For todays ATQ I did not receive any quiz about agile. One of the things I do as a coach (I did not learn it from Lyssa Adkins but she made me aware of it.) is when a teams is stuck, I ask them to go back to the agile manifesto. Read the first page and read principle page and see if we can find an answer in there for our problems.
So I thought why don’t I do the same thing for my problem here. Why don’t I open the mainfesto and see if I see a sentence about which I can create 4 questions.
I looked. And I saw 4 statements.
Do I(we) really know the statements that well? Try to select the right 4 sentences without going back to the manifesto.
- Statement 1:
1) Individuals and processes over interactions and tools
2) Interactions and processes over individuals and tools
3) Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
4) Individuals and tools over processes and interactions
5) Processes and tools over individuals and interactions
6) Interactions and tools over individuals and processes
- Statement 2:
1) Working software with lots of documentation
2) Working software over comprehensive documentation
3) Working software with as little documentation as possible
4) Working software without documentation
5) Well-crafted software over comprehensive documentation
6) Well-crafted software over working software
- Statement 3:
1) Productive partnerships over customer collaboration
2) customer collaboration over contract negotiation
3) Productive partnerships over contract negotiation
4) customer partnerships over contract collaboration
5) customer partnerships over contract negotiation
6) Productive contracts over negotiation collaboration
- Statement 4:
1) Creating a plan over following a plan
2) Following a plan over constant changes
3) Responding to change over following a plan
4) Steadily adding value over responding to change
5) Responsive changes over perfect plans
6) Planning for changes over following responsivenes
19 comments on “The Agile Thursday Quiz: the agile manifesto”
Let’s see if my brain works today:
3977182
(The answer is revealed by dividing the number by 1234)
lovely way Marcin to make sure people can answer on their own if they want …
y
Hi Yves, I to revisit the agile manifesto when I’m feeling pain on a project. It’s never yet failed!
3300352
(to keep in line with Marcin – divide by 1024)
1st statement – 3
Hmmm, for the 2nd statement, none of them looks like an exact match, I’ll go with 2
Same for statement 3, I thought it was just generally collaboration over contract negotiation, will go with 2
Statement 4 – 3
Now I’ll go read the other comments – I didn’t want to cheat!
3
2
2
3
🙂
Curious.
Looks nothing like the Agile Manifesto what says something loike “We are finding better ways to do the software stuff by doing it and charging lots of money for training.”
After which I think there was a status report… “So far we have come to push relentlessly…”
And the answers are…
5 (sponsored by IBM and Rally)
6 (Sponsored by developers all over)
6 (Sponsored by the Agile Alliance)
2 (For the developers of UK Govt IT)
With a serious offset of ( -2, -4, -4, +1 ) to win a prize!
Chris,
I agree with Lisa here. I still think the manifesto is valuable. yes I know of people who misuse it. but some people use knives to kill other people, I have no intention of doing so and I trust my family to do the same. So we have lots of knives at home. (for clarity eating knives)
about the abuse, is it the manifesto or the methodologies that are misused?
Y
LOL, Chris, you are funny. But some of us still are able to follow the manifesto without cynicism!
The answers that match Manifesto from the above 4 statements in order are:
3
2
2
3
These are generally accepted answers but are disputed in some quarters and are not literally followed. In many opinion they are guidelines and should not have to be followed to the letter.
Hi Mohinder,
I agree that methodologies should only be guidelines, for the agile manifesto I have never heard that it should be a guideline. (what I did hear about xp, scrum, dsdm, kanban etc)
“Should not be followed to the letter”
this is funny as responding to change is part of the manifesto, so if you are adopting to the situation, you are following the manifesto.
I can see that people use the principles as guidelines. Yet for the first page, I yet have to come across a situation were it the first page is not applicable.
3
2
2
3
Although I wonder if the statements would be the same if they were created today (but with the knowledge of the past 10 years)
I consider first two principles hold good ground in most situations but even the meaning of ‘working software’ can be screwed. Does one mean working software or defect free software? Individual and interactions over processes and tools is not true in many organisations I have come across. Customer collaboration is essential for the success of the project but it is not always present in many cases although the balance is slowly shifting. Responding to change has always something I believe results in conflicts and friction among team members and the management. In short, the principles are sound but suffer from resistance from some experts joining Agile bandwagon without shedding their political bias with waterfall. I don’t know whether it resembels with the the statement,”They are wearing emperor new clothes”.
Hi Mohinder,
I understand that applying these ideas is difficult in lots of companies.
That does not mean it is wrong.
All companies I have seen that have trouble implementing one of these four, would benefit a lot if they implement it.
That is why I say that these four statements are still valid in all the companies I have seen.
y
If we take a look at the first value; would the need for an ATQ be a focus on the left or the right side of the statement?
BR
Morgan
I don’t understand the question.
The quiz is about the full statements.
Does this answer your question?
y
You wrote you had a problem coming up with an ATQ and that you turned to the manifesto looking for an answer. My point was that if the answer is in the values of the manifesto, one possibility could be that the wish for upholding the ATQ is a focus on process. (This was perhaps more meta than you intended though). 🙂
BR
Morgan
Ah now I understand. Cool question.
For me it’s a left side part. I as a person want to have an ATQ published every thursday.
Because I know that people expect it. It is my choice to respect that expectation.
There is no contract between me and my readers
There is no documentation of the process (except in the name ATQ)
I can see that other people would call this a process.
For me it’s not.
But your remark is fabulous. It makes me see why other people might hold on to what I would call a proces and they see it as something personal.
y
I appreciate your ATQ’s and I certainly don’t want you to give them up but I wouldn’t feel let down if you had to skip a Thursday to promote quality instead of quantity. Otherwise I’d say that process has taken over. Now, for me this quiz turned out to be quality as well so all’s good so far. 🙂
BR
Morgan
Thanks for the feedback.
Yes I want quality above quantity.
At the same time I am harder on myself then on others.
I selected people I respect a lot to ask questions for ATQ. Untill now I have never edited what they wrote.
and yes I sometimes don’t agree with everything they write or the style they do it. And that’s fine for me.
I was not sure about this quiz as it looked like a stupid idea at first, but when I finished I realized it was important.
nevertheless that feedback was good to read.
y