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Value of Agile Certification

March 10, 2008 by Artem

ScrumMasterCerificateSmall
Today in the evening I am leaving Finland for the Mike Cohn's Certified Product Owner (CPO) course in Norway. The last couple of years I was mainly focused on the in-team part of Scrum and after moving to product management I feel the need to refresh my knowledge about the external side of the process. Mike is an excellent trainer and is a very pleasant person himself. Every time I meet him I learn much from his talks about both the theory and the practical experience.

Agile certifications

It reminded me about a number of recent discussions on the value of certifications in the agile community. The proponents of the certification processes usually argue that both community and companies want to have means for distinguishing amateurs from the specialists. The opponents typically point out to the fact that agile principles are that intangible and people oriented, that it is hardly possible to craft a test for verifying the relevant skills. And even if it was possible, the most widely used form of agile certification - Certified Scrum Master (SCM) certification doesn't include any kind of examination - you only need to take part in the session.

Certified Scrum Master

I became a Certified Scrum Master about a year ago. During this year I've convinced many colleagues to go for the CSM certification and was all the time gathering references (the positive/negative reference rate by the moment is about 7/1). The bottom line for me is that the word "Certified" in the name of the course should actually be applied to the quality of the course and the trainer, not to the fact that the course alumni is automatically a specialist. I came to the conclusion that Certified Scrum Master courses provide extremely consistent and comprehensive knowledge delivered by the experienced professionals and nothing more.

Your opinion

What is agile and Scrum certification for you? Are you going to take the CSM or CPO course? Or if you took it, how useful was it for you?

Comments

ScrumMaster Certification isn't worth the paper it's written on

March 11, 2008 by Kelly Waters (not verified), 42 weeks 6 days ago
Comment id: 1483

Certs don't make experts

March 13, 2008 by cspag, 42 weeks 5 days ago
Comment id: 1485

In terms of companies wanting certifications to distinguish experts from amateurs, I would have to say that the CSM would mean just about nothing. The CSM is merely a piece of paper that says you didn't fall asleep after two days of lectures about Scrum. I am a CSM. I took the class and learned quite a bit. But was still an amateur after I got my CSM. It was through practice, retrospectives, and really doing agile on real projects that you become an expert. I think most certs mean nothing and would rather hire a practitioner with 10 years experience over a rookie with 2 projects under his belt and CSM in his hand.

Chris Spagnuolo
www.chrisspagnuolo.com

Different Types of Certifications Have Different Value

September 26, 2008 by Tom Cagley (not verified), 14 weeks 3 days ago
Comment id: 1881

It was recently brought to my attention that there are two types of certifications (and lots of gray in between). The first are test based certifications (just study and take a test) and education based certifications (take classes, study, maybe practice and then take a test). I would suggest that certifications that fall into the last camp have the most value because they change behavior through education and increase knowledge in a structured manner.

The most recent interview on my podcast (Software Process and Measurement Cast - www.spamcast.libsyn.com) with Magdy Hanna makes this point very directly.

Thoughts?

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