Why would you want to certify in anything Agile, and Scrum especially?
Well… you don’t. The right attitude will make you:
- want to learn about Scrum from an expert as a head-start for practicing it. Truly taste it by using the tool to get more Agile.
- want to assess your knowledge and experience.
Exactly the needs that Scrum.org is addressing. To think beyond courses. Knowledge, understanding ànd experience over paper certification, which I certainly value more:
- For learning purposes there is the Professional Scrum Master course, i.e. a retake of Ken’s former CSM.
- But there is a unique set of online assessments:
- With the help of the communities an open assessment was created. I participated in it at the time it was still called Scrum I. It’s free of charge and you can use it as a quick check on your knowledge.
- The level I assessment checks the fundamental Scrum knowledge (the cost of 100 $ is also included in the PSM course fee). A score of 85% is required!
- The level II assessment requires 85% as well, which is not achievable without even more demonstrable knowledge, having applied Scrum and understanding the underlying principles. As I wrote in my blog note “Unsatisfied? Uncertified? Unvalued?“.
And, finally, Ken is assisting the development communities with the Professional Scrum Developer program, holding a course and assessments in a .Net and a Java version.
The knowledge of Scrum is verified against the Scrum Guide from co-founders Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber. Capture their insights!
An highly unserved and underrated audience however are still the Product Owners, although a crucial role in Scrum. The ScrumAlliance offers a Certified Scrum Product Owner course (‘CSPO’). But… no assessment yet. I don’t want to go into CSP, CSC or CST options because I feel they are heavily over-institutionalized. CSD is too unclear.
The ScrumAlliance verifies knowledge of Scrum against the Scrum Primer, from the Scrum Training Institute. I’ve read both and find the Scrum Guide to have the in-depth Vision of Scrum, while the Scrum Primer is more about concrete practices.
