Seventeen developers frustrated with their industry's documentation-driven processes met at a ski resort and wrote a manifesto.
In February 2001, seventeen software practitioners met at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah to discuss alternatives to the heavyweight, documentation-driven development processes that dominated the software industry.1
The participants represented a range of existing "lightweight" methods, including Extreme Programming, Scrum, Crystal, and Feature-Driven Development. Over two days, they produced the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, a statement of values brief enough to fit on a single page.2
The manifesto's four values stated that the signatories had come to prefer individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan.2
Twelve accompanying principles elaborated the framework, emphasizing frequent delivery of working software, face-to-face conversation, and self-organizing teams.
The methods the manifesto unified had separate origins. Scrum, developed by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber in the early 1990s, drew on a rugby metaphor first introduced by Takeuchi and Nonaka in 1986, describing a cross-functional team moving together toward a goal.3
Extreme Programming, created by Kent Beck, emphasized pair programming, continuous testing, and short release cycles. The manifesto did not prescribe a single method. It established shared principles that practitioners of different approaches could recognize.
By the 2010s, Agile had spread beyond software into management consulting, marketing, human resources, and education. A 2020 survey by VersionOne found that ninety-five percent of organizations reported practicing some form of Agile development.4
The 42 School in Paris applies similar principles of iterative, self-directed learning to programming education.