Hi there. Now that you're more familiar with the history of Agile and how it's applied to project management, let's discuss the inspiration behind this Agile movement: the Agile Manifesto. In this video, I'll list the four values of Agile and describe how each Agile team needs to strike a balance between the four values. Being familiar with the Agile Manifesto will help you understand the core principles and values of Agile project management so you can put them into practice on a project. The Agile Manifesto was written in 2001 and brings together the collective wisdom of the people who developed it from their vast experience and thought leadership in the tech industry. If you'd like to find the Manifesto, it's easy—just type in agilemanifesto.org in your search browser. We've made it available for you here in the course readings as well. Let's check it out. The Manifesto for Agile software development states: 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. There you have it—the Agile Manifesto and the four values of Agile. It's a short list, but it packs a punch. The Manifesto is saying that it's helpful for every Agile team to think about both sides of each statement during the execution of a project but should find ways to ensure that they're always placing more value and emphasis on the things on the left over the things on the right. From the four values, a set of 12 principles were developed that reinforced the message of the Manifesto. These values and principles inform the why, how, and what of Agile project management planning and processes. Let's take it from the top. First, the Manifesto emphasizes individuals and interactions over processes and tools. At its core, this value stresses people communicating with each other over using lots of processes and tools to force things to happen in a certain way. For example, have you ever emailed someone with a question and ended up in a long back-and-forth exchange due to simple follow-up questions or clarifications? Chances are that you could have gotten the same information in less time with a brief conversation. Agile wants to ensure that teams work together, collaborate, and help each other achieve the best outcomes they can. Agile also values individual perspectives and creativity. This does not mean that every team is chaotic; the value just means that processes and tools should be used to facilitate and drive good project management and improved collaboration within the team and should never be used as a barrier to teams working well with each other. The second value emphasizes working software over comprehensive documentation, meaning that teams should prioritize spending time working on things that actually create value and avoid spending any more time than they really need on debating, writing, and reviewing documents. Now this value might seem like it only applies to software projects, but just replace the term "working software" with whatever your project is trying to deliver. Maybe the project is writing a legal brief, designing an office layout, or preparing a sales presentation. Whatever your project is trying to deliver is the thing that creates value. In other words, it's more important to deliver the product the customer wants than to comprehensively document the process that you used. On to the third value: customer collaboration over contract negotiation. In Agile projects, the customer's satisfaction is considered the highest priority of building a high quality and valuable product. After all, if it's not valuable to the customer, then there's little point spending time on it. When the Manifesto discusses contracts, it refers to the official documents that require sign off and formal agreement with the customer, such as those huge requirement documents or formal change requests. Agile values having the freedom to collaborate with customers early and often. In doing so, teams can quickly react and adapt to what customers need, rather than waiting out the process of negotiating contract terms just to make a few changes or request resources. There will still be contracts with Agile project management, but the focus is on identifying what's really needed and leaving space for collaborative, customer-focused work. Agile teams are encouraged to seek out every opportunity to include the customer or stakeholder during project execution. This could be presenting early prototypes, asking questions, or bringing them in to do some initial product testing. And finally, we have the fourth value: responding to change over following a plan. This last value is crucial to an Agile project, as I explained in the history overview, Agile grew out of a world that was changing so fast that organizations couldn't adapt and struggled to survive. As a result, this value stresses that every Agile team needs to acknowledge that change is inevitable. The larger or longer and more complex your project is, the more uncertainty there is. For many projects, finalizing a well-established plan at the beginning of the project will likely lead to an on-time delivery within budget but may run the risk of not meeting customer needs or adding maximum value. As a project manager, the key takeaway to remember here is that the most successful projects are the ones that are able to smoothly integrate change. Agile project managers still create and value their plans, but they can cope with and are able to adapt if the plans need revising at any time during the project. So there you have it: the four Agile values. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan. What's great about Agile is that it gives us these values and also let's us find the right balance between the two sides. You may have to fine-tune your project style to meet industry needs, team dynamics, and organizational goals to find the healthy balance that works for you and your team. And that's why you're here. By familiarizing yourself with different project management approaches, values, and principles, you will be more equipped to manage all types of projects in all types of industries. Awesome! Let's keep going. Meet me in the next video to learn more about the principles of Agile.
