What is the Agile Manifesto and what are the 12 principles?
The Agile Manifesto is a set of values that aim to guide the way agile teams work. It was authored by 17 independent software practitioners who landed on four core values after considerable deliberation. The 12 Principles then act as guiding practices that support the team in implementing and working with agility.
This health check lets you remind your team about these principles and helps the team reflect on how their daily practice aligns with these principles. From this, it helps to ensure that teams are aligned and have strategies in place that allow the team to be strong, connected and working from the same foundation.
The Agile Manifesto
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.
The 12 Principles Based on the Agile Manifesto
Each of the following principles represent health dimensions that each team member can respond to. They reflect on the way that they actually work on a day to day basis and then indicate how much they agree or disagree with the principles being applied in the way their team (or themselves) works.
This gives you, the Scrum Master, a way to uncover issues and deal with any impediments and roadblocks as part of the agile transformation journey. It provides data to the team about areas for improvement and allows you to capture both actions and team agreements for change.
Continuous Delivery
Principle 1
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Openness to Change
Principle 2
We welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Our agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
Frequent Releases
Principle 3
We deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Collaboration
Principle 4
Our business people and developers work together throughout the project.
Team Enablement
Principle 5
We build projects around motivated individuals. We give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
Communication
Principle 6
We have efficient and effective face-to-face conversations to convey information to and within a development team.
Working Software
Principle 7.
Our working software is the primary measure of success.
Sustainable Development
Principle 8.
Our agile processes promote sustainable development. Our sponsors, developers and users can maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Quality
Principle 9.
We pay continuous attention to technical excellence and good design to enhance agility.
Simplicity
Principle 10.
We embrace simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done.
Self-organization
Principle 11.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge because we are a self-organizing team.
Continuous Improvement
Principle 12.
At regular intervals, our team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts our behaviour accordingly.
How to create a Health Check in TeamRetro
Your template is ready to go
Under Health Checks, select the health check you’d like to complete. Decide if you want to survey the team anonymously, using aliases or openly.
Reveal and discuss the results
Your health check data is displayed showing the average response and tally of each response. Sort dimensions by most positive, negative or mixed responses to make discussions more meaningful.
Keep conversation on track with Presentation Mode
Switch to presentation mode to sync devices making it easier to facilitate and focus conversations. Capture comments and actions along the way.
Review your action plan
Assign action owners and set due dates for new items and review prior actions. This action list can be tracked, shared or integrated into your other workflow tools.
Share the results
Great work, you are all done! Share the results with your team via email, download and print or publish to tools like Jira, Asana and Trello. Results can be tracked in your dashboard.