Is CSM (certified Scrum Master) certificate still valuable?

I often get below questions regarding Certified Scrum Master (CSM) Training and especially from mid-level managers like traditional project manager, release manager, development manager and test manager etc.

1. Which agile certificate is good for me? I wrote a blog for that. You may like to read here

2. Will CSM help in getting job?

3. Will CSM help me learning about Agile?

4. Is CSM mandatory for Scrum Master role?

5. Will CSM help me to switch from Developer to Scrum Master?

6. Is CSM useful for QA Engineers?

Here is my answer starting from what is CSM, why CSM, why not CSM and what are the alternatives of CSM.

What is CSM (Certified Scrum Master)? A training and certification program launched by Scrum Alliance in 2001. This was the 1st certification training launched by Scrum Alliance and this is oldest so very popular is few countries. Initially there was no exam but got introduced later on due to many complains as per my knowledge. CSM has a very basic criteria for participant like must attend 2 days workshop by Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and write a very basic exam to pass and gain certificate. Personally, I have not seen anyone failing in exam and most of the time people write exam in group to pass together (I was told by many but I can't prove it). 

Why CSM (Certified Scrum Master)? Somehow it was communicated from beginning that CSM is a foundation workshop for Agile and Scrum. So anybody wanted to understand agile and Scrum, they just join CSM workshop. But this workshop was for Scrum Master as name suggest. For other roles there are other workshop like CSD for development team and CSPO for Business Analyst and Product Owner. Since CSM is labelled as foundation training so even CST teaches very basic stuff and avoid going deeper into Scrum Master role. Again this based on my knowledge after helping many people to gain CSP (Certified Scrum Professional).

Will CSM helps in getting job? No but at least it can help in getting your resume filtered during screening process. Most of the company filter resume based on certification so CSM credential help in Scrum Master role. Many organizations has started ignoring CSM now due to poor process of certification and started demanding PSM credential. PSM is known for quality exam and total cost of ownership is much lesser because PSM doesn't require renewal every 2 years like CSM. 

Will CSM helps in learning Agile? Yes it does. Because it covers basic scrum framework (most popular agile methods). Alternately, you can look for Professional Scrum Foundation (PSF) or Professional Scrum Master (PSM) from scrum.org

I am leaving here with rest of questions and would prefer to hear from you about your understanding :)

Thanks for reading! Do let me know if there is any questions related to agile and scrum certifications.

Professional Scrum Master Training in Chennai

Professional Scrum Master™ (PSM) training is a 2-day workshop that gives you a clear understanding of Scrum rules and principles through the empirical foundation of Scrum. You will understand how to play the Scrum Master’s role to perfection, and can better understand what to do when returning to the workplace and facing complex decisions. PSM is becoming most preferred certifications for Scrum Master/Agile Coach roles because of credible examination, well managed course content and experienced trainers.

Course Duration: 2 Days

Course Fees:

Standard Price: INR 25999.00 + S.T.
Early Bird Price: INR 23998.00 + S.T. 

Here’s why you can’t afford to overlook our PSM course!

• Enhance your job prospects: The PSM credential demonstrates to employers and peers your capabilities, and gives you an edge over others in the job market.
• No renewal: Yes, you don’t need to renew your certificate every year
• Experienced Trainers: Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) bring current software development practices and real-world Scrum experience to the classroom. That helps participant to apply Scrum on their project.

Why to attend Professional Scrum Master Workshop?

• Training covers $150 examination cost for PSM - I
• Students get 40% discount on PSM - II ($100)
• 50% discount on 2nd attempt 
• Official course content

Do you need more reason to join or hire Professional Scrum Trainer (PST)? Contact me.

Dedicated Scrum Master or Full-time Scrum Master?

Scenario 1 - She is a full-time scrum master for a team and gives all her time to the team, and attends all scrum events.

Scenario 2 - A dedicated scrum master for a team, not full-time, may work as a developer.

Arguments in favor of full-time Scrum Master

• If not full-time, what will happen to impediments to those needing immediate attention?
• She has to attend all events to ensure people practice the proper scrum.

The argument in support of not having a full-time Scrum Master

• But most of the time, impediments are not impediments but intra-team dependencies that the team has to manage, not scrum master.
• Scrum master is not needed in all events, and she has to only ensure those are getting done by the team.

