How Empiricism & Agile Provides The Foundation For Successful Value Delivery

Knowledge is the result of experience. This principle is the foundational thought for empiricism. Although in simplest terms, it involves learning by doing, principles of empiricism become critical while solving complex problems through adaptive solutions. Learning by experience and evidence becomes vital rather than mere logic driving the actions while working with these complex ideas.

Agile theories have empiricism at their core. For example, the agile manifesto’s focus on the working software as the primary measure of progress stems from the belief in empiricism. Likewise, Scrum, one of the frameworks that many Agile professionals and teams use worldwide, explicitly defines empiricism as the core principle.

Why Should You Learn About Empiricism In Details?

Empiricism is about setting the hypothesis or problem statements and then measuring the evidence against that theory. The implication of this approach is as follows;

1. The hypothesis itself needs to be valid and clear to everyone involved
2. The metrics against which the outcome is to be measured need to be clear for everyone involved

There are circumstances, though, when relying on empiricism may be too slow or too costly compared to the cost of an incorrect decision. Nevertheless, understanding empiricism in detail enables you to ensure that your efforts are meaningful and contribute to the progress optimally.

History of Empiricism

Empiricism is not a modern concept. The roots of this principle can be found in ancient Indian and Buddhist philosophies, followed by the works of Plato & Aristotle. In modern times, John Locke is considered the most influential empiricist.

Definition of Empiricism

Empiricism is defined, in simple terms, as the theory that attributes sensory experiences as the basis for knowledge. It establishes that unless experienced by one or more senses, we cannot ascertain a knowledge or belief to be true.

You can read a literary definition here.

It means that for the knowledge to reach us, it must be experienced by at least one of the five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. If the knowledge does not come with any sensory experience, then we cannot say if it is true or false.

Empiricism & Agile

Being responsive to change was the reason that gave birth to the agile approach to software development. The change can be a result of many factors;

1. The external business environment changes. These changes may be due to competitive factors, compliance requirements, technological evolution, or other incidences.
2. There may be internal changes, including changes in operating procedures, organization structure, or such.
3. Incorrect process/requirements articulation or understanding between stakeholders
4. Underestimating possible challenges or possible deviations down the road
5. Assumptions that get invalidated as time progresses and new information is uncovered

Differences In Stated And Actual Requirements And Processes

Despite their best intentions, people may not be able to provide accurate answers or descriptions of what they do, why they do it, and how they do it. The circumstance, organizational environment, or their own biases may contribute to this behavior. Additionally, they might be unable to recall every detail at the moment. Generally, there are differences between ideal and perceived processes and requirements versus the actions in practice.

You can’t uncover these deviations simply through discussions. Experiencing the working product is the best way to discover such differences and to get the feedback needed to ensure the following;

1. We are building the products and features that are indeed valuable.
2. We are building the products and features the way they would indeed be valuable.

The earlier we get this feedback, the earlier you will be able to correct the course if needed and ensure that your efforts are focussed on the most critical aspects of the product.

This early feedback is why agile focuses on short delivery iterations.

However, passively relying on user/customer feedback may not solve the problem. Observing the behavior and usage pattern may still reveal the gaps between the stated word and actual practice. Fortunately, there are plenty of user behavior analytics tools available. The information revealed by these tools further augments the user feedback to give you more objective feedback for your next steps.

Empiricism & Prioritization

The agile manifesto also mentions Simplicity (the art of maximizing the amount of work not done) as an essential element of agility. Empiricism in agile is present not only after you have done the work but also to decide what work should be done on priority and what work can be delayed or not done altogether, even if there is a stated requirement.

Both, Design Thinking and Behavioural design practices provide guidelines about how to implement empiricism in deciding the focus of your work. A video at the end of this article offers more commentary on these aspects.

Empiricism In Scrum

Scrum defines transparency, inspection, and adaptation as the pillars of empiricism. These three pillars cover the customer-facing product and the product development process. And to support such adoption of empiricism, Scrum creates events that formally allow for inspection and adaptation.

Daily Scrum is one of the most critical events to support empiricism. It allows the developers to adapt based on their experience every day. Small improvements or adjustments to their work and how they do it result in continuous improvement based on observable, tangible results.

Sprint Review provides another opportunity for inspection and adaptation. The Sprint Review generally enables the team to present the progress to the stakeholders and gather feedback to decide on the next steps. The stakeholders, generally internal, get to experience the product development, and the team has an opportunity to adapt based on that experience.

The next event is Sprint Retrospective, where the team focuses on process improvement. These discussions also revolve around the tangible, measurable results (at least they should be) and the improvements the team can implement in upcoming sprints.

The Sprint is an event that helps provide empirical insights to the users. A sprint is expected to result in a releasable product increment that the users can utilize in their operations. Based on the release schedule, you may not release the increment to the end-users immediately after the Sprint. But a quicker release is preferable.

Empiricism In Kanban

Kanban is also a highly empirical methodology. All six practices of Kanban provide a foundation for empiricism. You can read more about these practices and Kanban in this article.

Competing Theories

While understanding empiricism in detail, it will be interesting also to understand the counter-views. These theories are studied as part of Epistemology (theory of knowledge), considered a major branch of philosophy, and seek to understand various dimensions related to knowledge. While there are many existing counter and complimentary views, we will limit ourselves to three theories for this article.

Rationalism

Rationalism believes that we already know specific ideas without experiencing them (a priori). Using reason based on these innate ideas (concepts or principles), you can gain knowledge. For such knowledge, experience through the senses is not necessary.

However, we might not be aware of such innate ideas initially. However, we can still act on those innate ideas, even when unaware of their existence, by using logic and reasoning to generate knowledge.

Transcendental Idealism

The theory of transcendental idealism, as proposed by Immanuel Kant, combines both these ideas. The theory suggests that while we may have innate ideas, we also need the experience to make sense of those ideas. Without the experience, we will lack the awareness to make sense of or correctly utilize those innate ideas meaningfully.

This comparison and introduction is a simplified introduction to primary ideas that contrast empiricism. For a more detailed understanding, you may read Chapter 3 of the book Introduction to Philosophy: Epistemology.

While agile practices favor empiricism, there might be insufficient time or resources to base the decisions on purely empirical evidence. Nevertheless, these two competing theories provide underlying principles we employ in such cases.

Conclusion

Empiricism can overcome biases and natural inclination to provide an ideal picture that may be different from reality. The idea behind agile embracing empiricism is to discover the value quickly. It means taking small steps and ensuring that you are on the right ground. The feedback that allows you to take the next steps comes from actual user experience and proactive measures like objective behavior analysis.

https://explorerresearch.com/what-people-say-versus-what-people-do/