Scrum has become a symbol of enterprise agility. Agility and scrum are often used synonymously. But anyone who does Scrum is not automatically agile, even though the framework can serve as a path to agility. Strict adherence to the Agile Manifesto’s values is much more decisive.

The article "Scrum: An Introduction for Developers" specifically deals with the rules of the game, events, and roles that agility equips in a framework. When companies think about taking the leap into agility, the discussion is usually first about frameworks, processes, and efficiency. Agility is often equated with Scrum, and other aspects that shouldn’t be neglected are pushed into the background. “If we do Scrum, we are automatically agile,” is what we often hear from companies’ management levels. But that is definitely not the case. Scrum is a powerful tool that can support a company on its way to agility. But knowing the rules, roles, and events and incorporating them into the daily software development routine is not enough to achieve desirable results such as efficiency, improved productivity, high-quality software, self-organizing teams, a better understanding of the target picture, and continuous improvement.

When aligning yourself towards agility, do not forget that while on the way, familiar and outdated structures and procedures will be questioned, and perhaps even broken up.

In order to make this transition as easy as possible and for the benefit of everyone involved, it is imperative that everyone from management to the development team have a common understanding of the agile values, anchoring them deeply in their mindset over time. When we talk about agile values, it’s important to distinguish between the four values of the Agile Manifesto and the five Scrum values (which are also often conveyed as agile values). This article focuses on the values in the Agile Manifeso.

Fig. 1: Agile values at a glance

In 2001, 17 thought leaders met, including Kent Beck, one of the three co-founders of the extreme programming method. He was in good company with Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, who shaped the Scrum process together in the nineties. The meeting’s goal was to explore better development opportunities, addressing the time lag between customer requirements and solution delivery in software that was ubiquitous in the ‘90s. During the meeting, they wrote down four agile values in the "Manifesto for Agile Software Development" (Fig. 1):

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

These values made an enormous impression and even today, they cannot be overestimated. But what do these values mean for development teams?

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

The first of the four values makes it clear that employees and the development team are no...