Empiricism and empirical process control are not the same thing

 

I keep finding that the conflation of empirical process control and empiricism to be confusing for many.

Ken created Scrum on the basis of empirical process control, then conflated it with empiricism and then dropped the statement about EPC from the Scrum Guide.

EPC is when you manage a process by adjusting your actions based on what happens. Basically "inspect & adapt." You don't go back and adjust your initial assumptions (Scrum's immutable roles, events, artifacts and rules) but just live within the framework. 

Ken learned EPC from chemical engineers. While the process varied, prior to see how to mix the chemicals was based on chemistry (theory) and for a particular situation. But transposing this type of process control to one of knowledge work is seriously flawed. Even if you get the right process in place, the needs will change as people learn. 

Applying EPC without also providing a theory to change what you're doing is less effective than applying it, providing sufficient theory to guide your process and doing double loop learning on the process.