There??™s no such thing.
Agile development is a philosophy. It??™s a way of thinking about software development. The canonical
description of this way of thinking is the Agile Manifesto, a collection of 4 values (Figure 2-1) and 12
principles (Figure 2-2).
To ???be agile,??? you need to put the agile values and principles into practice.
Agile Methods
A method, or process, is a way of working. Whenever you do something, you??™re following a process. Some
processes are written, as when assembling a piece of furniture; others are ad hoc and informal, as when
I clean my house.
Agile methods are processes that support the agile philosophy. Examples include Extreme Programming
and Scrum.
Agile methods consist of individual elements called practices. Practices include using version control,
setting coding standards, and giving weekly demos to your stakeholders. Most of these practices have
been around for years. Agile methods combine them in unique ways, accentuating those parts that
support the agile philosophy, discarding the rest, and mixing in a few new ideas. The result is a lean,
powerful, self-reinforcing package.
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Don??™t Make Your Own Method
Just as established agile methods combine existing practices, you might want to create your own agile
method by mixing together practices from various agile methods.
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