Empiricism
The principle that knowledge comes from experience and decisions are made based on what is observed, underlying Scrum's three pillars.
What it means
Empiricism is the philosophical foundation of Scrum. Instead of trying to plan complex work perfectly upfront, teams working empirically make decisions based on observation and experimentation, then adjust.
It is expressed through three pillars: transparency (a shared understanding of the work and its progress), inspection (frequent, timely checks of artifacts and progress), and adaptation (adjusting as soon as deviations are identified).
Common mistakes
Scrum's events exist specifically to create moments of transparency, inspection, and adaptation: Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective all serve this empirical cycle.
Example
A team stops estimating six Sprints ahead and instead re-plans every Sprint based on actual throughput, an empirical approach rather than a predictive one.