What happens in Utah, goes viral!
posted 1st May 2023
And so it was, that 17 software developers who thought they were on a holiday in far-away Utah stumbled on the next framework for delivering products and services. The Agile Manifesto became the outcome of the Utah meeting. Although the meeting happened in 2001, the Agile concept is not new. Agile can be traced back to the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s.
The meeting is Utah was the result of constant issues facing the software development industry which includes infrequent delivery, delivering over the budget, mainly due to changes in customer requirements. It is no surprise then that the Agile Manifesto aims to solve these issues. Today, not only has the Agile Manifesto been very useful for the software industry, but the manifesto has also been adapted for hardware and complex systems industries.
Your Wants: Based on Agile Manifesto
Organisations moving towards Agility should aim to want and apply the following agile principles.
1. We want to continually release and delivery valuable software early so that we can satisfy our customer.
2. We want to pivot regardless of where we are in the development in order to cater for the customer's changing requirement through Agile practices and processes.
3. We want to deliver a working software within a short timeframe i.e., from a few weeks to a few months. We are not agile when we don't release working software frequently.
4. We want our leaders and delivery teams to work collaboratively throughout each working day of the project.
5. We want to create and foster a project environment where people can thrive and become the best version of themselves. We want to establish psychological safety where our people can deliver projects fearlessly.
6. We want to ensure that the pandemic does not limit the quality of our interactions. While we encourage online interactions, cameras must be on at all times during conversations and wherever possible, face-to-face interactions takes priority.
7. We know we are on track when we can deliver working software at each milestone.
8. We want to reduce work overload on our people through various agile processes so that the development work is sustainable and achieved without resource burnout.
9. We want to reduce technical debt by taking a design thinking approach in order to promote technical excellence and agility.
10. We want to reduce waste and promote agility by making our work as simple as possible. Do less, achieve more mindset is a necessity.
11. We want to create a self-organising team capable of laying down the best architectures, requirements and designs for our software.
12. We want to include milestones in our short-term plan to account for retrospectives to enable continuous improvements and/or pivot to a desired outcome.
For organisations in the hardware, or complex systems industry or offering services to the customers, you can swap 'software' for hardware or service.
Do you notice any of these principles in your current pattern, ceremonies or ways of working?
