Agile guide · Agile foundations
When Did Agile Start? A Short History of Agile
Agile did not appear from nowhere in 2001. The Manifesto gave a name to ideas that engineers and managers had been developing for decades: build in small steps, learn from each one, and let the people closest to the work organise it. This short history explains where those ideas came from and how they spread.
Key takeaways
- Agile names ideas that existed long before 2001: iteration, Lean, empowered teams.
- The 1990s produced Scrum, XP, DSDM, Crystal and FDD.
- Since 2001, Agile has scaled to large organisations and spread beyond software.
Before Agile: iterative development
Iterative and incremental development was used on large engineering programmes as early as the 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile, much of the software industry adopted a sequential model in which requirements, design, coding and testing happened one after another. In 1970 Winston Royce published a paper describing that sequence, and it later became known as the Waterfall model. Ironically, Royce's paper warned that a purely sequential approach was risky and recommended iteration and early feedback.
Lean manufacturing
From the 1950s onwards, Toyota developed what became known as the Toyota Production System and, later, Lean thinking: eliminate waste, pull work only when it is needed, limit work in progress and improve continuously. Kanban boards and the idea of empowered teams that stop the line to fix problems both come from this tradition, and both shaped Agile.
The 1990s: lightweight methods
Frustration with heavyweight, document-driven software processes produced a wave of "lightweight" methods in the 1990s:
| Method | Origin | Key idea |
|---|---|---|
| Scrum | Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber; presented in 1995, inspired by Takeuchi and Nonaka's 1986 article on product development | Small self-organising teams working in fixed-length sprints |
| DSDM | UK consortium, 1994 | Fixed time and cost, flexible scope, MoSCoW prioritisation |
| Crystal | Alistair Cockburn | Process tailored to team size and project criticality |
| Extreme Programming (XP) | Kent Beck and colleagues, late 1990s | Engineering practices such as pair programming and test-driven development |
| Feature-Driven Development | Jeff De Luca and Peter Coad, 1997 | Planning and building by small client-valued features |
2001: the Agile Manifesto
In February 2001, representatives of these methods met at Snowbird, Utah. They disagreed on details but agreed on values, and they wrote the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. The word "Agile" was chosen at that meeting. Several of the authors went on to found the Agile Alliance to promote the ideas.
2000s and 2010s: from teams to organisations
- Scrum spreads through training and certification, and becomes the most widely used Agile framework. The first official Scrum Guide is published in 2010.
- Kanban for knowledge work is popularised by David J. Anderson in the late 2000s.
- DevOps and continuous delivery extend Agile ideas to deployment and operations.
- Scaling frameworks appear as large organisations adopt Agile: SAFe (first released in 2011), LeSS, Disciplined Agile and the Spotify model.
- Agile spreads beyond software into marketing, HR, finance and government.
Today and what comes next
Most organisations now use some form of Agile or a hybrid of Agile and predictive methods. The current focus is on business agility (making whole organisations adaptable), outcome-based planning, and using AI to speed up planning, reporting and analysis. Read is Agile the future of project management? for a closer look.
Frequently asked questions
When did the history of Agile start?
The term was coined at the Agile Manifesto meeting in February 2001, but the iterative ideas behind it date back to at least the 1950s, and frameworks such as Scrum and XP were in use during the 1990s.
Who invented Agile, according to Agile history?
No single person. Agile was defined by the seventeen authors of the Agile Manifesto, building on earlier work in iterative development, Lean manufacturing and lightweight software methods.
Where was the Agile Manifesto signed in the history of Agile?
At the Snowbird ski resort in Utah, USA, in February 2001, where seventeen practitioners met to discuss lightweight software development methods.
What came before Agile in the history of Agile?
Iterative and incremental development on engineering programmes, Lean manufacturing from Toyota, and 1990s lightweight methods such as Scrum, DSDM, Crystal, XP and Feature-Driven Development.
When was Scrum created in the history of Agile?
Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber developed Scrum in the early 1990s and presented it publicly in 1995. They drew on Takeuchi and Nonaka's 1986 article on product development.
Who created Extreme Programming in the history of Agile?
Kent Beck, working with colleagues in the late 1990s. XP focuses on engineering practices such as pair programming, test-driven development and continuous integration.
In the history of Agile, did Winston Royce invent the Waterfall model?
His 1970 paper described a sequential process that later became known as Waterfall, but the paper actually warned that a purely sequential approach was risky and recommended iteration and feedback.
How did Lean influence the history of Agile?
Lean thinking from the Toyota Production System contributed ideas such as eliminating waste, limiting work in progress, pulling work when needed and continuous improvement. Kanban boards come from this tradition.
Where did the name come from in the history of Agile?
The participants at the 2001 meeting chose the word to describe methods that could respond quickly to change, replacing the earlier label of lightweight methods.
When did Agile spread beyond software in Agile history?
From the 2010s onwards, marketing, HR, operations and other teams began adopting Agile practices, and frameworks such as SAFe and PRINCE2 Agile brought it into large organisations. See is Agile only for software.
What is the Agile Alliance's role in the history of Agile?
A non-profit organisation formed after the Manifesto was written to support the Agile community. It runs events and publishes resources about Agile practices.