by Rebecca Stevenson
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
It’s right at the top of the four values in the Agile Manifesto. Agility is first and foremost about people working together. The first step, before we can accomplish any work at all, is to see one another as individuals, as complete beings, with all of our complications and contradictions.
Agile development takes place in teams. In order to be a strong team, somewhat paradoxically, each member must first recognize the individual value of all of the other members. No two people have the same knowledge, the same skills, the same personal history, but they all have potential to contribute. Whatever HR calls them, within the boundaries of the team, the only thing that matters is that they are part of the team.
The strength of Agile lies in its embrace of human virtues like adaptability and a ready acceptance that not all things can be known–that no tool or process can tell us everything before we start, but that individuals working together can accomplish any task regardless. Given a goal, we will learn, build, or acquire what we need to achieve that goal together.
The first step is to recognize one another as equal.
Rebecca is a technical writer at an agile software company and manages content for the Women in Agile site. You can find her on Twitter at @QBF_Agile.
