In the spring of 2013 I abandoned my position as Principal Consultant at a large international consulting firm to engage in a partnership with Ken Schwaber and his organization Scrum.org, operating under the title “Director of the Professional Scrum series”. Next to and after co-developing the Agility Path framework, from which Evidence-based Management (‘EBMgt’) was derived, and the Nexus framework for Scaled Professional Scrum (‘SPS’), I vividly remember creating the first version of (what became) the PSM II assessment of Scrum.org. In my mind it was in the spring of 2015, but checking out my archives tells me it must have been the spring of 2016. That is most likely an indication of how flawed my memory actually is…
By that time, we observed how many people took the PSM I assessment (‘Professional Scrum Master level I’) and how few people were taking the assessment that was by then known as PSM II (‘Professional Scrum Master level II’). I remember (thereby potentially disregarding how flawed my memories can be) that at that time around 40k individuals held the PSM I credential while no more than a few 100 had achieved the PSM II certification. It felt like we were failing to help people understand Scrum better and demonstrate that knowledge. In practice, mostly people aspiring to become a Professional Scrum Trainer (‘PST’) were actually doing the PSM II assessment (as a mandatory requirement). I remember taking the assessment myself with that ambition in mind. Luckily I wrote a blog note on 8 September 2010 to ‘remember’ (hence: compensate for my flawed memory) that I was #27 worldwide to achieve it.
Continue reading The Creation of the PSM II Assessment
