In February it will be 10 years since a group of self-styled “anarchists” (their names and details can be found here) got together in Snowbird, Utah to discuss and debate their ideas on better ways to build software. The output from that weekend was the Agile Manifesto – the document that embodies much of the thinking behind the Agile movement today.
The manifesto is a set of four values and twelve principles that should guide software development teams in the way they work and interact with customers.
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 Agile Alliance was formed out of that group and many of them have gone on to be the recognised gurus and big-names of the Agile community.
In 2001 Jim Highsmith and Martin Fowler, two of the original signatories, wrote an article explaining the motivation and thinking behind each of the values and principles that made it into the Manifesto. The original article can be found here, it is well worth reading:
In the last ten years Agile has gone from being a fringe idea to one of the most prevalent approaches in use today with over 35% of IT professionals saying that Agile is the way they work according to Forrester research.
To commemorate a decade of agility, InfoQ is running a series of articles; we have invited all of the original signatories to contribute along with others in the Agile community.
These articles are a snapshot of opinions and perspectives from the agile thought leaders.
This series will build up over the next couple of months, and will live on as a record of the state of agility in 2011, ten years into the agile era.
In addition to the articles in this series, this landing page will provide links to other sites and commentaries commemorating the anniversary. Be sure to check back here regularly for the latest content.
The articles in the series are listed below. This list will be updated as they are published.
- Steven Mellor: A Personal Reflection on Agile Ten Years On
- James Coplien: Agile 10 Years On
- Mike Cohn: Reflections on the 10 Years Since the Agile Manifesto
- Johanna Rothman: The Accidental Agilist: A Personal Look Back at 10 Years of the Agile Manifesto
- Angela Martin: The Art of Creating Whole Teams
A landing page has been established on the InfoQ site to bring together all the articles and news about the anniversary of the mainfesto together. It can be found here.
The Agile Alliance have anounced that most of the signatories will be reunited at Agile 2011 - see the anouncement here
Needless to say, InfoQ is not the only news organisation commemorating the anniversary. This page will also contain links to other events and publcations about the anniversary:
- Agile Luminaries Gather to Celebrate 10-Year Anniversary of the Agile Manifesto
- Info World asked Agile programming 10 years on: Did it deliver?
- The Pragmatic Bookshelf has a post titled Ten Authors of The Agile Manifesto Celebrate its Tenth Anniversary
- Dennis Stevens bloged about the 10 Year Anniversary Event in Snowbird
- as did Jonathan House
- and Ryan Martens
