The Heart of Agile Will Not Turn Cold

HeartofAgile

Alistair Cockburn identifies the essential agile activities in this “Heart of Agile”-model. The model complements the Agile Manifesto’s values

Alistair Cockburn was one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto which changed the system development process in IT.
Last month it was 15 years ago that 17 IT-professionals had passionate discussions about how to make better software in The Lodge at the Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah.

The essence of the discussions was condensed in these elegant sentences:

“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”

As it happens so often with a good idea, the original clarity can get muddied over the years.
Alistair told me recently in an interview that he visited a company that had a 90 pages introduction to the agile concept. So the agile concept had somehow turned into a rigid, comprehensive documentation orientated exercise. In the most recent edition of Prosabladet (page 28 – 30), Alistair explains how we can rediscover the essence of agile and get to the heart of agile.