Empiricism

About

From a theoretical perspective, Scrum structure is based on the empirical process control theory or empiricism and Lean Thinking.

Simple problems like moving a piece in a chest board are simple, because there are no variables, you can clearly see all the environment and everything is controlled. So you have 100% predictability.

In complex problems, things change, you often know what you want to do, but also know that the path to do that is not linear. You don't know all the variable.

So its like an autonomous car. It has to inspect the environment with its sensors, adapt to changes, and have transparency between its components, so they all can talk together.

Their 3 pillars are:

Inspect and Adapt

• Inspection characterizes the empirical Scrum nature of testing hypothesis.

• It is about planning and trying something, checking what happens, learning from it, and adapting. (Also known as PDCA Cycle)

• In Scrum, the artifacts and progress toward sprint goals must be frequently inspected.

• Whenever a deviation is detected outside the acceptable limits, adjustments must be made to the process itself.

• The four formal opportunities for inspection and adaptation:

  • Sprint planning.

  • Daily scrum.

  • Sprint review.

  • Sprint retrospective.

Transparency

• As the name implies, transparency is about having a common standard so that all the observers share a common understanding of what is being seen.

• Significant aspects of the process must be visible to those responsible for the outcome.

• Its point is to avoid miscommunication.

• In scrum this is implemented by having:

  • Events:

    • Sprint Planning.

    • Daily scrum reviews.

    • Sprint review.

    • Sprint retrospective.

  • Also implemented in the Artifacts:

    • Product Backlog.

    • Sprint backlog.

    • The increment.

• There are two keyword for this:

  • Ready:

    • Is used to describe that product backlog items are clear and detailed enough so that it can be reasonably done within the sprint time-box.

    • Some teams use the practice of Definition of Ready, which is a list of criteria that tells when a product backlog item is ready. (Not prescribed by the Scrum Guide)

  • Done:

    • Is used for everybody to know then a product backlog item or an increment is done.

    • Empiricism is prescribed by the Scrum Guide.

Scrum is also based on these 3 pillars.