The Agile Manifesto in English - 4

Values

The four values of agile manifesto are modeled as comparative statements.  These comparisons introduces desired and less desired behaviors not the desired and not desired.

3.      Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Software development and maintenance is result of interaction among individuals. These individuals are not only part of development team but also customers and sponsors. 

Due to short and frequent feedback loops, development team as well as customers and sponsors have luxury to conduct lot of small experiments. We all know experiments fail. If there is no trust and collaboration, these small experiments will result in merry go round for lawyers. 

Most of these experiments fail but due to small size their impact is limited and due to small feedback loop, learnings are great. Any framework based on experimentation, quick feedback, and continuous learning requires trust and collaboration among sponsors, customers, and devTeam.

It does not mean that contract negotiation is not important. You need to make your lawyers also happy but negotiate for a win –win deal. 

Question to development and maintenance team: Can you have a happy customer with whom you are not collaborating?

Question to customer: Can you have a happy team which is delivering valuable software with whom you are not collaborating?