[ska]

This is important. The idea that some sort of methodological silver bullet exists that will solve your projects problems "for you" is as pervasive as it is naive.

A big part of a good PM's role is knowing what approach is appropriate for which project(s) and knowing how to implement it practically with the team(s) they have.

[copsarebastards]

You've just described "individuals and interactions over processes and procedures".

The agile manifesto isn't the cluster fuck that Agile has become. Agile methodologies directly violate the agile philosophy, but that's no reason to pretend that we're just now discovering that methodologies suck. It's in the manifesto.

[munchbunny]

The difficult part of being a good PM in a team is that Agile is hard to do right with real humans. Even if it can be reduced to the Agile Manifesto, putting it in practice is difficult and takes work, time, and skill. The ability to consistently create good practices are what differentiates the good from bad PMs.

So while I agree with you that it does reduce to the Agile Manifesto, I'd also say that from a PM's perspective, that's not the point.

[ska]

What I've described are ideas that predate the agile manifesto, and are not subsumed by it.

[copsarebastards]

Of course the agile manifesto didn't arise ex-nihilo. But it's a much clearer, more concise statement of what you said.