The Professional Scrum Developer Program

The Professional Scrum Developer (PSD) program trains, assesses, and certifies Scrum developers working on a specific technology platform. The program includes a five-day course, an online assessment, and an industry-recognized certification. Each Professional Scrum Developer program targets a specific technology stack. At present, Scrum.org offers programs for Microsoft .NET and for Java.

The Courses

Professional Scrum Developer courses teach students how to use modern software engineering practices to develop an increment of potentially shippable functionality using a specific technology. Students learn to do so within the Scrum framework, working as part of a self-organizing, cross-functional team to do iterative, incremental development. Classes are exercise-driven, with students working in teams to develop “done” increments from product backlog items. Each class is five days long, and classes can be either public or private.

All Professional Scrum Developer courses cover three main topics:

  1. Scrum. PSD courses cover Scrum Fundamentals like Scrum roles, artifacts, and processes. The course simulates being part of a Scrum team to expose students to these concepts in action. Students learn how to work as part of a Scrum team, which requires them to understand techniques for self-organization. At the end of the course students develop skills in identifying and eliminate typical types of Scrum team dysfunction.
  2. Tools. PSD courses teach students how to leverage different development tools to employ Scrum practices. PSD .NET courses are taught in the context of Visual Studio 2010 using the Microsoft Scrum process template, while PSD Java courses are taught in the context of either Eclipse + IBM Rational Jazz or Eclipse + Open Source Plug-Ins. Students learn how to map specific tool features and functions to the general Scrum practices they must use to be effective team members.
  3. Practices. PSD courses cover all of the technical practices that team members need to successfully implement and ship functionality. These include coding practices like test-driven development, continuous integration, and refactoring; architecture practices such as emerging architecture and evolutionary database development; release management practices like planning, requirements definition, and shipment, and quality assurance practices from defining "done" to pair programming to version control to acceptance testing.

More information is available about the curriculum of the PSD .NET course and the PSD Java course.

Assessment and Certification

The Professional Scrum Developer assessment measures knowledge of how to develop software using Scrum on a specific technology platform. These assessments are technology-specific, with different exams for .NET and for Java.

At present, Professional Scrum Developer assessments are open only to those who have taken a Professional Scrum Developer course. Assessment is based on the body of knowledge contained in the courseware. Once the body of knowledge has been formalized as a Scrum Guide, the assessment will be open to the public and anyone – including those who have not taken a Professional Scrum Developer course – will be able to be assessed.

At present there is no fee for assessment beyond the fee for a Professional Scrum Developer course. The Professional Scrum Developer assessment takes 60 minutes; a passing score of 90% is required for Professional Scrum Developer I certification. 

More information is available about PSD assessments.

Testimonials

"The course prepares us to work on a dynamic market in a agile way, exploring skills from a team that is committed to transform planning in real valued solutions for its customers. It is certainly the best investment I have made in my career in the last few years." (Alan Drummond, Web Systems Analyst)

"The Professional Scrum Developer Course from Scrum.org really showed me everything I needed to know about how to use Scrum using Visual Studio 2010. It opened my eyes, and I can now correct my mistaken and distorted knowledge regarding Scrum. It is a great course, where you can enjoy every module and every discussion. The practice and hands-on are a great differentiator from other courses, as we get to put in practice what we learned in real life situations, and not ideal situations that never happen on a real job. Without a doubt it was a great step in my learning." (André Almeida Maldonado, Developer, ZAP Internet S/A)

"The Professional Scrum Developer course was fantastic! Perhaps the best week I had in years. Our instructor has outstanding communication skills that combined with his strong knowledge of technology provided us an unique opportunity to experience Scrum at its best. You definitely get fascinated about Agile software development and Scrum after taking this course." (Fabio Moggi, Web Systems Analyst, Grupo SBF)

"The sprint simulations give us a priceless experience. Every developer should take this course before working on Scrum team. If I could summarize the experience, I'd say it is INTENSE!" (Daniel Fonseca Castro, Developer, Donuts4U)

It definitely fills a gap, unifying Scrum management and development. Great initiative to use Microsoft tools, in accordance with best software engineering practices. The best surprise is to end up as a team and not just classmates. (Claudio Pires, Software Engineer, Tecnopop Multimidia).

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