Scrum certification?

Question

Is saw that are out there Scrum certifications to become certified scrum master!?. I'm not a big fan of certifications in general, but getting a certification for a methodology, for a way of doing things doesn't make sense at all to me. Can you give me other perspectives please, maybe I am wrong.

Answer 1

They are a way to sell courses.

Answer 2

As to the philosophical question you pose: Does it make any sense to certify someone for a methodology? I don't see it as any different from certifying someone for any other kind of subject matter knowledge.

Individuals who go after certifications tend to do so because they believe (rightly or wrongly) that having the certification will make it easier to get/keep/perform a job.

Employers who look for certifications tend to do so as either a way of reducing a huge resume pool or because of the belief (right or wrong) that the candidate with the certification will do a better job than the candidate without the certification, all things being equal.

Companies/instructors who offer certification courses tend to do so as a means to make income and/or out of the desire to share their passion for the subject matter.

It seems to me that in IT many certifications do not make it easier for a person to get/keep/perform a job. Similarly, I don't believe they are typically a good recruiting tool. And yet, as long as some people pay for the courses, some companies/instructors continue to offer them.

And there certainly is a group in the agile community that devalues methodology certifications in particular.

Answer 3

In practice these certifications are kind of silly, although I am sure at least some of the courses that accompany them might be useful.

On the other hand, having a certification does have distinct advantages during the recruiting process namely:

• At the recruiter/hr stage, you get an automatic check in the box for Agile and Scrum
• It will discourage too many questions during the interview about what exactly you know about Agile/Scrum.

Given how much variation there is between companies who supposedly use the same methodology, that second point might be very beneficial. For example, if you use a modified scrum that is different from the interviewers modified scrum, then you might get dinged for "doing it wrong" when you describe your implementation.

Answer 4

Having the certification may make the introduction of SCRUM to your organization more "official" in the eyes of some. Completing a certification may also be a great way to ID bad habits up front rather than learning the hard way in the middle of a project.

Answer 5

Being a Certified ScrumMaster basically means that you spend two days breathing the same air than a Certified Scrum Trainer (i.e. someone with proven experience with Scrum and who payed to become a Trainer) that used Certified Training Material (yes, it's more the training that is certified than the trainee). But the Scrum Alliance is totally transparent on that (and yes, the whole Certification Stuff is a huge cash machine for the Scrum Alliance).

So, at the end of the training:

• You don't have more or less experience in Scrum, you just officially received minimal bases.
• The training won't magically make you an expert and will never replace practical experience.
• The value delivered highly depends on the trainer (my training with Jeff Sutherland was awesome).

Now, if someone is not smart enough to get that (and to give the CSM more value than it has), I'm sorry but there is nothing to do to help him. This kind of people is very likely going to buy some Pepsi instead of some Coke because an ad on TV said so.

Answer 6

While I can't really speak for the value of the certification in the industry as a whole, I can say that I personally found the CSM course I took incredibly valuable.

Having read a lot of the Scrum materials and having put those ideas into practice, I had an opportunity at my CSM course to discuss the challenges and difficulties I had found during our transition and to get advice and learn, not only from the experiences of the trainer, but from those in the class who had also encountered similar difficulties.

So while a "Certified" Scrum Master doesn't necessarily mean they are now an expert, it does mean they've had the opportunity to go beyond the books and articles. They've had an opportunity to share and learn from others who have made the transition successfully.

To me, that's something of value, and well worth it in my opinion.

Answer 7

From my point of view Scrum Certifications give only value to the individuals, for example if you want to apply for a job or if you are a freelancer. If you want to implement Scrum or agile practices in your team or company a certification is the last think you should worry about.

In order to learn a new way of working you should follow a more hands on approach. I can recommend agile42, Renewtek or Propero Solutions These companies helping small teams as well as enterprises to implement Scrum, Kanban and other agile methodologies.

Answer 8

Certificate or not? I personally like cetifications but I never measure my skills or skills of any other person by number or types of certificates he received. For me it is just some information about overview of skills and knowledges which person should have. But without further clarification the "should" is important.

I was on CSM and CSPO courses and it was awesome. Within two days you receive really big amount of informations. Moreover the course should be lead by certified SCRUM trainer. Those guys have really big experience with SCRUM and usually they are also SCRUM coaches. So they know about common problems in adopting SCRUM and they are able to explain you solutions to these problems or provide you defense to common arguments against agile.

Another interesting information about SCRUM and those trainings is that SCRUM is not a standard. SCRUM is evolving methodology. Each SCRUM trainer has his own flavour of the SCRUM based on his personal coaching experience. You can even find that some informations from different trainings are in contradiction. First, I was badly surprised about this. But at the end of the day it showed that they propose different approaches to achieve the same and maybe one of them will work in your environment. Actually after reading Mike Cohn's books (he is also Certified SCRUM trainer) you will receive another point of view.

As a conclusion I can say that attending courses was very usefull and If I have a chance to attend any other curse (or even the same) by another SCRUM trainer I will go no matter the commercial machinery which SCRUM alliance builds.