How can you use empirical process control in Scrum?

1 Understand the three pillars

Empirical process control relies on three pillars: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Transparency means that all the relevant information about the product, the process, and the progress is visible and clear to everyone involved. Inspection means that the Scrum team and the stakeholders regularly check the quality and value of the product and the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. Adaptation means that the Scrum team and the stakeholders make adjustments and improvements based on the results of the inspection and the feedback from the customers and users.

2 Use the Scrum events

Scrum provides four events that enable empirical process control: sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective. Sprint planning is where the Scrum team decides what to deliver in the next sprint and how to do it. Daily scrum is where the Scrum team coordinates their work and identifies any impediments or risks. Sprint review is where the Scrum team presents the product increment to the stakeholders and collects their feedback. Sprint retrospective is where the Scrum team reflects on their performance and identifies ways to improve. These events provide opportunities for transparency, inspection, and adaptation at different levels and frequencies.

3 Use the Scrum artifacts

Scrum also provides three artifacts that enable empirical process control: product backlog, sprint backlog, and product increment. Product backlog is a list of features, requirements, and improvements that add value to the product. Sprint backlog is a subset of the product backlog that the Scrum team commits to deliver in a sprint. Product increment is the sum of all the product backlog items completed in a sprint and all previous sprints. These artifacts provide a common understanding of the product vision, the sprint goal, and the product quality among the Scrum team and the stakeholders.

4 Use feedback loops

Feedback loops are essential for empirical process control because they allow the Scrum team and the stakeholders to learn from their actions and outcomes. Feedback loops can be internal or external, formal or informal, quantitative or qualitative, and frequent or occasional. Some examples of feedback loops in Scrum are user testing, customer surveys, stakeholder reviews, peer reviews, code reviews, automated testing, metrics, and retrospectives. Feedback loops help the Scrum team and the stakeholders to validate their assumptions, measure their results, identify their gaps, and discover their opportunities.

5 Use continuous improvement

Continuous improvement is the ultimate goal of empirical process control because it enables the Scrum team and the stakeholders to deliver better products and services to their customers and users. Continuous improvement means that the Scrum team and the stakeholders are always looking for ways to increase the value, quality, and usability of the product and to optimize the efficiency, effectiveness, and collaboration of the process. Continuous improvement requires a culture of experimentation, learning, and innovation that encourages the Scrum team and the stakeholders to try new ideas, test new solutions, and adopt new practices.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?