Agile principles are a set of guiding practices that support teams in implementing and executing with agility. They are designed to ensure companies prioritize the right things, such as customer satisfaction, collaboration, adapting to change, and more. The Agile Manifesto outlines 12 principles for agile software development that help establish the tenets of the agile mindset. These principles are not a set of rules for practicing agile, but a handful of principles to help instill agile thinking. Below are the 12 Agile principles:
- Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
- Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customers competitive advantage.
- Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
- Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
- Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
- The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
- Working software is the primary measure of progress.
- Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
- Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
- Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
- The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
- At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Agile principles suggest the use of self-organizing teams which work with a more "flat" management style where decisions are made as a group rather than by a single person. Agile methodologies are designed to be adaptive and responsive to changing requirements and priorities, allowing teams to deliver working software quickly and efficiently.