Empiricism

Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed (Most recent, Factual, Information).

Scrum is founded on the three pillars of Empiricism: Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation.

Transparency: Scrum artifacts create transparency of needed information. Transparency enables Inspection. Inspection without transparency is misleading and wasteful.

Inspection: Four formal Scrum events enable opportunities for inspection and adaptation. Inspection of the information enables to know if the actual resutls match or deviate from the desired results.

Adaptation: Four formal Scrum events enable opportunities for inspection and adaptation. If during the inspection, the actual resutls is found to deviate from the desired results, we can adapt the input, so the desired results can be achieved.

Benefits: Empirical evidence, grounded in factual data from observations and what has already happened, guides teams towards objective and informed decision-making. It minimizes the impact of personal biases and opinions, enhancing the Transparency, Speed and Effectiveness of the decision making process.

Examples: Decisions where empiricism can be used:

a) How many Product Backlog Items should the team pick in the next sprint? b) How much buffer capacity to reserve for unplanned work such as Ad-hoc requests, Production Issues, etc.?