Agile Coaches' Corner Misconceptions and Interpretations of the Agile Manifesto with Arie van Bennekum
This week, Dan Neumann is excited to bring on an agile Thoughtleader from the Wemanity Group, a Chair-Elect of the Agile Consortium International, and co-author of The Agile Manifesto on today — Arie van Bennekum. Arie is incredibly passionate about agility. Originally, Arie came from a very traditional environment as a developer and technical designer, but later switched to RAD and DSDM and then got involved with communities and began publishing, training, and coaching. Now, as a Thoughtleader with the Wemanity group, Arie focuses on helping individuals and organizations adopt the agile approach.
Today, he and Dan will be discussing common misconceptions and interpretations of The Agile Manifesto. They discuss the context in which The Agile Manifesto was first authored, how to transform from a traditional company to a more agile one, important aspects of using the agile method, some fun additional facts about the creation of The Agile Manifesto, challenges around business value, Agnostic Agile, important pieces that are often forgotten when moving to an agile method, and much more.
Key Takeaways
Facts about The Agile Manifesto:
Authored at the Lightweight Methods Conference in 2001
It’s a distillation of values and principles behind several lightweight methods that were in use at the time
Important aspects of using the agile method:
Agility is a way to avoid waste
Experimentation is at the heart of agility
Do Scrum by the values and not just by the rules
Empowerment of the team and great communication
A hunger for learning is key
“Perfection is not a state; perfection is an ambition” (you are constantly moving forward with agile)
Intentionally practice the basics and make it a natural part of work
Tooling is continuously changing in agile, so keep up that hunger
Don’t become complacent or sloppy with how you do the discipline
Implement improvement after retrospectives
Innovate
Face-to-face communication is the best way to convey information
Alignment on how the team works and great team structure
And of course: the four values and 12 principles of The Agile Manifesto
What is Agnostic Agile?
Being agnostic with agility (i.e. one size does not fit all, one framework is not the answer, etc.)
Don’t be dogmatic
Keep up with all learning
Explore all the agile practices and methods
Mentioned in this Episode:
Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
Rapid Application Development (RAD)
The Four Values and 12 Principles of The Agile Manifesto
Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. Ep. 26: “How an Effective Leader Coaches with Joseph Carella”
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