The 12 Basic Principles of Agile Project Management (2024)

If you’ve ever played a sport or watched a corny sports movie, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the following:You need to focus on the fundamentals!

The 12 Basic Principles of Agile Project Management (1)

Maybe you forgot to “box out” on a rebound, or maybe you didn’t put your glove down and pulled a “Bill Buckner” on a ground ball.

Whatever the case, you were told to get back to the fundamentals because that would help you solve the problem. Why? Well, the root of the problem was that you forgot about the fundamentals in the first place. This quote fromJim Rohnserves as a reminder:

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

In the world of software development, the same rules apply. If you and your team are struggling with agile project management, it doesn’t mean that agile can’t work for you. Oftentimes, it just means that you need to get back to the basics.

What is Agile Project Management?

Agile project management is a method of software development that focuses on quick rollouts from an efficient and flexible team. Iterations are based on a continuous inflow of feedback, but instead of trying to solve everything in a few updates, a team has shorter phases in the development cycle to cover only a few updates at a time in order to constantly release a steady, elevated level of quality incremental improvements.

According to the Marketing Agency Growth Report 2018, absence of a project management culture has been one of the biggest pain points for agencies. Agencies face daily growth challenges for not being able to manage their time and projects efficiently. Roughly 20% of them have never used project management softwares till date.

The consequences have been severe - 43% of agencies don't find enough free time to focus on administrative tasks such as staffing, client on-boarding, new business investments, etc. 29% of agencies experience difficulties in maintaining cashflows and 35% of agencies face hiring and talent management problems.

Lack of agile thinking and learning practices have prevented 55% of agencies from growing their sales and marketing efforts, 24% of them faced differentiation challenges in the market and lack of processes or organization has kept 18% agencies from retaining clients.That's why so many agencies invest in the culture of agile project management.

There are 12 basic principles to successfully following anAgile project managementdevelopment approach. At aski resort in Snowbird, Utah,17software developers reflected on what defined the core principles of agile development methods. Their goal was touncover better ways of delivering software and to help others do the same.

During that meeting, the Agile Manifesto was born. Comprised of 12fundamentals, along with four core values, it providesthe foundation of agile software development as we know it today.

Principles of Agile Project Management

  • Attain customer satisfaction through continuous delivery of software
  • Don’t be afraid to make changes
  • Deliver working software, with a preference to the shorter timescale
  • Developers and management must work together
  • Build projects around motivated individuals
  • Working software is the primary measure of progress
  • Agile processes promote sustainable development
  • Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility
  • Simplicity is essential
  • The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams

Principle 1: Attain customer satisfaction through continuous delivery of software

Software is not built for the sake of building software. It’s built to be put to use by an end user to better perform tasks that were previously out of reach, solve a problem, do their job better or more efficiently, etc. But often, the highest priority of software development is forgotten.

So, how can you better align with this principle?

Shorten the distance between requirements gathering and customer feedback by planning less change at a time. This gives you more opportunity to steer the software in a satisfactory direction for the customer.

Principle 2: Don't be afraid to make changes

You can implement changes now --you don’t need to wait for the next system to be built or a system redesign. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

Shorten the distance between conceiving and implementing an important change. And even if it’s late in the development process, don’t be afraid to make a shift.

Principle 3: Deliver working software, with a preference to the shorter timescale

Previous development methods were front-loaded with tonsof documentation under the guise of completing 100% of the requirements needed for a particular project. But towards the end of the project, the usual result was just that -- lotsof documentation, but nothing to show for it.

Agile project management focuses on shortening the distance between planning and delivery. So, the agile methodology focus more on creating software rather than just planning for it. This gives you theopportunity to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the work.

Principle 4: Developers and management must work together

This one is crucial, especially because it doesn’t come naturally to most people. Co-location between management and developers is usually the best way to handle this. You can also use communication tools for remote workers. It helps the two sides better understand each other and leads to more productive work.

Principle 5: Build projects around motivated individuals

There should be no micromanaging in agile project management. Teams should be self-directed and self-reliant. Make sure you have the proper team in place that you can trustto complete the project’s objectives and provide the support and environment to get the job done.

Principle 6: Face-to-face interactions are the most efficient & effective modes of communication

Put simply, you want to shorten the time between a question and its answer. This is another reason why co-location or remote work during the same hours is key in agile project management. When teams work together under the same (virtual) roof, it’s much easier to ask questions, make suggestions, and communicate.

Principle 7: Working software is the primary measure of progress

This is the primary metric an agile development team should be judged by: Is the software working correctly? Because if it’s not, it doesn’t matter how many words have been typed, bugs have been fixed, hours have been worked, etc. A good team needs to produce quality software -- all other measures are pretty much irrelevant if you can’t get it working correctly.

