Empiricism

Author
Photo of Sohrab Salimi
Sohrab Salimi
Reading time
1 Minutes

Empiricism is a principle central to Agile and Scrum. Empiricism emphasizes that knowledge is gained through experience and making decisions based on what is observed rather than on theory or belief.

In the context of Agile and Scrum, empiricism involves adapting work based on the actual outcomes and feedback received from customers and stakeholders, based on feedback from previous iterations.

Empiricism has 3 pillars, which are also called the empirical Scrum pillars in the Scrum Guide:

  • Transparency: Showing things as they are, with all advantages and disadvantages. This means that there is no hiding of information, even if it is not what we want to hear or see.

  • Inspection: Asking the right questions. This is only possible when we have full transparency. Otherwise, we will ask the wrong questions.

  • Adaptation: Making the right adjustments or taking the right actions. This is only possible if the right questions have been asked; otherwise, we will make adjustments that do not help us achieve our goals.