What is Agile Manifesto?

The Agile Manifesto would capture the actual essence of agile in minimum words that would emphasize -

• Individuals and interactions over process and tools.
• Working software rather than huge documentation.
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
• Responding to change over following a plan.

Introduction to Agile Manifesto

Some Authors have formed a non-profitable organization which promotes the software development in accordance with the Agile Manifesto's values and principles. Jim Highsmith has introduced agile on behalf of Agile Alliance and said "The Agile movement is not anti-methodology, in fact many of us want to restore credibility to the word methodology. We want to restore a balance. We embrace modeling, but not to file some diagram in a dusty corporate repository. We embrace documentation, but not hundreds of pages of never maintained and rarely used tomes. We plan but recognize the limits of planning in a turbulent environment. Those who would brand proponents of XP or SCRUM or any of the other Agile Methodologies as 'hackers' are ignorant of both the methodologies and the original definition of the term hacker."

Principles of Agile Manifesto -

1. Customer satisfaction through early communication and continuous delivery of working software.
2. Welcome changing requirements even in the later stage of development. Agile processes control the change of customer's competitive advantage.
3. Delivering the working software frequently from couple of weeks to couple of months within a shorter time frame.
4. Businesspeople and developers must work together on a daily basis throughout the project.
5. Build the projects around the individuals who are motivated by giving them the environment and support they need, trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying the information within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Maintaining a constant pace indefinitely.
8. Working software would be the primary measure of progress.
9. Technical excellence needs continuous attention.
10. Simplifying the work not done.
11. Self organized teams.
12. Teams retrospect and tune behavior.

The scrum would promote the Agile principles through different events such as product backlogs, stand-up meetings, iterative development, Retrospective.