Principle 8: Agile processes promote sustainable development

When working on the same project for a VERY long time, burnout can be a common problem among agile software development teams. To prevent this, work should be done in short productive bursts because excessive overtime cannot continue indefinitely without impacting the quality. Focus on choosing the right pace for the team members. Usually, the best pace is one that allows team members to leave the officetired yetsatisfied.

Principle 9: Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility

Developers shouldn’t wait to clean up redundant or confusing code. Code should get better with each iteration. Along agile methodology, the software development team should use scrum tools and take time to review their solution. Doing this during the project saves you way more time than cleaning up code “later” -- which can also mean never.

Principle 10: Simplicityis essential

Keep things simple and minimize the time between comprehension and completion. Avoid doing things that don’t matter -- such as the “busy work” that is so prevalent in corporate culture. Keep track of your team, count the hours worked in a fun way by using project management tools like Dashable, Trello, and InVision.

Principle 11: The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams

A great agile management team takes it’s own direction. Members don’t need to be told what needs to be done -- they attack problems, clear obstacles, and find solutions. It should be a red flag if the project manager has to micromanage.

Principle 12: Inspect & Adapt

This is a crucial principle in agile project management. At regular intervals, the team should reflect on how to become more effective, tune and adjust it's behavior accordingly. If there is a better way of moving a project forward, the team should implement adjustments.

Begin With the Basics

When you’re in the thick of an agile development project, it’s easy to get swept up in the fast-paced, ever-changing environment. But when you forget about the principles, the team and the project start to slip up.

Keep these agile project management principles in mind and you’ll be able to keep your team -- and project -- on the right track.

Want more project management tips? Check out this list of the top skills for digital project managers.

Topics: Project Management

The 12 Basic Principles of Agile Project Management (2024)

FAQs

Why are the 12 agile principles important? ›

The 12 agile principles can support businesses to streamline their product-development cycles and achieve better results through a flexible, reactive system. Customers should receive the finished product sooner and provide valuable feedback to inform future releases.

Which is one of the 12 principles behind the Agile Manifesto? ›

The 12 Principles behind the Agile Manifesto

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

What are agile principles in project management? ›

Agile – a project management approach based on delivering requirements iteratively and incrementally throughout the life cycle. Agile development – an umbrella term specifically for iterative software development methodologies. Popular methods include Scrum, Lean, DSDM and eXtreme Programming (XP).

What are basic agile principles? ›

Values the Manifesto creators cited as paramount were: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Working software over comprehensive documentation. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation. Responding to change over following a plan.

How many agile principles are there? ›

There are 12 agile principles outlined in The Agile Manifesto in addition to the 4 agile values. These 12 principles for agile software development help establish the tenets of the agile mindset.

What is the most important Agile principle? ›

Agile Principle 1

“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” It's always been important to keep your customers satisfied.

What are the top 5 agile principles? ›

There are 5 main Agile methodologies: Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), Lean Development e Crystal.

What is the first agile principle? ›

Agile Principle 1: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable product. In other words, our priority is to focus primarily on delivering valuable products to customers early and continuously.

What are the 5 phases of agile project management? ›

There are five different phases of Agile Project Management framework that occurs within a project development.
  • Envision Phase: The envision phase is the initial phase of project management within an APM framework. ...
  • Speculate Phase: ...
  • Explore Phase: ...
  • Adapt Phase: ...
  • Close Phase:
3 days ago

What are agile principles give five examples? ›

The 12 Agile Principles: What Are They and Do They Still Matter?
  • Early and Continuous Delivery of Valuable Software. ...
  • Embrace Change. ...
  • Frequent Delivery. ...
  • Business and Developers Together. ...
  • Motivated Individuals. ...
  • Face-to-Face Conversation. ...
  • Working Software. ...
  • Sustainable Development.
3 Jun 2021

What are 4 values and 12 principles of Agile? ›

Four values of Agile

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 are the 10 key characteristics of an agile project manager? ›

  • Customer Satisfaction. As an article for CIO points out with Agile project management, customer satisfaction is always the number one priority. ...
  • Fast Delivery Times. ...
  • Continuous Adaptation. ...
  • Focus on Collaboration. ...
  • Greater Transparency. ...
  • Test Early and Often. ...
  • One Step at a Time. ...
  • Self-Motivated Workforce.
3 Jun 2019

What are the 11 elements of scrum? ›

The Elements of Scrum
  • The Product Backlog.
  • The Sprint Backlog.
  • The Increment.
  • The Sprint Goal.
  • Definition of Done.
  • The product vision.
  • The Burn-Down Chart.
3 Jan 2020

What are the 4 pillars of Scrum? ›

These events work because they implement the empirical Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation.
  • Transparency. ...
  • Inspection. ...
  • Adaptation. ...
  • Developers. ...
  • Product Owner. ...
  • Scrum Master. ...
  • The Sprint. ...
  • Sprint Planning.

