Agile Manifesto Values Health Check

What are the 4 values of the Agile Manifesto?

The Agile Manifesto

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.

Source: Authors of the The Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto is a set of values that aim to guide the way agile teams work. It was authored by 17 independent software practitioners. After much deliberation over the way software should be developed, they signed off on these values. These concepts quickly spread beyond them and have become a more universal set of working practices. This is also supported by 12 agile principles. The goal is to help teams build and deliver successful and use products that meet customer expectations by delivering value on a continuous basis.

This health check asks the team to indicate where they feel the team currently stands on these value statements. For example, do they respond to change, or do they lean more towards following a plan. You can then see where you stand on each value and talk through what it means for your team.

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Understanding the 4 Values of the Agile Manifesto

One of the key things to understand is that each aspect of the manifesto is not mutually exclusive. That is to say, you still need documentation as well as working software. There must still be structure and a plan, as well as the flexibility and capacity for the team to respond to change in a timely manner. Similarly, the team still needs resources, processes and tools to work well but that should not be in lieu of personal communication.

Running this health check surfaces where the team’s preferences currently lie and how it might be impacting their work.

How to create a Health Check in TeamRetro

Start Health Check

Your template is ready to go
Under Health Checks, select the health check you’d like to complete. Decide if you want to survey the team anonymously, using aliases or openly.

Invite Participants
Invite your team wherever they are.
Invite by a unique and secure code, email address, share a link, use a QR code or post to your Slack channel. They can use their phone, tablet or PC.
Health Check Survey
Survey the team independently and efficiently
Ask the team to reflect and rate along each dimension from happy to unhappy. You’ll see when everyone has finished. Use the in-built timer to keep things on track.
Grouping of ideas after brainstorming in a retrospective meeting

Reveal and discuss the results

Your health check data is displayed showing the average response and tally of each response. Sort dimensions by most positive, negative or mixed responses to make discussions more meaningful.

Grouping of ideas after brainstorming in a retrospective meeting

Keep conversation on track with Presentation Mode
Switch to presentation mode to sync devices making it easier to facilitate and focus conversations. Capture comments and actions along the way.

Grouping of ideas after brainstorming in a retrospective meeting

Review your action plan
Assign action owners and set due dates for new items and review prior actions. This action list can be tracked, shared or integrated into your other workflow tools.

Grouping of ideas after brainstorming in a retrospective meeting

Share the results
Great work, you are all done! Share the results with your team via email, download and print or publish to tools like Jira, Asana and Trello. Results can be tracked in your dashboard.

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