OK, so you probably already know about the agile manifesto, and the story behind how it came about at the Snowbird ski resort in Utah back in February 2001. If you don’t, read up on the short historical context they included on their website.
The Manifesto for Agile Software Development
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
Independent Signatories
Did you know, however, that there were also independent signatories to the agile manifesto? From 2002 to 2016, anyone was able to submit their signature along with their reasons for support.
Although I had been using agile practices from 1997 (before we even called them agile), in 2008 I finally got around to signing up. I was the 6,688th signatory. Here’s my endorsement:
I am passionate in my support of the Agile Manifesto – for two key reasons:
- It is the only proven approach to change that delivers something quickly; allows rapid adaptation; involves the business throughout; and best of all the more it is used the more able organisations are to adapt to change.
- It is a vendor-independent (open source) approach that promotes discipline for rapid change (i.e. not cowboy/quick-and-dirty) and is supported by many software development and project management methodologies – including Scrum, DSDM, Lean, XP, etc.
Did you sign up to the agile manifesto? Whether you did or not, do you support it – and why?
Edit (September 2013): there are now 14,417 signatories, so it is growing at an even faster rate now.
Edit (July 2021): submission of further signatories was closed in 2016.
The link for sign the manifesto is out of order.
Thank you. Submission of further signatories was closed in 2016. I have updated the article to reflect this.
why was it closed in 2016?
Not sure, maybe there was a cost to maintain a submittable form that updated a web page.
What leads you to think that? Surely whatever the cost it was acceptable for many many years. Why would it suddenly become prohibitive? This very comment page incurs such a cost that is apparently acceptable.
I have another theory: that Agile has waned in its popularity/applicability with the rise of DevOps and the number of new signatories has diminished. Agile Evangelicals may prefer the world not see that?
Interesting theory. At the point it got switched off, it was still receiving several independent signatories every day, so I’m not sure that was the reason. Indeed, I am still seeing organizations adopting agile ways of working today.
To be honest, I don’t know, that was just my first thought.
However, I do recall a discussion about the manifesto website becoming an historical artifact, with Jeff Sutherland saying that neither he nor any of the authors wanted to change it any more. Perhaps that’s the point at which it became static HTML.