Software development in the 1990s faced serious problems: projects were costly, late, and often failed to deliver what users needed. The dominant Waterfall approach was too rigid and slow to adapt to changing requirements. Many developers began experimenting with lighter, more flexible approaches. The turning point came in February 2001, when 17 software practitioners gathered at the Snowbird ski resort in Utah. Despite coming from different backgrounds and methodologies like Scrum, Extreme Programming, and Crystal, they shared frustrations with bureaucratic processes that prioritized documentation over working code. Together, they created the Agile Manifesto, establishing a common set of values that would revolutionize how software is built.^[1]

This wasn't just a technical shift, but a human-centered one that recognized software development as a creative, collaborative endeavor rather than a manufacturing process. Today, more than two decades later, these principles have become industry standards, proving their enduring relevance in building products that truly serve customer needs.