helps in leading the Scaled Agile transformation journey. Leaders, change agents, internal agile coaches can aim for this certification.

Scrum Master is the one who has the expertise of Agile practices and emphasises the Agile values and practices to be followed by the team.

The SAFe Scrum Master Certification helps in playing the role of the Scrum Master in the SAFe environment in efficient manner. (For more details on these courses , please visit : SAFe Scrum Master Certification Training )