Agile Principle 7: Working Software

Let's take a look at the seventh underlying principle of the agile manifesto:

"Working software is the primary measure of progress."

What does that really mean? What are the implications for our daily business? Let's analyze this principle and see where this gets us.

• "Working software" - it does not matter how many modules, interfaces, and documents we have in progress. The only thing that counts is completed, fully functional pieces of the wanted product.
  Values: Commitment, Focus
  Principles: Quality, Active User Involvement, Build Integrity In
  Practices: Definition of Done, Acceptance Tests, Real Customer Involvement, Customer Tests, Product Demonstration
• "is the primary measure of progress" - no one is interested in the number of work hours, lines of code, or any other technical metric. Only done and releasable features are important.
  Values: Simplicity, Commitment, Feedback
  Principles: Business Value, Frequent Delivery,
  Practices: Incremental Deployment, Small Releases, Release Burndown, Product Demonstration, Measurements

To say it in two words, the seventh principle is about Working Software.



Also read in this blog post series:

• Agile Principle 1: Satisfy the Customer
• Agile Principle 2: Embrace Change
• Agile Principle 3: Frequent Delivery
• Agile Principle 4: Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Agile Principle 5: Support and Trust
• Agile Principle 6: Face-to-Face Conversation
• Agile Principle 7: Working Software
• Agile Principle 8: Sustainable Pace
• Agile Principle 9: Technical Excellence
• Agile Principle 10: Keep it Simple
• Agile Principle 11: Self-Organization
• Agile Principle 12: Inspect and Adapt