What is our manifesto?

[Dave Rooney]

Welcome!

We all know that every self-respecting movement needs a manifesto.
So, what should ours be? The discussion we had at ACCCA was around
returning to the roots of the original Agile Manifesto, whose Values
and Principles have stood the test of time reasonably well.

However, in 2012, what do we value? I'll start with one...

"We value continuous improvement over following the rules."

The idea is that the rules of a process such as XP or even Scrum are a
good starting point, but one needs to determine what works best in
each person's/team's/organization's context. It's about maximising
business outcomes, not just ploughing through a backlog!

What else do we value?

Dave...

[Mikeeedwards]

How about:

"We value proven ability over certifications."

Mike Edwards

[Tracee Personal]

I saw an interesting news piece tonight.  Recent stats show that more and more employees are choosing jobs that they enjoy and that are stable over salary.  

Money does not equal happiness!  

Maybe we start by creating some standards/ guidelines that help us honor the purity of what agile was meant for, while also shielding us from all the stuff that seems to be clouding things.  We need a way to measure that we are staying on the light side of the force.

Best regards,

Tracee

Sent from my iPhone

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[Michael Montcalm]

Basing it off of one of the four from the original manifesto. I'm still working on the wording (alternate options below the first). We value:

"Concrete solutions over temporary ones."

"Permanent/Concrete/Working solutions/products over temporary/Band-Aid/quick-fix ones/fixes/answers."

I'm also wanting to distance the philosophy from software, as these values should stand whether we're building a car, making software, or doing road work.

~Mike M

On Saturday, June 23, 2012 3:03:02 PM UTC-4, Dave Rooney wrote:

[Dave Rooney]

Hey Mike,

On 12-06-25 9:33 AM, Michael Montcalm wrote:

Basing it off of one of the four from the original manifesto. I'm still working on the wording (alternate options below the first). We value:

"Concrete solutions over temporary ones."

"Permanent/Concrete/Working solutions/products over temporary/Band-Aid/quick-fix ones/fixes/answers."

What term could we use instead of 'concrete' that implies resilience and longevity but doesn't imply 'difficult or expensive to change'?  *I* know what you mean by concrete, but others may not. ;)

I'm also wanting to distance the philosophy from software, as these values should stand whether we're building a car, making software, or doing road work.

Understood.  I'll jump on board that idea once we have the software problem solved. :)  Seriously, though, that's a great long-term goal.  I wonder if it bites off too much at once, though.

Dave...

~Mike M

On Saturday, June 23, 2012 3:03:02 PM UTC-4, Dave Rooney wrote:

Welcome!

We all know that every self-respecting movement needs a manifesto.
So, what should ours be?  The discussion we had at ACCCA was around
returning to the roots of the original Agile Manifesto, whose Values
and Principles have stood the test of time reasonably well.

However, in 2012, what do we value?  I'll start with one...

"We value continuous improvement over following the rules."

The idea is that the rules of a process such as XP or even Scrum are a
good starting point, but one needs to determine what works best in
each person's/team's/organization's context.  It's about maximising
business outcomes, not just ploughing through a backlog!

What else do we value?

Dave...

--

[Michael Montcalm]

After chewing the words Concrete, longevity, resilient and other through a thesaurus, the word I think will fir best is: Enduring.

We value: Enduring solutions over temporary ones.

Do you have a suggestion for the word "ones?" I'd like something a bit more explicit.

I'll post the edit to mine on the group.

Cheers,

~Mike

P.S I'm currently rewriting the values and principles in my notebook in front of the keyboard! To test that it's software neutral/decoupled, I try to see if it holds equally for both software and road construction (as it is construction season in Ottawa). 

--

--
Michael Montcalm, M.A.Sc. B.A.Sc.

School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE), University of Ottawa
Tel: (613) 562-5800 ext. 2189
Office: SITE4009
Email: mmon...@site.uottawa.ca
Research Group: carg.site.uottawa.ca

[Michael Montcalm]

Hi Tracee,

That makes me think of "Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation." We may be able to combine the two into something like "we value satisfying the customer over stuffing our wallets." It's rough, I know, but it can be refined. We need a more experienced wordsmith in this thread! Anyone know an English major?

Cheers,

~Mike

[Dave Rooney]

Steve Denning already has a term for that: Customer Delight. Have a
look here:
http://www.stevedenning.com/slides/SaltLakeCityDelightingCustomerAug2011.pdf

I'm not sure how to word it, but working from the perspective of
delighting your customer will result in revenue organically, rather than
trying to sniff out cash like a bloodhound. Not everyone agrees with
that, but I lived by that principle as an independent consultant for 17+
years!

Dave...

> --

[Tracee Personal]

Yes, agreed. I like the wording of the manifesto. I ficus on creating the agile-lean sermon which provides clarity between agilist talking and agilist being

Best regards,
Tracee

Sent from my iPhone

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[Tracee Personal]

Sorry, I sent that a little too fast!! iPhone typos won this time!!

I like simple words

"Sharing over selling" is easy to understand. Selling is important but sharing is key!!

Best regards,
Tracee

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 25, 2012, at 10:13 AM, Dave Rooney <davero...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Michael Montcalm]

 Maybe "We Value: Customer Delight over Immediate Income"?

~Mike 

[Michael Montcalm]

I've put up a list of the originals and changes/additions that have been put in this thread so far. I’ve also added a few suggestions to the remaining original ones that I’ve been chewing over at lunch:

Originals. We Value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 
• Responding to change over following a plan 

Current changes. We Value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software Enduring solutions over comprehensive documentation temporary fixes (modified by Dave and Mike M)
• Customer collaboration delight over contract negotiation immediate income (modified by Dave, Tracee and Mike M)
• Responding to change over following a plan 
• Continuous improvement over following the rules (added by Dave)
• Proven ability over certifications (added by Mike E)

Potential Suggestions. We Value

• Individuals and interactions Collaborative communication over processes and tools indirect interpretation (suggested by Mike M)
• Explanation: Work together and talk to each other (the face-to-face mentality) instead of sending emails or documentation back and forth trying to solve an issue.
• Responding to change Important solutions over following a plan convenient work (suggested by Mike M)
• Explanation: Don’t solve the easy problems first. Solve the ones that are most important (to the customer). 

(Hopefully the formatting doesn't go all wonky as I did this in word).

Cheers,

~Mike