A leaner Agile Manifesto

Here's the Agile Manifesto, (visit www.agilemanifesto.org) again—the statement that started the Agile movement back in 2001:

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Individuals and interactions over process 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.

I believe we can drop the stuff on the right, along with its final statement. Forget it—we're moving past that now. Focus on people, great products, the customer, and change. The other stuff will bog down the organization and corrupt people's mind-set. The items on the right are mainstays of the 80s and 90s—process was led by those ideas. Well, those decades are long gone. Even though the emphasis is this over that, even mentioning the that keeps it fresh in our minds. Know that process, tools, documents, and contracts will live in the background...