Agile is now a widely adopted development philosophy and mindset. The famous Agile Manifesto has been widely circulated and translated into more than 60 languages.

This manifesto primarily presents certain values in software development that these pioneers considered more important, conveying a new philosophy different from traditional development approaches.

But what is the logic behind these proposed principles?

We should understand why such a manifesto exists; otherwise, while everyone claims to be practicing Agile, there’s some ambiguity, and sometimes people even create many processes, ceremonies, and various Agile tools in the name of Agile, ultimately coming full circle back to where they started.

Here, I attempt to understand the underlying logic and true purpose of the Agile Manifesto. By grasping this core concept, we can understand the essence of Agile.

Culture is the Core of Agile

The values promoted in the Agile Manifesto - individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, responding to change - are not specific practices but rather values.

And values are essential elements in establishing culture.

Any organization, when it reaches a certain stage, will begin to emphasize the importance of culture.

Because mature organizations, after standardized development and establishing mature systems, find that there are still many things that cannot be well resolved through systems alone. At this point, the hoped-for solution lies in the power of culture.

Agile emerged as a response to traditional development processes that heavily relied on procedures and systems. Based on numerous experiences and lessons where software development couldn’t succeed through processes and standards alone, Agile proposes to guide people in establishing the right software development culture at a cultural level, actively improving rather than denying the role of existing processes and standards.

So, the conclusion of this reflection is:

Agile is actually a mindset shift, a set of values for establishing correct behaviors in software development. While implementation methods may vary greatly, the essence is emphasizing that establishing correct development values is more important than specific processes and standards.

Culture is the Evolution of Systems

Understanding Agile as an effort to establish culture helps us understand the logic behind various Agile practices and advocated approaches.

Culture and systems are the pillars supporting an organization’s development. They both aim to guide organization members to do things correctly:

• Systems guide members through various written rules and processes. Following systems to do things is passively doing things correctly
• Culture works through gradual influence, with organization members sharing common missions, visions, and values, reflected in their behavior patterns. It’s actively doing things correctly.

What is Culture?

Culture is actually the behavioral patterns of organization members in practice.

Understanding corporate culture also includes elements like mission, values, vision, and strategy.

Their relationship can be summarized in the following diagram:

Coming back to Agile:

The Agile Manifesto represents values The 12 Agile Principles are implementation strategies The Agile vision, like all products, is to deliver value to users

Ultimately, what Agile hopes to achieve is establishing a new culture oriented towards software development.

Like water has no constant form and warfare has no constant conditions, Agile has no so-called standard practices. A team that aligns with Agile values, reaches consensus, and puts them into practice is an Agile team.

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