Values
Red Hook is based on an agile development philosophy that enables us to deliver flexible, scalable, quality software on time and on budget. How is this possible? By adhering to four values during software development:

Simplicity
In essence, we develop the simplest thing that could possibly work. A design can be sophisticated without being complex. The traditional method of adding features that might be used only adds to the development and maintenance cost of the software. The future feature should be added when it is needed, at a minimal cost because the existing design will be simple and understandable.

Communication
Problems with development projects can invariably be traced to a lack of communication. Focusing on best practices that require communication, such as unit testing, pair programming and task estimation, we can ensure that the communication channels remain healthy between the developers, managers and the customer.

Feedback
Concrete and rapid feedback is essential in a software project. The developers get feedback about the state of the system through their extensive unit tests; the customer gets feedback about the state of the system through the readily available running system that reflects the work to date. Access to this system is invaluable as the customer can provide immediate feedback on the direction the software project is taking earlier in the development cycle when it is less expensive to change the direction of the development.

Courage
Courage is important in an agile development process. Courage to explore a new direction; courage to admit a direction needs to change. Courage must be used in the context of the first three values however, because courage by itself can quickly degenerate into plain hacking.