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Agile Manifesto poster

· Quinn Daley
Agile Manifesto poster

Warning: 2.6MB image!

As a software engineer & manager, I’m a massive fan of the principles of Agile software development, as embodied in the Agile Manifesto.

I really believe software development and the interaction between software development companies and their customers would be radically different if more people adopted these four basic values and twelve basic principles.

But, somewhere in recent history, the word Agile has been hijacked by big companies and transformed into a synonym for iterative development. Now, while I’m a great believer in iterative development, it only works if it’s accompanied by the other principles of Agile development.

Principles that are often ignored by big-business management include:

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

and

The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

This sort of management interference has eroded the Agile concept so much that a search on Google for “Agile poster” turns up many instances of this monstrosity and many like it. Doesn’t really line up with the following principle, now, does it?

Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.

I searched high and low for a decent poster representing the Agile Manifesto and found not one.

So I made one. Specifically, I made one as a leaving present to give to my previous employer, who held the bastardized version of Agile development in such high regard.

If you work in the software industry and you’ve been exposed to poor development processes, do yourself and your employer a favour: Print this out. Put it on your wall at work. Make people think, and remind them that there is a better way to work.

Update: It looks like, in the time since I designed this poster and gave it to my former employer back in July 2010, the folks at DZone have had a similar idea. Good for them!

Update #2 (June 2015): The poster now includes the copyright declaration. Apologies for not including this before!