Software development is a tough process. It starts off by identifying and understanding what the user/client needs, and ends by deploying a solution that may, or may not, satisfy the user. During this journey, a group of Homo sapiens work together, organize teams, conceive plans, define tasks, rules and tools. They spend time and effort specifying, designing, programming, testing, documenting, bug fixing, etc. and hoping that they will deliver on time.
Some of those sapiens groups outperform their peers, and manage to provide high quality solutions on time. Other groups fail to deliver any solution, and waste their effort, time and resources in vain. Successful software developers (at least some of them) decided to help the others with their skills, by teaching them how they are doing Software development. This is why, on February 11th – 13th, 2001, at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch mountains of Utah, USA, seventeen Homo sapiens met to talk, ski, relax, and try to find common ground—and of course, to eat. What emerged was the Agile Software Development Manifesto.
Agile is a Software development mindset that embraces change. It is neither a process nor a model, but rather a set of values and principles. It is a flexible approach for Software development, that helps organizations to adapt fast to the market change.
Processes and documentation are important, but not the main concern in Agile mindset.
Agile Values
Agile software development values:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, the items on the left are more valued.
Agile Principles
- The highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
- Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
- Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
- Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
- Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
- The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
- Working software is the primary measure of progress.
- Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
- Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
- Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.
- The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
- At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Agile Practices
As discussed above, we cannot talk about Agile process or Agile model, we rather talk about Agile Practices : proven practices to organize teams, manage workflow, track progress and deliverables, etc. so that Software projects are conducted the Agile way.
The most popular Agile practice is Scrum, which is often mistaken for Agile. There exist several other practices that apply Agile principles: Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), Crystal, Lean, Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Feature-Driven Development (FDD), and so on.
Which Agile practice to apply to your project ?
You may pick one Agile practice, or combine two or more. You may create your own practice. You need to adopt the practice that is best suited for your project in terms of resources, market, organization culture, etc.
Being Agile means that teams and management share the same values and principles of the Agile Manifesto. How you apply them is up to you.
References
mohamadkoteich.org 
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