Value of Agile Certification
March 10, 2008 by Artem Marchenko
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?
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About the Author: As the Editor-in-Chief for AgileSoftwareDevelopment.com, Artem is charged with overseeing the direction for content, advertising, and the overall management of the site. Nowadays in his day life, Artem is a product manager in a global telecommunication company where he leads the development of a product developed in extremely distributed environment. Artem has been applying Agile and researching Agile since 2005. Contact Artem
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Comments
ScrumMaster Certification isn't worth the paper it's written on
March 11, 2008 by Kelly Waters (not verified), 4 years 10 weeks ago
Comment id: 1483
Here's my view on ScrumMaster Certification...
http://kw-agiledevelopment.blogspot.com/2008/01/certified-scrummaster-isnt-worth-paper.html
Kelly Waters
www.allaboutagile.com
Certs don't make experts
March 13, 2008 by cspag, 4 years 10 weeks 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), 3 years 34 weeks 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?
Scrum training
July 30, 2010 by Harshal (not verified), 1 year 42 weeks ago
Comment id: 7996
Being a member of scrum process in my existing company, I would like to enhance my knowledge in this field and would like to shape up my career.
I would also like to know the different certificate levels involved in Scrum process and how do I appear for them.?
~Harshal
Artem is charged with
January 23, 2012 by Testking 70-680 (not verified), 17 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 20813
Artem is charged with overseeing the direction for content, advertising, and the overall management of the site. Nowadays in his day life, Artem is a product manager in a global telecommunication company where he leads the development of a product developed in extremely distributed environment
Hi DaveI agree completely.
March 2, 2012 by NOnn (not verified), 11 weeks 3 days ago
Comment id: 21180
Hi Dave
I agree completely. However. many people (especially in the lean and even Kanban worlds) like to look at manufacturing and use good ideas from it to find good ideas for software development. Any are can. of course. provide inspiration for good ideas but I find comparisons between the creative nature of software development and the repetitive nature of an assembly line very limited. sosh forfait sans engagement forfait illimite forfait sms illimite forfait mobile internet forfait bloque rio bouygues rio orange rio sfr code rio bouygues rio virgin calcul imc portabilite
The proponents of the
March 3, 2012 by APOLONIA (not verified), 11 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 21267
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