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Agile development is a way to create software through small, useful increments, close collaboration, frequent feedback, and adaptation. It is not one mandatory workflow or a promise that a project will be faster: the Agile Manifesto sets out values and principles, while teams choose a framework or working method that fits their context.
What agile development means
Agile development organizes software work so teams can deliver useful results, learn from them, and adjust as they go. Instead of treating an initial plan as fixed, an agile team keeps attention on customer value, working software, collaboration, quality, and the ability to respond to new information.
The Agile Manifesto is the source of the approach’s core values and principles; it does not prescribe a single process, set of roles, or toolset. Scrum and Kanban are two different ways teams may organize work, and teams can also use predictive or hybrid life cycles when those fit the work better.
The four values of the Agile Manifesto
The Manifesto says that it values the items on the left more, while still recognizing value in the items on the right:
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- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
This is a matter of emphasis, not a reason to abandon tools, documentation, contracts, or planning. For example, useful documentation and clear agreements can support delivery; they should not displace communication, usable software, collaboration, and sensible adaptation.
The principles that guide agile work
The twelve principles behind the Manifesto are easier to use as connected themes than as a compliance checklist. The full wording is available in the Principles behind the Agile Manifesto.
Deliver value and learn early
Make customer satisfaction a priority by delivering valuable software early and continuously. Deliver working software frequently, favoring shorter timescales, and welcome changing requirements—even late in development—when change helps provide customer value.
Collaborate and make work understandable
Business stakeholders and developers should work together regularly. The Manifesto favors direct conversation where feasible, because timely discussion helps people clarify goals, expose misunderstandings, and make decisions together.
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Build work around motivated people, give them the support and trust they need, and let them organize their work. “Agile processes promote sustainable development,” according to the Manifesto. Constant urgency, skipped testing, and accumulating avoidable technical debt are not signs of agility.
Use outcomes, quality, and simplicity to steer
“Working software is the primary measure of progress,” the Manifesto says. Teams should also pay continuous attention to technical excellence and good design, since those improve the ability to adapt. Simplicity—maximizing the amount of work not done—is another principle: avoid building features or process overhead that do not serve the outcome.
Reflect and adapt
At regular intervals, the team should consider how to become more effective, then adjust its behavior accordingly. Reflection matters when it leads to a concrete change, not merely a record of frustrations.
What the agile development process can look like
The following is a practical synthesis of the Manifesto’s principles and Scrum guidance, not a canonical process required by the Manifesto. Teams may combine, reorder, or adapt the activities to fit their work.
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- Understand the problem and outcome. Identify who the software is for, what need it addresses, and how the team will recognize useful progress.
- Keep a prioritized set of work. Describe candidate improvements, fixes, and requirements in a visible list; refine and reorder it as the team learns more.
- Choose a small near-term increment. Select work that can be designed, built, and tested in a short period, with a clear intended result.
- Collaborate through design, development, and testing. Keep relevant stakeholders and delivery roles in contact, surface questions early, and build quality into the work.
- Review working results. Show what works to stakeholders, gather feedback, and distinguish validated value from assumptions or unfinished work.
- Release or put validated value to use when appropriate. A review need not always mean a public release; use the result in the way that best supports learning and delivery.
- Inspect outcomes and the way of working. Look at user response, quality issues, bottlenecks, and team experience rather than relying only on activity or output counts.
- Adapt priorities and practices. Use what the team learned to decide what to build next and what to change about its process.
Scrum and Kanban: two different ways to organize work
Scrum and Kanban are not synonyms for agile. Scrum is a defined framework; Kanban, as described in UK Government guidance, visualizes and improves current working practices to help work flow. Neither is universally best.
| Aspect | Scrum | Kanban |
|---|---|---|
| How work is organized | A defined framework for complex work, with accountabilities, events, and artifacts set out in the Scrum Guide. | A way to visualize existing work practices and improve how work moves through the system. |
| Cadence and adaptation | Uses Sprints and associated events to support inspection and adaptation. | Focuses on seeing and improving work flow; the GOV.UK introduction does not prescribe replacing the team’s workflow with Scrum’s structure. |
| Useful question when choosing | Would a shared timeboxed cadence and framework help the team coordinate and inspect progress? | Would making current work visible and improving its flow help the team address delays or changing demand? |
The English Scrum Guide published in November 2020 is identified by Scrum Guides as the official current version as of October 3, 2026; version status can change. See the official Scrum Guide download page and The Scrum Guide.
