Value of Agile Certification

March 10, 2008 by Artem

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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