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Empirical Process question

Last post 07:08 pm March 6, 2018 by Olivier Ledru
4 replies
06:11 pm March 3, 2018

As per the scrum guide it says that empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is known.

I'm a bit confused here, i read up many books on agile and everywhere it talks about this difference between defined process and knowledge work , it talks about how agile (knowledge work) is different from defined processes in which we already know the steps in advance and follow the same process each time (unchanging environment) , when they talk about empirism or knowledge work projects (Agile) they define empirism as a process of trial and experimenting and to check what works and ofcourse adapt and inspect ( Plan, do, check, adapt) ,this seems to contradict what the scrum guide says which sounds more like the defined kind where you follow or repeat what you know and make decisions on what is known.

Any opinions are appreciated.

 

 

 


06:29 pm March 3, 2018

Isn’t each Sprint an opportunity to experiment, to check what works, and to inspect and adapt?


07:53 pm March 3, 2018

Hmmm interesting, when i think of it like that - that each sprint is an experience and bringing in knowledge every increment which now in turn helps us make decisions now on what is known so inspecting what we learnt in the sprint and adapting the change then it kind of makes sense, but in the broader perspective of reading it and not thinking of it from a sprint point of view it still feels ambiguous.

 


02:38 pm March 6, 2018

I agree with your general feeling. Yes, Scrum is kind of rigorous. Yes, it does introduce some general, broad structure and makes agile less agile, on the other hand it still leaves a lot of room for experimentation, and provides a defined feedback loop that increases chances that you get valuable stream of value from still definitely agile work.


07:08 pm March 6, 2018

Empirism is a scientific approach, thus rigorous. It is not "do anything, any way and just watch"


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