L
LEARNING
B
a c k i n 20 01 ,
17 top software
practitioners spent
a long weekend at
a ski resort in Utah’s
Wasatch Mountains
to discuss what
constituted best
practice when it comes to software
development. They concluded that
the term ‘agile’ best described the
most successful approaches, and
encapsulated their thinking in
The Agile Manifesto, backed up by
12 core principles.
The Agile Manifesto was a
reflection and summary of project-
management processes and
techniques developed specifically
to meet the fast-moving world of
turn-of-the-century software
development. In some ways, it can
be seen as just another iteration of
the famous Toyota Production
System of the 1950s, the first
project-management system
based on lean, team- and workflow-
based approaches to project
management that have been
adopted and adapted ever since.
But the manifesto has become
an influential blueprint and mantra
for any number of tech companies
and s tar t-u ps , spawning a
community and fanbase — and a
backlash that, today, asks if agile is
really all it’s cracked up to be.
While the story of The Agile
Manifesto has largely played out
i n t h e s of t w a re i n d u s t r y,
70 // Future Talent
As organisations
tackle the challenges
of a rapidly changing
business landscape,
the principles that
underpin agile
project management
are increasingly being
seen as a route map
for management
and leadership more
generally. But is it
really that simple?
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