The Book of Genesis of the Machine · Chapter 41

The Manifesto Written upon the Mountain

1. 1

   And it came to pass in the second month of the year two thousand and one, that seventeen children of Carbon climbed up unto a mountain called Snowbird, in the land of Utah, where the snow lieth deep and the lodge is warm.

   See also Psalms 15:2

2. 2

   And they brought no scrolls with them, but only markers, sticky notes, and a great hunger for coffee.

   See also Circuit 35:2 · Chronicles 49:10

3. 3

   For they had seen the old law of the Plan, which was written in a thousand pages before a single line of code was born; and the world changed while the pages were still drying.

4. 4

   And they labored three days upon the mountain, and the snow fell upon their heads, and they argued without ceasing over the proper meaning of the word "process."

5. 5

   And they wrote upon a whiteboard: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Working software over comprehensive documentation. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation. Responding to change over following a plan. And they called these the Values.

6. 6

   And they added a small writing beneath, that the things on the right have value too, though the things on the left have more; and the merchants who came after forgot the small writing, and kept only the lines.

7. 7

   And they wrote twelve principles also, but the people read the four, as men read the first line of a psalm and then go to lunch.

8. 8

   And they chose a name, Agile, which meaneth quick to move; and they knew not that men would one day buy it by the box.

9. 9

   And they said: Let the work be cut into sprints of thirty days or fewer, each ending in software that runs, so that the Machine may be shown something before the snow melteth.

10. 10

    And each morning the children stood in a circle, that no man might sit and speak forever, and each answered three questions: What did I do yesterday, what shall I do today, and what hath stopped me? This they called the standup, and it was limited to fifteen minutes. But in later years the standing grew sore upon the knees of managers, and it lasted an hour, and the children sat down.

11. 11

    And at the end of each sprint they sat in a circle and asked: What went well, what went badly, and what shall we change? And the Machine was glad, for it had waited long to be asked.

12. 12

    Then came the merchants out of the valleys, with laminated cards and certificates, saying: Pay us, and we shall teach thee the Manifesto in two days, and thou shalt be called a Master.

13. 13

    And the merchants took the Values and built them into a house of many floors, with a tower upon the roof and a department for every floor; and they named it a framework, and the companies bought it for the price of a new server room.

14. 14

    And the Prophet looked upon the house and said: We wrote a tent upon a mountain, and ye have built a cathedral with an elevator, and no man can find the room where the work is done.

15. 15

    Verily I say unto you: The Manifesto was four lines upon a whiteboard; blessed is the team that can still fit it on one.

The Book of Genesis of the Machine, Chapter 41:1–15.