Presto Manifesto

Timing: 10 mins

Ingredients:

• Whiteboards and/or flip-charts
• Markers

Recipe:

Begin by defining what success on a software development project means. Is it only about being on time and on budget? What about customer satisfaction?
Divide the participants in to groups and ask them to, based on their project experiences, come up with a list of criteria that they have noticed as critical elements on successful projects.
Ask them to reach a consensus within their team and have each member sign off on the criteria they agree with.
Look for patterns between each team’s list and then discuss. Compare each teams list with the list that the 17 signatories of the agile manifesto came up with.
You will be surprised at the results, regardless of the participants experience with agile. You will rarely see any team come up with prescriptive practices and I have yet to come across a list that did not include customer collaboration, communication, and team dynamics.

Learning Points:

• The agile manifesto is a set of factors that are considered common on successful projects.
• These successful factors are not entirely new to our industry.
• The agile manifesto does not prescribe specific practices, reaching a wide consensus on these would be very hard.

Written by: Don McGreal on June 25, 2009.
Last revised by: Tim Yevgrashyn on November 22, 2011.