Our CSM certification workshop prepares individuals to guide, sponsor, and participate in Agile/Scrum initiatives. At the end of the 2-day CSM class, participants will have gained knowledge of Agile product development, all of the elements of the Scrum framework, and the knowledge necessary to take the ScrumMaster certification exam from Scrum Alliance.
Training is a good first step towards understanding core Agile principles and implementing practices to help teams become more productive. Our ScrumMaster certification training welcomes Agile beginners and veteran project managers from tech, marketing, HR, government, retail, and everything in between. We offer CSM training as a public workshop or corporate private training.
Who Should Pursue A CSM Certification?
People who take this class are change agents who believe Agile can help achieve key business goals and want to use their Agile knowledge to help teams improve quality, gain efficiency, and complete projects on time. We’ve had the following positions benefit from the ScrumMaster certification class:
- Managers
- Developers
- Testers
- Analysts
- Product Manager
- Project Managers
CSM or CSPO? Which Scrum Certification Should I get?
Getting your ScrumMaster and Product Owner certification is really beneficial, particularly if an organization has decided that Scrum is the chosen framework for change and agility. Both the CSM and CSPO give participants a solid foundation of Agile. However, there are key differences between the two:
Earn a CSM certificate if you wish to:
- Champion the change from Waterfall to Agile and Scrum
- Improve your current Agile and Scrum knowledge
- Need an understanding of all the Scrum roles, ceremonies, and how they fit together in a Sprint
- Understand different ways of reporting value and activity
Earn a CSPO certificate if you wish to:
- Realize product vision in a more efficient and collaborative way
- Learn different and more effective ways to communicate product requirements (user stories)
- Become discovery-focused instead of requirements-focused
- Drive richer product discovery using story mapping
- Align the Scrum team more closely with product stakeholders and customers
- Better manage stakeholder expectations
Certified ScrumMaster Learning Outcomes
Through a combination of immersive team-based learning, exercises, and real-world case studies, participants will learn:
- How Agile is an example of an empirical model and how it’s core values–transparency, inspection, & adaptation–fuel innovation and predictable value delivery.
- How Agile is different from traditional waterfall development and how organizations should think differently in this new environment.
- How to facilitate Scrum ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Daily Standup, Sprint Retrospective, and Sprint Review) smoothly and with confidence.
- The responsibilities of the ScrumMaster, Product Owner and Scrum Team and their impact on traditional roles.
- What it takes to be a good ScrumMaster, including role specifics, responsibilities within the Scrum team, and skills needed to become successful.
- How artifacts like the Sprint Backlog and Burndown charts create visibility and track progress.
- How to encourage your team to improve their technical practices, not just processes.
- How the ScrumMaster fits into an organization’s overall Agile transformation strategy on the Path to Agility®.
After passing the CSM exam, you’ll earn:
- Your ScrumMaster certification through Scrum Alliance
- Two-year Scrum Alliance membership
- 16 SEU’s or PDU’s. Visit our FAQ page to learn how to claim SEU’s or PDU’s.
- A digital certificate from Scrum Alliance
- 10% off future Agile Velocity classes
Earning Your CSM certification
At the end of the two days, our CST will submit the names of qualified participants to Scrum Alliance and Scrum Alliance will send a link to take the test.
Exam retake policy and associated fees
To pass the Scrum Alliance CSM certification exam, you need to get 74% of the questions correct. There are 50 questions and you will have 60 minutes to take the exam. Participants will have two attempts within 90 days of receiving the welcome email from Scrum Alliance at no cost. After two attempts or 90 calendar days, the test is $25 for each retake. The exam is an open book, open note test.
Sample CSM certification exam questions
The Development Team does not sit together and therefore rarely communicates. Due to this arrangement, they tend to segue into deep technical discussions when sharing at the Daily Scrum. What should the ScrumMaster do?
- Discuss at the next retrospective for the team to determine how best to address the issue
- Assign a technical lead to work with all the developers individually on their issues
- Extend the Daily Scrum to 60 minutes
- Schedule an additional meeting for technical discussions at another time
The Sprint Burndown Chart can be BEST described as:
- An indicator of how much time each member is spending on each task
- An indicator of how the Team is progressing towards their Sprint Goals
- A tool to track scope changes in the Sprint
- A tool to manage what the Team is doing each day
What is a good indicator that the Sprint Retrospective was productive?
- Team identified 1-3 actionable items to implement during the next Sprint
- Team discussed what worked well and what could be improved upon
- Team reviewed metrics from the previous Sprint (burndown chart, velocity, etc.)
- Team discussed all of the impediments that were surfaced in the previous Sprint