The Origins of an Agile Workflow

In February 2001 at a secluded ski lodge in Snowbird, Utah, a conclave of computer engineers conspired to envision the future of their industry. United by a shared passion for innovative, flexible approaches to project management and a distrust of more traditional linear methodologies, they sought to codify their zeal into a digital manifesto, a succinct statement of values that would be seen and pondered by developers and IT professionals worldwide. Through days and nights of intensive discussion, fueled by equal parts coffee and hot cocoa, seventeen men explored the state of the software industry, comparing notes on their favorite workflow practices—from “Scrum” to “Lean” to “XP” (i.e., Extreme Programming)—and working to find a synthesis of principles that would capture the best elements shared by these innovative paths.

This synthesis, in turn, would serve to promote the dramatic changes they felt needed to be adopted and embraced by any software development team desiring to keep up with the ever-evolving realities of their field. Seeking more than to create another new project management method, they’d convened their wintry gathering to define a mindset, articulating the new order of thinking and working exemplified by dynamic approaches like Scrum and XP.

The Snowbird Accord that birthed the Agile Manifesto has taken on near-mythical proportions in certain software development circles. Handwritten notes from the historic meeting when the descriptive term “Agile” was agreed upon, along with printouts displaying the names and old email addresses of the chosen seventeen participants, are preserved and shared among developers and testers with a quasi-religious sense of awe. Within months of the gathering at Snowbird, a group of inspired converts gathered to form the Agile Alliance, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to promulgating the pithy wisdom contained in the manifesto. To this day, the Alliance continues to host conferences and educational events, spreading the values of Agile worldwide, and training business leaders, IT professionals, and software developers to employ its methods successfully in their work.