Scrum terminology in practice
The Scrum Team has three accountabilities: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developers. Its events and artifacts support transparency, inspection, and adaptation. A Daily Scrum is an event for Developers to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt their plan; it is not a status report to a manager.
Kanban in practice
Kanban starts by making the current workflow visible, then uses that visibility to improve how work flows. It can be useful when a team wants to improve its existing way of working rather than adopt a more fully defined framework. For a general introduction to the distinction, see the UK Government’s Agile methods: an introduction.
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Keep the work tied to a user outcome
Start with the customer or user problem, and seek feedback while changes are still practical. A busy backlog is not evidence of value; the key question is whether the work improves the outcome people need.
Make increments small enough to inspect
Break work into pieces that can be completed and assessed in a short timescale. Smaller increments make it easier to learn from actual results and respond to changing needs than waiting until a large package is finished.
Make work visible and collaborate across roles
Give the people who need to coordinate a shared view of priorities, progress, questions, and impediments. Collaboration between business stakeholders and developers helps decisions stay connected to real needs.
Build quality in
Testing should be part of development, not a cleanup phase postponed until a deadline. UK Government guidance points to test-driven development and automated testing as ways to surface issues early. Teams should choose practices suited to their risks and systems while maintaining technical excellence.
Best Value
Turn retrospection into change
Use regular reflection to identify a specific improvement the team can try, such as clarifying a handoff or finding an earlier way to detect a defect. Revisit whether the change helped.
Protect sustainable pace and technical excellence
Plan work at a pace the team can maintain, and do not trade away design quality or testing for the appearance of short-term speed. The Manifesto explicitly connects sustainable development with continuous attention to technical excellence.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to choose an approach
There is no universal winner. PMI and Agile Alliance describe the Agile Practice Guide, 2nd edition, as covering agile foundations and fit-for-purpose selection across predictive, agile, and hybrid life cycles; Agile Alliance also describes its contents on the Agile Practice Guide, 2nd Edition page.
Before choosing Scrum, Kanban, a predictive approach, or a hybrid, consider:
- Cadence: Does the work benefit from a timeboxed cycle, or is continuous flow a better fit?
- Changing priorities: How often does urgent work arrive, and how disruptive is it to planned work?
- Feedback access: Can stakeholders review results regularly and make timely decisions?
- Dependencies: How much coordination is needed across teams, systems, suppliers, or approvals?
- Experience and constraints: What practices can the team and organization use consistently?
- Quality, risk, and release needs: What testing, assurance, and release controls are needed for the product?
Choose the approach that makes value, risk, and work visible while supporting reliable delivery. Reassess if the method creates more overhead than learning or fails to address the team’s actual bottlenecks.
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Quick Recap
Common misunderstandings
- “Agile means no plan.” Agile teams plan, but adapt plans as they learn.
- “Agile means no documentation or agreements.” The Manifesto values working software and collaboration more, but does not say documentation or contracts have no value.
- “Scrum is agile itself.” Scrum is one defined framework used to organize complex work; agile is broader than any one framework.
- “More releases automatically mean better results.” Frequent working software helps teams assess progress, but value, quality, and user outcomes still matter.
- “Agile guarantees faster delivery.” The principles support feedback and adaptation; they do not guarantee a particular schedule or performance result.
Sources and further reading
- Principles behind the Agile Manifesto
- Download the official Scrum Guide
- The Scrum Guide
- PMI Agile Practice Guide
- Agile Practice Guide, 2nd Edition
- GOV.UK Core principles of agile
- GOV.UK Agile methods: an introduction
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