Ignore The Agile Principles At Your Own Peril

Discover how Agile Principles can elevate leadership effectiveness. This article offers key insights for leaders seeking to enhance team dynamics and success.

Years ago in my Certified Scrum Master (CSM) training, the instructor emphasized the importance of the 12 Agile Principles. Really emphasized them, to the point of encouraging us to memorize and internalize them. I’ve always been struck by the importance that our experienced trainer placed on the Agile Principles.

While the 4 Agile Values are perhaps better known, the 12 Agile Principles are where the rubber hits the road so to speak.

Over the years I have come to see that those 12 Agile Principles are more about how agile teams work than anything else. While there are some aspects that apply to leaders and to the organization as a whole, I imagine that tailoring the principles to leaders, or creating a set of principles for leaders would have some value. After all, we definitely see a gap between the how leaders and managers show up and how we need them to show up.

What Are the Agile Principles?

The lesser-known Agile Principles were created at the same time as the Agile Values. They…