Done with Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) so what next? Agile Coach?

Nowadays everyone wanted to become agile coach after clearing Certified ScrumMaster (CSM). And why not there are already so many scrum masters and we have to stand out of the crowd. There is nothing wrong in this because we all have passion and desire to become something.

People consider CSP (certified scrum professional) as 1^st step in order to become agile coach. I don’t know how true is that but I know people start collecting SEUs. This SEUs business is not bad either especially for community building because many started coming to conferences and meetup to collect SEUs.

But there is some challenges? Nowadays companies are looking for specific kind of coach like Process Coach, Flow Coach, Scrum Coach, Kanban Coach, Technical Coach and Developer Coach etc. This is creating another level of confusion for people wanting to become coach. In fact I am waiting to see if someone post LeSS Coach so I can apply :) In fact training business flourish when market create confusion and now I can see many people wanted to attend Scrum Developer workshop in order to become technical coach or developer coach etc.

Don’t know where this industry is heading but so far everything looks lucrative. Also all certification bodies like scrum alliance keep launching new certifications to tap market opportunity like enterprise coach, team coach and now leadership program so be ready to spend more in order to be in race.

I still believe Scrum Master is true coach provide he or she is good facilitator and servant leader. If Scrum Master has exposure on technical practices such TDD, ATDD, CI and Pair Programming etc then nothing like it. But this is what I believe. 

I don’t want to be a developer

Is there something wrong with software developer designation? Because everyone wanted to become scrum master and agile coach but not a good software developer. May be scrum master sound really big because of MASTER keyword but if you see same word in other context like school master then again nobody wanted to become school master. This may also because scrum is very light height framework and described in just 16 pages so everyone feel they are master of those 16 pages.

Since I coach development team and facilitate scrum developer workshop so get to interact with coders and testers often. Sometime few participants give impression that they are no open position for scrum master in their company that’s why they are part of development team.

Although I having feeling that real master is development team not others. All other exist because of them so other can be termed as servant teams and that’s why we have scrum master as servant leader to lead our servant team.

Few interesting conversation when people call to enquire about scrum developer workshop.

“I wanted to learn agile engineering practices such BDD, ATDD, TDD and CI etc but not looking for certification. I am an agile coach and need these skills to facilitate my team but don’t want to be labeled as certified scrum developer.”

“I am a certified scrum master and looking to become certified scrum professional. I have gone through your blog and believe you can help me in getting remaining 20 SEUs but please don’t suggest to attend scrum developer workshop because I am looking for CSP but not CSD.”

“I am tester and following agile in our company. Looking for Certified Scrum Master training is there certificate for testers like the way we have scrum developer for developers.”

Above conversation reflects how much people understand about role of developers and development team.

I was reading Agile Testing book authored by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory and they have beautifully quoted “Everyone involved with delivering code is a developer, and is part of the development team.”

Scrum developer workshop is not for only programmer but for tester, architect, leads, manager, coaches and as well as for MASTERS.

Why I am so passionate about development team? Wrong this has nothing to do with my work but more about letting developers know how important they are and what they can do.

Impediments that get exposed when start practicing Scrum

Development Team often encounter with an impediments by shortening sprint length is lack of good technical practices. Organizations usually focus more on facilitate Scrum Master or Product Owner workshop as soon as they plan to adopt Scrum but very few organizations facilitate workshops for Development Team. Although it has increased a lot in last 2 years but still not anywhere near to Scrum Master or Product Owner workshop.

We just wonder why? There are more people working to develop software compare to Facilitators or Product Owner then why you are ignoring it? Ignorance can cause technical debts. When there is less time and team lack good technical practices then team may start cutting corner to deliver what they have committed. This leads to technical debts and it may slow you down in long run. You may feel Scrum is not helping you in building quality product and team motivation may go down.

   

We feel there could be 2 reasons. 1^st – Organization just facilitating Scrum Master (or similar) Workshop for development team and 2^nd - not aware about workshop available for Development Team. There is another one – Some technical workshop is happening in bit and pieces like junit, nunit, Jenkins or selenium etc. but mainly tools training but not practice workshop.

