Agile × Craftsmanship:
Authors, Signatories & Network Intersections
Both manifestos were historic declarations of intent. But understanding their relationship requires separating Authors (the drafting circles who convened in 2001 and 2008) from Signatories (the thousands who subsequently endorsed them online). This cartography maps the two movements across 27,601 SCM signatories, 19,090 Agile signatories, and Mike Hall's UGtastic interview archive.
Foundational Taxonomy: Authors vs. Signatories
A common fallacy in software history is conflating the individuals who authored a manifesto with the general public who later signed it. A person can be an author, a signatory, both, or neither:
- 17 Authors: Met in Snowbird, Utah to draft and sign the original statement. Most never entered their names into the subsequent public web form.
- ~19,090 Signatories: Community members who endorsed the text via
agilemanifesto.orgover the subsequent two decades.
- 9 Core Authors/Drafters: Convened at 8th Light in Libertyville, IL (Dec 13, 2008); drafted by Doug Bradbury ("The New Left Side", Feb 2009).
- 27,601 Signatories: The public ledger where the authors themselves took the first spots (#1 Doug Bradbury, #2 Corey Haines, #3 Paul Pagel, #4 Micah Martin, #5 Robert C. Martin, #6 David Chelimsky).
Disambiguating the Two "Dave Thomas" Figures
Two distinct titans of modern software engineering share the name Dave Thomas. Both were recorded by Mike Hall for the UGtastic archive, but their positions in the manifesto ecosystem are entirely different. Conflating them distorts both histories.
Dave "pragdave" Thomas
Agile Author (Snowbird)Co-author of The Pragmatic Programmer (1999), co-founder of The Pragmatic Bookshelf, and early champion of Ruby and Elixir. One of the 17 original Snowbird authors who created the Agile Manifesto in February 2001. Did not sign via the public web form.
Dave Thomas (Bedarra / OTI)
Agile Web SignatoryFounder of Object Technology International (OTI, creators of ENVY/Developer and the foundation of Eclipse), founder of Bedarra Research, and YOW! Conference founder. Signed the Agile Manifesto public ledger on page 5 under Bedarra Corp: "Software is built by people supported by tools..."
The 17 Agile Manifesto Authors: Cross-Ecosystem Matrix
How did the 17 Snowbird creators engage with the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto eight years later, and who appeared in Mike Hall's Chicago-era interview archive?
| Agile Author | SCM Authorship | SCM Signatory Rank | UGtastic Archive Presence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kent Beck | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Mike Beedle | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Arie van Bennekum | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Alistair Cockburn | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Ward Cunningham | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Martin Fowler | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| James Grenning | — | #411 (Hawthorn Woods, IL, USA) | Not in archive |
| Jim Highsmith | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Andrew Hunt | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Ron Jeffries | — | #27 (Michigan, USA) | 🎙 Visual Thinking in Agile: Chet Hendrickson & Ron Jefferie... |
| Jon Kern | — | #204 (Quakertown, PA) | Not in archive |
| Brian Marick | ✓ 2008 Summit Author | Not signed | 🎙 Conference Speaking And Presentation Skills: Mike Hall In... |
| Robert C. Martin | ✓ 2008 Summit Author | #5 (Green Oaks, IL) | 🎙 Filling the Vessel: Robert 'Uncle Bob' Martin on the Craf... |
| Steve Mellor | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Ken Schwaber | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Jeff Sutherland | — | Not signed | Not in archive |
| Dave "pragdave" Thomas (Pragmatic Programmer) | — | Not signed | 🎙 The Power of Unknown Knowns: PragDave Thomas on Intuition... |
The 9 Software Craftsmanship Manifesto Authors
Convened at the December 13, 2008 Summit in Libertyville, Illinois (hosted by 8th Light) and formulated in early 2009 by Doug Bradbury. Here is how the SCM founders connect to the Agile Manifesto and UGtastic archive:
| SCM Author | SCM Signatory # | Agile Manifesto Status | UGtastic Archive Presence |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Doug Bradbury
Co-Author & Principal Synthesizer of Software Craftsmanship Manifesto, SCM Signatory #1.
|
#1 (Chicago, IL, USA) | Not signed | Not in archive |
|
Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob)
Co-Author of Agile Manifesto (Snowbird 2001), Organizer of 2008 SCM Summit, SCM Signatory #5.
|
#5 (Green Oaks, IL) | ✓ Agile Author (Snowbird) | 🎙 Filling the Vessel: Robert 'Uncle Bob' Martin on the Craf... |
|
Micah Martin
8th Light Founder, Host of 2008 SCM Summit, SCM Signatory #4 (and #6648), Agile Manifesto Signatory, interviewed at SCNA 2013.
|
#4 (Libertyville, IL) #6648 (Charleston, SC) | ✓ Agile Signatory | 🎙 Community Building And User-group Organizing: Mike Hall I... |
|
Paul Pagel
8th Light CEO, Host of 2008 SCM Summit, SCM Signatory #3.
|
#3 (Chicago, IL, USA) | Not signed | Not in archive |
|
Corey Haines
Organizer of 2008 SCM Summit, SCM Signatory #2, founder of Global Day of Coderetreat, interviewed twice in UGtastic.
|
#2 (Cleveland, OH) | Not signed | 🎙 Cranking Design to 11: Corey Haines on the Global Day of ... 🎙 Fun with Lambdas: A Lambda Calculus Journey | GOTO Confer... |
|
Dave Hoover
Obtiva Founder, Participant in 2008 SCM Summit, SCM Signatory #15, Agile Manifesto Signatory, interviewed in UGtastic.
|
#15 (Chicago, IL, USA) | ✓ Agile Signatory | 🎙 The Apprenticeship Move: Dave Hoover on GeekFest and Deve... |
|
Michael Norton
Participant in 2008 SCM Summit, SCM Signatory #2299, Agile Manifesto Signatory, interviewed at SCNA 2011.
|
#2299 (Wadsworth, OH) | ✓ Agile Signatory | 🎙 Cleveland & Pittsburgh Community: Mike Hall Interviews Mi... |
|
David Chelimsky
Lead maintainer of RSpec, Participant in 2008 SCM Summit, SCM Signatory #6.
|
#6 (Chicago, IL) | Not signed | Not in archive |
|
Brian Marick
Co-Author of Agile Manifesto (Snowbird 2001), participant in 2008 SCM Summit, interviewed at SCNA 2012.
|
— | ✓ Agile Author (Snowbird) | 🎙 Conference Speaking And Presentation Skills: Mike Hall In... |
The Trifecta: Signed Both Manifestos & In UGtastic Archive
These practitioners signed both the Agile Manifesto and Software Craftsmanship Manifesto, and were recorded in Mike Hall's archive. Notice the pronounced low-signatory skew: almost all signed SCM during the 2009–2010 founding era.
Craftsmanship First: SCM Signatories Who Did Not Sign Agile
39 UGtastic interviewees appear in the SCM datalake but did not sign the Agile Manifesto web form. This cohort represents the developers whose primary alignment was with the Craftsmanship movement rather than Agile orthodoxy.
This dataset is compiled dynamically using bin/build_manifesto_network.rb in the repository root. It executes full-table extraction against the local DuckDB datalake, applies name variant expansion and disambiguation filters, strips Mojibake / control codes, and outputs Psych-validated JSON to _data/research/agile_scm_intersection.json.