Here is a conversation that Bill and I had following my attendance at the Scrum Gathering a few weeks ago. There was a good deal of discussion about the certifications that are available from the Scrum Alliance. There are now five certifications available: Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP), Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), and Certified Scrum Coach (CSC). TLA (Three Letter Acronym) heaven.
The oldest one is the Certified Scrum Master that was started by Ken Schwaber a number of years ago. I first got mine in 2003 and he had been doing them for a little while before then. It basically indicated that you had taken a two day class where the principles and practices of Scrum were taught. It was actually a bit of a joke in the community because it did not really certify anything. It just said you took the class.
But it did work and it got things off the ground. It got people’s attention. I believe the next one to come into existance was the Certified Scrum Trainer. These were people who could give the CSM class – they could certify people. The CST has more meat behind it. You must really ‘prove’ that you know your stuff.
Certified Scrum Practitioner was put together to indicate the step beyond just taking the class. Are you actually practicing Scrum? Successful applicants must be able to document their experience.
More recently, I worked to help put together the Certified Scrum Coach designation. That one was the first certification that was serious about whether you knew what you were doing. Some people have said that it has taken as long as 30 hours to complete the application. You had to have 1500 hours coaching experience and it is pretty serious. Not everyone gets through it.
The bar for these certifications has been going up. At the recent Scrum Gathering the Scrum Alliance announced that they will be giving a test for CSM to determine if they are certified. It appears that this test will be in place in the third quarter of this year (2009). True certifications can only last a certain amount of time before they need to be renewed, usually through a test. Over 65,000 people have become CSMs and they will have two years to take the test or lose their certification.
This is quite a change. All the certifications have gotten more serious. I think this is a good thing. It is part of the maturing of Agile. People are starting to request these certifications and the certifications are starting to have value. It is interesting to watch how this has changed over the years.
Bill: Let me get some more context here. Who administers these certifications?
Jeff: Up until this point for the CSM whenever a Certified Scrum Trainer gave a class he would submit the names of the people who were there to the Scrum Alliance who would issue the certification. The Scrum Alliance administers the certification and they will now administer the test. So as things go forward the certifications will expire and you will have to take another test and demonstrate that you have been practicing Scrum.
Bill: What is the Scrum Alliance? Who are they? Who supports them financially? How is it run?
Jeff: The Scrum Alliance is group of people who are practicing and interested in Scrum. You are invited to join when you become a CSM. It‘s mission to help promote Scrum, handle certifications, and do publicity. They hold the Scrum Gatherings twice a year, one in Europe and one in the North America. This year there is an additional Scrum Gathering in Brazil. They are typically three-day events where people interested in Scrum get together and talk about their experiences.
They have a great web site, http://www.ScrumAlliance.org. You can go there and see a lot of papers and other useful information.
Bill: Is it run as an academic or professional organization? I am curious because in my experience with knowledge management, there were a number of certification efforts that were really designed to be money making efforts for the person running them and very self-promoting. They were trying to create a business for themselves out of this movement or approach. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing if it is appropriate. In the case of knowledge management some times it was not or it was a gray area. So is this a volunteer organization or a business in itself? How does all this come to play?
Jeff: Well, originally it was just a group of people and then there were some money making aspects. The actual formation of the Scrum Alliance as a legal entity only occurred about three years ago even though certifications have been given out by Ken Schwaber for quite a while. It is now a legal non-profit organization. It is not designed to make money. It is not designed to support particular people. It has an independent Board of Directors from various companies. It does have a director and some staff to manage the web site, the events, and the certification process.
Ken Schwaber was the main early advocate of Scrum. He wrote some books and kept pushing it while the rest of us went off and did things. He was involved with Jeff Sutherland very early in the process.
These recent moves have made the Scrum certifications more substantial. There was talk before that it only meant you attended a class. Now the requirements are more involved. The Alliance made a decision not to change the name of the certification (CSM) because of all the people who already had it. They just added the testing requirement.
Bill: Is the Scrum Alliance sponsored by a software firm or firms, or is it independent?
Jeff: There are a number of firms who help sponsor the events but it is independent.
Bill: So it is an organization run by the evangelists rather than sponsored by several software firms.
Jeff: Yes. The Agile Alliance is a similar type of organization. It was formed later. They put on the biggest Agile conference.
Bill: The state of the nation of the Agile Alliance sounds like a good topic for another post.
The Scrum Alliance launches the Certified ScrumMaster exam on October 1, a 60-question online exam given at the end of training. After successfully completing the Certified ScrumMaster Workshop, participants will have all information required to take the exam and become certified. They will also be registered with the Scrum Alliance, with online access to class training materials and any updates for one year.
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