What is the Agile Manifest?
The Agile Manifest is a 2001 document with four values and twelve principles that grounds all agile methods and puts people and collaboration above processes and tools.
DEFINITION
In February 2001 seventeen software developers met in Snowbird, Utah, to summarise their experience with flexible software development. The result was the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, often called the Agile Manifest. It states four core values: individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software over comprehensive documentation; customer collaboration over contract negotiation; responding to change over following a plan. The manifest does not dismiss the “right-hand” items—it says the left-hand side weighs more. The four values are complemented by twelve principles that spell out how agile teams collaborate. The text is short, sharp and widely seen as the founding document of the modern agile movement. Well-known methods such as Scrum, Kanban and XP all build on its values.
CONNECTIONS
Leadership
The Agile Manifest calls for serving leadership: people before processes, collaboration before negotiation. Servant leadership in the Scrum context is one of the most direct expressions of these values in a leadership model.
Artificial intelligence
Agile AI development rests on manifest values: early feedback, working prototypes instead of heavy documentation and adapting when models do not behave as expected.
Project management
The Agile Manifest is a direct response to weaknesses of classical project management. Inspect and adapt matches what classical PM often calls lessons learned.
KEY POINTS
- The Agile Manifest has four values and twelve principles.
- It was created in 2001 by seventeen software developers in Snowbird, Utah.
- People and collaboration rank above processes and tools.
- It does not reject processes—it weights people higher.
- It is the foundation of agile methods such as Scrum and Kanban.
EXAMPLE
A project team revisits its development process. Instead of writing a detailed twelve-month plan up front and sticking to it, the team decides to respond to customer feedback every two weeks and adjust the plan continuously. Quality rises because the team responds to real needs rather than assumptions from the start of the year.
MISCONCEPTIONS
Did the Agile Manifest ban processes and documentation?
No. It says individuals and interactions are more important than processes. Processes and tools remain useful—people come first.
Does the Agile Manifest apply only to software development?
It originated in software, but its values and principles are applied today in many other industries and contexts.