Scrum is an Empirical, not defined process. I like the word “Empirical” mostly because other people don’t and they are impressed with my use of big words.
Today I found, what I think is, a nice example of the difference between empirical and defined..
We were cooking some nice New Zealand lamb for dinner. At 7pm my wife asked me to check it with the meat thermometer to see how it was cooking (i.e. gather evidence using an empirical approach).
I said “why bother”, explaining that according to the instrucitons it should be ready at 7:20 (i.e. relying on the defined process, which assumes that everything goes according to plan).
She said “just do as your told, if you know what’s good for you”.
So I did. It was just easier. I took the meat out of the oven. Put in the meat thermometer and …
… and, I really wish I could say that based on reading the temperature it was obvious that the meat wouldn’t be ready until 9pm. That would show that the empirical approach was better than the defined process and also prove that I was right and my wife was wrong. After all, things go wrong all the time – I hate to think how many times each week I open the microwave to discover my peas, for example, still frozen because I’ve left it on defrost, not full power – it is quite plausible that the roast was only half cooked.
But, in reality, according to the thermometer the meat was cooking okay and I esitmated it would be ready around 7:20, as predicted by the instructions on the pack.
Still, testing the meat gave me confidence that I wouldn’t have had otherwise and it helped us planning the timing for the other bits of the meal. It was comforting to know -based on evidence – that everything was going to plan.
http://www.answers.com/empirical&r=67:
em·pir·i·cal (ĕm-pîr'ĭ-kəl)
adj.
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- Relying on or derived from observation or experiment: empirical results that supported the hypothesis.
- Verifiable or provable by means of observation or experiment: empirical laws.
- Guided by practical experience and not theory, especially in medicine.
