What is Agile Manifesto? — UK Software Development Guide

4 min readJune 2025ClickMasters Technical TeamReviewed by James Whitmore, CTO
what is the agile manifesto

Direct Answer

The Agile Manifesto (2001) is a set of four values and twelve principles for software development, created by 17 software practitioners. The four values are: individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software over comprehensive documentation; customer collaboration over contract negotiation; responding to change over following a plan. The manifesto emphasises the "items on the left" are valued more, while acknowledging value in both sides.

Agile-manifesto in the UK

The Agile Manifesto underpins UK software development practice. The GDS Service Standard (which ClickMasters follows for public sector work) is directly based on Agile Manifesto principles — particularly "working software" delivered regularly and "responding to change." UK commercial software contracts must balance Agile flexibility with budget certainty: ClickMasters' fixed-price agile model delivers the benefits of Agile ("responding to change via formal change control") within predictable commercial commitments.

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