Agile Principles (12 Principles)
The twelve Agile Principles are guiding statements behind the Agile Manifesto that describe how agile teams should operate, emphasizing early and continuous delivery of value, welcoming change, and sustainable development.
Explanation
The twelve principles expand on the four Agile Manifesto values and provide actionable guidance for teams. They address topics such as delivering working software frequently, maintaining a sustainable pace, harnessing change for competitive advantage, and promoting face-to-face communication. Together they form the behavioral backbone of every agile approach.
Key themes across the principles include customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery, welcoming changing requirements even late in development, delivering working increments frequently, close daily cooperation between business people and developers, and building projects around motivated individuals. The principles also emphasize simplicity, self-organizing teams, and regular reflection on how to become more effective.
For exam purposes, you do not need to recite all twelve principles word-for-word, but you should understand their intent and be able to identify which principle applies in a given scenario. PMI often tests whether candidates can distinguish between agile values and principles and apply them to real project situations.
Key Points
- •Highest priority is satisfying the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software
- •Welcome changing requirements, even late in development
- •Deliver working software frequently, with a preference for shorter timescales
- •The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams
Exam Tip
Focus on the intent behind each principle rather than rote memorization. Exam questions test application of principles to scenarios, not verbatim recall.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Topics
Agile Manifesto
The Agile Manifesto is a foundational document published in 2001 that establishes four core values and twelve principles for agile software development, emphasizing individuals, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change.
Self-Organizing Teams
Self-Organizing Teams (also called self-managing teams in the 2020 Scrum Guide) are teams that determine the best way to accomplish their work without being directed by people outside the team.
Servant Leadership
Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the leader prioritizes serving the team, removing impediments, and empowering individuals to perform at their best.
Most-studied PMP concepts
High-yield topics our learners drill most before exam day.
Burndown Chart
A Burndown Chart is a graphical representation of work remaining versus time in a Sprint or release, showing whether the team is on track to complete the planned work.
Relative Estimation
Relative Estimation is an agile technique where work items are sized in comparison to each other rather than in absolute units like hours or days, providing faster and more accurate estimates.
Sprint Review
The Sprint Review is a Scrum event held at the end of the Sprint where the Scrum Team presents the Increment to stakeholders, gathers feedback, and collaborates on what to do next.
Sprint Backlog
The Sprint Backlog is the set of Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint, plus the Sprint Goal and the plan for delivering the Increment.
Timeboxing
Timeboxing is the practice of allocating a fixed, maximum amount of time for an activity, after which the activity stops regardless of whether it is complete.
Resource Leveling
Resource leveling is a resource optimization technique in which adjustments are made to the project schedule to keep resource usage at or below a defined limit, often resulting in a longer project duration.
Risk Register
The risk register is a project document that records the details of individual project risks, including their identification, analysis results, response plans, and current status.
Stakeholder Mapping
Stakeholder mapping is the visual representation of stakeholder relationships, influence, interest, or other attributes using grids, matrices, or diagrams to support analysis and engagement planning.
Cost Performance Index (CPI)
Cost Performance Index (CPI) is an EVM efficiency metric that measures cost performance as the ratio of earned value to actual cost: CPI = EV / AC.
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Agile & Hybrid
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