What are the 5 Agile values? ›

A team's success with scrum depends on five values: commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect.

What are two key scrum roles? ›

Scrum has three roles: product owner, scrum master and the development team members.

What are the three main elements of Agile? ›

Here we highlight the 3 key factors that are most critical for all Agile project management methods.
  • Teamwork. Agile teams are typically divided into small groups called POD teams. ...
  • Communication. ...
  • Metrics-Driven.
6 Aug 2020

What are the 3 pillars in Scrum? ›

Understand Scrum

If you carefully scrutinize scrum, you will find again and again the three pillars of empirical process control: transparency, inspection, and adaptation.

What are the 8 stances of a scrum master? ›

As a Scrum Master, I'll try to be a servant-leader, facilitator, coach, conflict navigator, manager, mentor, teacher, impediment remover, and change agent.

What are the 6 steps in the Agile methodology? ›

What are the 6 steps in Agile project management?
  • Project planning. ...
  • Product roadmap creation. ...
  • Release planning. ...
  • Sprint planning. ...
  • Daily stand-ups. ...
  • Sprint review and retrospective.
18 Mar 2022

What is the first sprint in Scrum? ›

The first sprint

Your first agile sprint is a baseline and getting everything "right" isn't as important as getting the team to understand the general spirit of agile. The iterations are short so the team should be able to quickly gather feedback and continue to adapt and improve over time.

What are 4 levels of SAFe agile? ›

SAFe Full Configuration consists of four levels: Team, Program, Large Solution and Portfolio.

What are the 5 C's in project management? ›

The 5 Cs of managing projects, Complexity, Criticality, Compliance, Culture and Compassion, tell you how much and how often to do the things we do. There are five, they fit on your hand, and they go in order. The first three, complexity, criticality and compliance, are about the work, and that's where we begin.

What is agile project life cycle? ›

The Agile software development life cycle is the structured series of stages that a product goes through as it moves from beginning to end. It contains six phases: concept, inception, iteration, release, maintenance, and retirement.

What are 3 C's in user stories? ›

The Three 'C's
  • Cardi The Card, or written text of the User Story is best understood as an invitation to conversation. ...
  • Conversation. The collaborative conversation facilitated by the Product Owner which involves all stakeholders and the team. ...
  • Confirmation.

How do you remember agile principles? ›

12 principles of Agile development

So, always remember them in a short form: 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 customer's competitive advantage.

What are the 3 questions in daily scrum meeting? ›

During the daily scrum, each team member answers the following three questions: What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? Are there any impediments in your way?

What are 5 adapting requirements in Agile? ›

He introduces the five steps necessary for any successful agile transition, as expressed by the acronym ADAPT: Awareness, Desire, Ability, Promote, and Transfer.

What are the 5 attributes of a project? ›

  • i. Specific. The project must be specific. ...
  • ii. Measurable. A clearly defined project must be measurable in terms of its benefits and achievements. ...
  • iii. Achievable. A project will only be meaningful if it is achievable. ...
  • iv. Relevant. The project needs to bring relevant benefits to the entity concerned. ...
  • v. Time bound.

What are 4 values and 12 principles of agile? ›

Four values of Agile

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 are 6 principles of agile development? ›

Collaboration, open communication, trust and independence, efficiency, and continuous delivery are the foundation of agile and they can make a lasting positive impact almost anywhere in your organization.

What are the 5 Scrum values? ›

A team's success with scrum depends on five values: commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect.

What is 5S in Agile? ›

The 5S is a lean method for workspace optimization and one of the foundations of Kaizen. It consists of 5 consecutive steps that allow any team to organize their workplace for maximum process efficiency.

What are the 7 scrum artifacts? ›

The Seven Scrum Artifacts
  • Product Vision. The product vision is the long-term goal of the project or product. ...
  • Product Backlog. ...
  • Sprint Vision. ...
  • Sprint Backlog. ...
  • Definition of Done (DOD) ...
  • Product Increment. ...
  • Burndown Chart.
3 Mar 2022

What are the 3 artifacts in agile? ›

The main agile scrum artifacts are product backlog, sprint backlog, and increments.

What are the 5 lifecycle steps of an agile project? ›

The beauty of Agile is realized throughout a series of five stages, known as the software development lifecycle: Ideation, development, testing, deployment, and operations.

What are 4 agile Behaviours? ›

These include respect, collaboration, improvement and learning cycles, pride in ownership, focus on delivering value, and the ability to adapt to change.

What is the most important agile principle? ›

Agile Principle 1

“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” It's always been important to keep your customers satisfied.

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