Agile was almost 'Lightweight'
Did you know Agile was almost called 'Lightweight'?
· Kent Beck · Martin Fowler · Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob) · 24-sec read
"a lightweight attending a lightweight methodologists meeting."
Before 2001, XP, Scrum, Crystal and similar methods were lumped together as 'light' or 'lightweight' processes, a label nobody liked. Alistair Cockburn said he didn't want to be "a lightweight attending a lightweight methodologists meeting." At Snowbird, Utah, on February 11-13, 2001, seventeen people wrote the Agile Manifesto; the only concern about the word 'agile' came from Martin Fowler, who joked that most Americans couldn't pronounce it.
Why it matters
Naming a movement matters: 'Agile' sold the same practices that 'lightweight' made sound flimsy.
Sources
High confidenceChecked October 20, 2026.
- History: The Agile Manifesto (agilemanifesto.org) agilemanifesto.org