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Agile Principles form the foundation of Agile methodologies, emphasizing flexibility, collaboration, and customer-centric development. Key principles include prioritizing customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery of valuable software, welcoming changing requirements even late in development, and delivering working software frequently. Agile encourages close, daily cooperation between business stakeholders and developers, building projects around motivated individuals, and promoting sustainable development. The principles also highlight the importance of simplicity, self-organizing teams, and regular reflection on how to become more effective, fostering an environment of continuous improvement and responsiveness to change.

Scrum principles are the foundation on which the Scrum framework is based. The principles of Scrum can be applied to any type of project or organization, and they must be adhered to in order to ensure appropriate application of Scrum.

The aspects and processes of Scrum can be modified to meet the requirements of the project, or the organization using it, but Scrum principles are non-negotiable and must be applied as described in the framework presented in A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK® Guide). Keeping the principles intact and using them appropriately instills confidence to the user of the Scrum framework with regard to attaining the objectives of the project.

• Empirical Process Control—This principle emphasizes the core philosophy of Scrum based on the three main ideas of transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Empirical process control aids learning through experimentation, especially when the problem is not well defined or when there are no clear solutions.
• Self-organization—This principle focuses on today’s workers, who deliver significantly greater value when self-organized, and this results in better team buy-in and shared ownership; and an innovative and creative environment which is more conducive for growth.
• Collaboration—This principle focuses on the three core dimensions related to collaborative work: awareness, articulation, and appropriation. It also advocates project delivery as a shared value-creation process with teams working and interacting together, as well as with the customer and other business stakeholders, to deliver the greatest value.
• Value-based Prioritization—This principle highlights the focus of Scrum to deliver maximum business value, from early in the project and continuing throughout.
• Time-boxing—This principle describes how time is considered a limiting constraint in Scrum and used to help effectively manage project planning and execution. Time-boxed elements in Scrum include Sprints, Daily Standup Meetings, Sprint Planning Meetings, Sprint Review Meetings, and Retrospect Sprint Meetings.
• Iterative Development—This principle defines iterative development and emphasizes how to better manage changes and build products that satisfy customer needs. It also delineates the Product Owner’s and organization’s responsibilities related to iterative development.

Scrum principles are the core guidelines for applying the Scrum framework and should mandatorily be used in all Scrum projects. The Scrum aspects and processes, however, can be modified to meet the requirements of the project or the organization on a project to project basis by the Scrum Core Team.