The 5th value of Agile programming

If you develop software for a living, it’s likely that you have, at least once, seen the 4 values of the Agile Manifesto

- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

- Working software over comprehensive documentation

- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

- Responding to change over following a plan

Too often, I have seen these values interpreted that way :

F*** documentation, planning and [insert exacting task here], we are agile here !

As exaggerated as this may be, there are a lot of teams which use agility in a way that seems to completely ignore the following statement :

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

I call it the 5th value of Agile programming.

The idea behind the Agile manifesto is not to get rid of planning or documentation, but to use them in a more human centered framework.

Process, specifications or any tool that brings structure to a project should not prevail over the relation between the actors of the project. They should not be law if they lead to a deficient software.

Regardless, the Agile manifesto values them. It’s written in plain text.

Hiding between an Agile organization to avoid setting up any structure at all is closer to an excuse than a drive to do thing the right way.