The highest priority?

 "Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software" - What if it isn't? What if this "highest priority" is myopic?

Ultimately, the goal of every organization is to "survive and thrive."
In product development, we do this exactly by satisfying the customer.
And in software development, we do it in small bites - sooner is better, so that we have data on what's actually valuable.
All that said, the first Agile Principle is merely a means to an end.

I must highlight this because many agile teams - and organizations - aren't built to survive and thrive. They're built to deliver. Deliver earlier, deliver faster, deliver more. Focus on customer value. Ignore everything else.

The result? A dysfunctional organization that subordinates sustainability and growth on a personal and technical level towards the delivery of "business value."

And the result of that? Technical and organizational debt, which at some point incapacitate the delivery of value - people get fed up and leave. The real problems were never addressed, and when this realization hits, it's too late: the team is already broken beyond repair.

"Agile processes promote sustainable development." - they indeed should, but who reads the fine print, when the promise is all about more value faster?

"Doing Scrum" alone is no guarantee that you get sustainable development - not for the product or its technology, but also not for the organization. Organizational development is work exactly like product work. Indeed, the organization *is* also a kind of product. But Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches are often ill-equipped to develop an organization. They lack the competencies, and the mandate, to do so. And managers, whose role is to shape better systems, don't know how to deal with agile teams properly.

Instead of developing better systems, many companies struggle to maintain them while they're degrading and struggle to prevent the eventual collapse.

If that's you - don't despair:

I have summarized 9 principles in the TOP Structure that serve us in ensuring that everything important is considered, helping us avoid treading an unsustainable path:

You can find the official TOP guide here.

They don't replace Scrum or the Agile Manifesto, they focus and highlight the often-forgotten or underappreciated third pillar of "_Product_ _Development_ _Organizations_" - the organization.