I am in Orlando at the biannual Scrum Gathering put on by the Scrum Alliance. The gathering alternates between the US and outside the US and is attended by Scrum Masters, Practitioners, Trainers and Coaches. There are some 260+ folks attending this one.
Jim Cundiff has been running the Scrum Alliance for a bit over a year now and I am glad to report that I am seeing considerable improvement in the professionalism, focus and activity level of the Alliance. The program for this meeting has brought in a number of folks from outside the immediate Scrum community. Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson from XP, Dr. Alistair Cockburn of Crystal, Dr. Mark Paulk of CMM, and Gregory Balestrero from PMI and Jim Coplien of Patterns are all here and adding to a more inclusive feel of the gathering. In particular Mark is beginning some academic research on Scrum and the PMI is 'embracing' Scrum with a large number of PMP folks attending.
The Alliance is showing off the redesigned Scrum Alliance website. I suggest you take a look. It appears to be much more comprehensive and there is a lot of content now easily accessible.
Last night I met with 8 other Certified Scrum Coaches as we considering our next moves. I was involved with the initial definition, construction and roll-out of the Scrum Coach certification program. It is a rigorous certification with a non-trivial application and thoughtful evaluation. One really has to be a Scrum Coach to get certified. Initially there were six of us certified. Now the number is up to 12 and increasing each month. The coaches I met with last night were from Australia, Germany, Denmark, South Africa and the US. I am proud of the work we have done on this program and we are hoping that it grows and becomes recognized as a guide level certification.
With Alliance support we are seeing more and more Scrum User Groups getting started. Now over 50 world wide. And also growing. Some folks have wondered if at over 50,000 certified Scrum Masters if the 'market' was becoming saturated. It appears not to be so. Altho training rates have slowed somewhat, the demand is still reasonably strong. The requests for coaching are increasing as well.
In short, Scrum is alive and well and in fact, thriving.
Very good posting. I just love it.
Good work. :)
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