Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game (2nd Edition)

"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."

Seventeen advocates of lightweight development processes gathered in Utah in early 2001 to discuss what they might have in common, or if they would just agree to disagree. I was one of them.

We agreed that the word lightweight was too much of a reaction against something and not enough of a belief in something. Agreeing on the importance of being able to respond to changing requirements within the project time frame, we chose the word agile.

We agreed on the above four values and on a dozen principles to support those values. We agreed that we were not interested in agreeing beyond that. We nicknamed the group the Agile Alliance.

This appendix discusses that meeting, the values, and the principles.

The Agile Software Development Manifesto