What is Empiricism?

Empiricism (origin: Greek word Empeiria, meaning experience)- is a philosophy that human knowledge is based predominantly on experiences of the senses.

In Agile Product Development, empiricism primarily emphasizes using experiments to collect evidence (empirical data) to learn or evolve our understanding. These observations should then be analyzed, categorized, and valued based on existing knowledge. They will either prove the existing hypothesis or become the input to developing a new experiment.

The larger the experiment, the longer it takes to collect empirical data and the higher the risk of rework.

So agile approaches focus on rapid feedback (learn fast, learn often) loops accomplished using small experiments that enable faster collection, review, and learning from the results.

Experiences from every experiment guide the following experiment.

Essentially agile approaches are attempts at creating a stable closed-loop approach with the ability to self-correct.

The scrum framework, the most popular framework for ever-growing complex product development, is founded on empiricism and lean thinking.

Each element of Scrum serves a specific purpose and is crucial when generating value through adaptive solutions for complex problems.
Yet, the intention of Scrum is not to be framework compliant, but rather it is the starting point to evolve a way of working best suited for the team.

Scrum provides a launchpad for people, teams, and organizations to run small experiments, inspect the outcome, and continuously adapt toward the overall value and the way value is created.