Same applied for new hire/ campus hire. People go through a series of training when they join but not very focused in the area of Test First, TDD, ATDD, BDD, CI, Pair Programming, Mob Programming, Continuous Integration or Collaboration practices. We believe that in order to be successful, members of Scrum Development Teams must have these skills and organization must focus on investing a lot on it.

Let us know if you need more information about development team workshops, which is more suitable for your team or your team is also struggling with similar impediment.

Leanpitch develop products and provides services for both product discovery and product delivery cycles of Software Product Development. We help organization in maximizing the work of the Development Team.

Reach out us in case looking for in-house workshops on Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or Certified Scrum Developer(CSD). Our facilitators are known for quality and commitment.

What is Timeboxing and why Timeboxing?

What is Timeboxing?

It’s a fixed span of time and is called as SPRINT in Scrum. A typical duration of Sprint is 1-4 weeks and below is some the characteristics of Sprint.

Fixed Length – Duration can’t change once agreed even if all works those were forecasted not complete within fixed length. Sprint will expire on set end date and time.

Fixed Team – Team members who start sprint remain united till end of the sprint. There should not be any change in team composition within sprint.

Fixed Goal – Team set goal at the beginning of the sprint and remain unchanged till sprint expire. If goal become meaningless then better to terminate sprint and start new with new goal rather than changing goal in between sprint.

A product increment at the end of Sprint – Team produces a shippable feature or functionality at the end of sprint and new feature/functionality is an increment on top of the existing product.

Why Timeboxing?

Help the team to stay focused on the goal

By Eliminating Procrastination – People usually prefer to do more pleasurable work at beginning than less pleasurable even if more pleasurable work is not urgent. Timeboxing helps team to stay focus and complete all the work in given timeframe even if it is not very pleasurable in rodder to meet Definition of Done (DoD).

A very useful quote about Procrastination - “I am very busy doing things that I don’t need to do in order to avoid doing anything I am actually supposed to be doing.”

By Providing Frequent Opportunity to get Customer Feedback – Since team produces shippable product at the end of every sprint so it’s become very handy to get feedback at the end of sprint from customer. Feedback helps team in further planning.

Leanpitch provides the best scrum and agile training. We are leading provider of Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Developer (CSD), Kanban, Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD) in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad. Visit our website to know more about Leanpitch Offering.

Can BDD help in slicing complex story?

What is Behavior Driven Development?

Behavior Driven Development (BDD) is well known practice for collaboration and many organizations practice it to bridge gap between in product management and software development team.

BDD help in describing requirement in the form of feature file and scenarios. Scenarios further get describe in format of Given, When and Then. The language that mainly used in writing feature file is called is Gherkin. Gherkin language can be used to write feature file in more than 40 languages. Some of the important keywords of Gherkin mentioned below that will help in describing features and scenarios:-

Feature, Scenario, Given, When, Then, And, But, Background, Scenario Outline and Examples

How to write Feature file?

You can write feature file in notepad as well so basically there is no need to know any particular tools and below is format.

Feature: Search Flight

As a flyer I want to search available flight between Bangalore and Chennai So that I can book to travel on given date.

#above story/description is optional

Scenario: Search all available flight based on date, origin and destination

Given flyer enter travel date as “12/12/2016” and origin as “Bangalore and Destination as “Chennai”

When Click on Search button

Then search page should show all available flight

And option to book flight

When to write feature file?

If you are practicing Scrum then better to have it during product backlog refinement session else make it mandatory for requirement gathering.

What is complex story/requirement?

Take above example of flight search, this looks very simple but can it be deliver in 2 weeks of sprint? May not possible if you have to complete all work that has been mentioned in Definition of Done (DoD)? So how to slice it to have shippable product at the end of sprint?

Use BDD scenario like below to slice it. Now change scenario to search flights only for one airlines at time because connecting multiple sources may not be possible in one sprint and modify it like below.

