The SECI Model in Practice: The Knowledge Creation Architecture Embedded in Scrum

Purpose – Scrum is the most widely adopted iterative framework for complex problem-solving, yet nopeer-reviewed study has explained why it succeeds or fails through knowledge creation theory. This paperdemonstrates that Scrum embeds a complete SECI knowledge creation architecture — a structure thatemerged through thirty years of empirical refinement without its designers knowing SECI theory.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper synthesizes Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) Theoryof Organizational Knowledge Creation, the Scrum failure literature, boundary object theory (Carlile, 2004),distributed cognition (Hutchins, 1995), and ten years of direct Scrum team observation.Findings – All Scrum events drive the full SECI cycle; what distinguishes them is the encounter target, notthe mode activated. Scrum's philosophical premises — lean thinking and pragmatism — function as itsimmune system: when internalized, they reject every documented anti-pattern; when absent, no structuralcompliance compensates. These premises are themselves tacit knowledge requiring the SECI cycle fortransmission.Practical implications – Shift diagnostic focus from ceremony compliance to knowledge creation. Eachfailure mode maps to a broken enabling condition, applicable to any domain where teams solve complexproblems iteratively.Originality/value – Three contributions to the Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation: resolvingcontradictions between existing SECI-Scrum mappings; identifying lean and pragmatism as an immunesystem connecting Scrum failures to Nonaka and Takeuchi's enabling conditions; and demonstrating thatScrum operationalizes SECI in a form accessible to practitioners without knowledge creation theory training.