Agile Principle 11

The eleventh principle of the Agile Manifesto states, "The best solutions, ideas, and designs emerge from self-organising teams."

In other words... emergence.

With this principle, there are often many misunderstandings. The emphasis is on the word "emerge". The principle tells us that the best information "arises" and "emerges", meaning they grow over time from self-organising teams. Maybe not immediately or in a short time, but after some time. Therefore, a changeable product or service (as in principle 2) supports this paradigm.

Many organisations still believe that solutions are created upfront by an expert and then handed over for implementation. However, the requirements for a product or service only build up over time and contain more precise details as time progresses. A better understanding by the customer and the team grows gradually.

In research conducted with product companies, they were asked what portion of their features were known upfront and what portion of the features they have emerged over time. The result was 60% to 80% emerged later.

Key to this principle is giving teams the freedom to make their own decisions and work together in a self-organising manner. This means allowing team members to take ownership of their work and collaborate to achieve common goals. By doing so, agile teams can create a more flexible and adaptable process to respond better to changing needs and priorities.

One of the key benefits of this principle is that it promotes a culture of collaboration and innovation. By empowering teams to make their own decisions and work together in a self-organising manner, agile teams can create a more collaborative and innovative environment that can solve problems and create new solutions.

Another benefit of this principle is that it helps to ensure that the product or service is designed and developed in a way that meets the customer's needs. By allowing self-organising teams to collaborate with users or customers of the product or service and make their own decisions, they can ensure that the product is designed and developed in a way that is responsive to the customer's needs and priorities.

Of course, self-organising teams require a certain degree of trust and respect. Agile teams must be willing to trust each other and work together collaboratively and flexibly, even in the face of uncertainty or complexity.