Scenario: Search only Indigo flight based on date, origin and destination

Given flyer enter travel date as “12/12/2016” and origin as “Bangalore and Destination as “Chennai”

When Click on Search button

Then search page should show all available flight

And option to book flight

Scenario: Search only Spicejet flight based on date, origin and destination

Given flyer enter travel date as “12/12/2016” and origin as “Bangalore and Destination as “Chennai”

When Click on Search button

Then search page should show all available flight

And option to book flight

Scenario: Search only Jet Airways flight based on date, origin and destination

Given flyer enter travel date as “12/12/2016” and origin as “Bangalore and Destination as “Chennai”

When Click on Search button

Then search page should show all available flight

And option to book flight

Now team can decide to build only those scenario that can be delivered within one sprint and rest scenarios in upcoming sprints.

Above scenarios can also be further sliced like below if needed.

Scenario: One way flight of Indigo

Scenario: Return flight of Indigo

Scenario: Multiple location search for Indigo etc.

Hope it is useful and if you have further query then reach out to me on naveen.singh@leanpitch.com

Leanpitch provides the best scrum and agile training. We are leading provider of Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Developer (CSD), Kanban , Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD) in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad. Visit our website to know more about Leanpitch Offering.

Why and how to become Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)

Almost 200 professional become either Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) through Leanpitch every month. We strongly advise every participant to focus on continuous learning and share your learning with others as often as possible. If you are learning and have required experience then also become certified scrum professional (CSP). Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) is not only a certificate but a milestone that demonstrate your skills and experience. If you are planning to become coach or already working as coach and wanted to earn Certified Scrum Coach (CSC) certification then CSP is 1st step towards it. Same apply for Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) as well. CSP doesn't required any training like CSM, CSPO or CSD but needed 70 SEUs (Scrum Education Units) that shows how much you are investing on continuous learning. These SEUs can be earn through various way and same mentioned below:-

Category "A" - Unlimited SEUs through Scrum Gathering and User group meetup. You can join Playscrum user group and attend monthly meetup in your cities. Playscrum user group available in 5 cities. -Playscrum-Pune, Playscrum-Bangalore, Playscrum-Chennai,Playscrum-Delhi and Playscrum-Hyderabad. Playscum also facilitated one day playscrum meet in Chennai and planning to keep facilitating same in other cities as well.

Category "B" - Unlimited SEUs through Scrum alliance training program like CSM, CSPO and CSD. You can also earn these Scrum Education Units (SEUs) through other courses like Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD), User story and agile estimation etc. Leanpitch deliver corporate training on TDD, BDD and User story development in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Category "C" - 15 SEUs under this category and same can be earn through attending any agile workshop like Kanban, LeSS practitioner, DevOps and PMI-ACP workshop. Leanpitch regularly conduct Kanban training in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Category "D" - 15 SEUs under this category through volunteer service for Scrum Gathering or User group meetup. You can reach out to playscrum  community.

Category "E" - 15 SEUs through self learning like reading few books. I would recommend reading below books. One hour of reading is equal to one SEU.

1. Agile Estimating and Planning: Mike Cohn

2. Professional Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products: Jim Highsmith 

3. Professional Agile Retrospectives: Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, Ken Schwaber 

4. Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game Author: Alistair Cockburn

5. Coaching Agile Teams: Lyssa Adkins 

6. Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile Extreme: Robert K. Wysocki

7. Exploring Scrum: The Fundamentals: Dan Rawsthorne with Doug Shimp 

8. Kanban In Action: Marcus Hammarberg, Joakim Sunden

9. Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business: David J. Anderson 

10. Lean-Agile Software Development: Alan Shalloway, Guy Beaver, James R. Trott  

11. The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility: Michele Sliger, Stacia Broderick

12. User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development: Mike Cohn 

13. Agile Product Management with Scrum: Roman Pichler

Category "F" - 15 SEUs through co-training or live webinar 

Leanpitch has brought below program for you to learn and earn SEUs in your city.

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) - 16 SEUs under Category "B" - For product owner, product manager, project manager, business analyst and leaders to maximize product business value. Leanpitch conduct Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) training in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad.

Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) - 24 SEUs under category "B" - This will give you opportunity to learn agile engineering practices and most suitable for scrum master, developers, testers, agile coaches and as well as for managers to build value and focus on outcome. Leanpitch conduct Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) training in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad.

Certified Kanban Management Professional - 15 SEUs under Category "C" - For practicing scrum professional including scrum master, agile coaches and senior management to maximize value. Leanpitch conduct Certified Kanban Management Professional training in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad.