In Scrum, empiricism refers to the idea that solving complex problems, or doing complex work, can only be done using an exploratory process rather than relying on predetermined plans. Learn about empiricism and complex work. Explore why trust is important for empiricism to thrive.

This article from the scrum.org website is an interesting alternative to the Cynefin matrix when we want to explain challenges of simple, complicated and complex problems.

This approach is well suited in IT projects, because there is a high probability that every project leader have faced the situation of discovering new problems and new unknows.

In context of very wide business spectrum, Cynefin could reveal a more powerful approach. In the situation of pure IT projects, just using the notion of unknows to label the complexity of a context and/or project is very interesting thanks to a concise approach.

Beware of thinking there is a universal approach to define what is simple, complicated, complex. So switching between Cynefin and empiricism is very good intellectual approach that really help to remain open minded.