{"id":15210,"date":"2014-09-23T11:12:07","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T18:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jamasoftware.com\/?p=15210"},"modified":"2023-01-12T16:55:59","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T00:55:59","slug":"rethinking-agile-manifesto-working-software-documentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jamasoftware.com\/legacy\/blog\/2014\/09\/23\/rethinking-agile-manifesto-working-software-documentation\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking the Agile Manifesto: Working Software and Documentation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is the seventh post in a series examining the changes that have occurred since the Agile Manifesto was published and the implications they have on how we might consider the Manifesto today. Find the first post\u00a0<a href=\"\/blog\/need-review-agile-manifesto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In 2001 the notion was that documentation should be replaced by working software. Of course, back then \u2018software\u2019 was a simpler concept. Certainly some was very complex, but overall, software products have grown greatly in complexity. The mindset at the time often was to document everything upfront, then go build, the result was that teams built the wrong thing.<\/p>\n<p>Alistair Cockburn, signer of the Manifesto, has spoken about the word \u201ccomprehensive\u201d and the decision to use it. According to Cockburn, this software term was highly debated. The creators didn\u2019t want people to think that documentation in and of itself was unnecessary because they did believe it was important. The intent was to call out <i>exhaustive<\/i> documentation as overkill.<\/p>\n<p>Today we have more complex software. We also have realities of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and continuous delivery. The idea of working software is much more of a reality. This does not change the importance of documentation. What does change is the idea of the word \u2018document.\u2019 A white board, sticky notes, wiki, or collaboration software, these are all documentation. This is a critical and necessary aspect of the process. The ability to respond to change, to interact, in fact everything the Agile Manifesto believes in relates to communication and collaboration around something &#8211; the ideas, stories, epics, and decisions written and made everyday.<\/p>\n<p><em>Read the next post in this series, <a href=\"\/blog\/rethinking-the-agile-manifesto-customer-collaboration-and-contract-negotiation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;Rethinking the Agile Manifesto: Customer Collaboration and Contract Negotiation.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<input class=\"fooboxshare_post_id\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"15210\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the seventh post in a series examining the changes that have occurred since the Agile Manifesto was published and the implications they have on how we might consider the Manifesto today. Find the first post\u00a0here. In 2001 the notion was that documentation should be replaced by working software. Of course, back then \u2018software\u2019 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[855],"tags":[12,146,158,149],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-15210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software-development","tag-agile","tag-agile-manifesto","tag-modern-agile","tag-rethinking-the-agile-manifesto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.1 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rethink the Agile Manifesto | Karl Wiegers | Jama Software<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Multiple part post on rethinking the Agile Manifesto by Derwyn Harris.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jamasoftware.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/23\/rethinking-agile-manifesto-working-software-documentation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rethinking the Agile Manifesto: Working Software and Documentation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Multiple part post on rethinking the Agile Manifesto by Derwyn Harris.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jamasoftware.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/23\/rethinking-agile-manifesto-working-software-documentation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jama Software\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T18:12:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-13T00:55:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Derwyn Harris\" \/>\n<meta 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