1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• In the past, majority of software teams concentrated on having the best possible tools or processes to build their software
• The Agile Manifesto suggests that while those things are important, the people behind the processes are even more important
• This is because people are responsible for business needs and drive the development process
• Tools or processes are unable to meet customer needs always or be responsive to changes
• Having the right group of individuals in the software team is vital to the success
• Communication is the key
• People are informed on changes or business needs via communication
• The interactions between team members greatly help to collaborate and solve any problems that arise.
• It is important to have a product owner who works and can make decisions in collaboration with the development team

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Previously, software developers spend ages creating detailed documentation. This is even starting writing a single line of code
• Traditional project management involved comprehensive documentation which entailed a lag of months
• Technical specifications, technical requirements, technical prospectus, interface design documents, test plans, documentation plans, and approvals required for each. The list was extensive and was a cause for the long delays in development
• Many of the documentation was not even referred to during the project progress
• Agile does not eliminate documentation, but it streamlines it in a form that gives the developer what is needed to do the work without getting bogged down in minutiae.
• Agile documents requirements as user stories, which are sufficient for a software developer to begin the task of building a new function.

3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Negotiation means that the details are still being captured and have not been finalized
• Collaboration implies that there is still room for discussion and the communication is ongoing
• The team has the capability to do a course correction if required at an earlier stage
• This also helps the client to refine their vision and redefine their requirements if required during the course of the project
• Traditional software development models involve the customer before the development begins during the documentation and negotiation phase, and they are not as involved during the project development
• Once the requirements have been frozen, customers get to see the final product only
• Agile breaks through this barrier by allowing for customer involvement over the whole lifecycle
• Agile methods includes the customer at intervals for periodic demos
• Agile team could have an end-user as a daily part of the team and attending all meetings, ensuring the product meets the business needs of the customer
• Product owner can assist the team in real time for clarifications and aligning the work with the customer priorities to achieve high customer collaboration