Acclaim - Scrum Badges

I would agree, especially since a lot of CSMs don't really know scrum that well.  I took the PSM-I certification because A) I didn't think I could get my employer to pay for the $1200 class, and 2) any test you can pass with a failing grade (60%) isn't that good an indicator that you actually know anything useful.

My experience has been that while the Scrum Alliance certifications are more widely known, when you explain the process of getting a scrum.org certification it is well received.  Explaining how you can get the CSM certification by attending a 2 days class versus having to self educate yourself to achieve the scrum.org certifications shows more employers that you are serious about your commitment.  Organizations typically value people that take it upon themselves to better their knowledge and value to a company more than those that just do the minimum. 

I highly value my scrum.org certifications over my Scrum Alliance certifications. 

As for your original question on Acclaim.  I didn't even know about that site.  Have you found it to be helpful at all?  

Over the past couple of years, in the Netherlands, it seems companies are becoming less likely to ask for specific qualifications in a job description. When they do, it's more likely going to be for PSM I or PSM II.

I would question whether it's worth working for a company that doesn't respond positively to the kind of well-reasoned explanation that Daniel describes.

Let me lend some further clarity here.  When completing an online job application you aren't allowed an explanation. You are allowed to select from a pick list of certifications. Not once, in over 800 applications reviewed to date covering the last 12 months, has a Scrum.org been in that pick list. Scrum Alliance certs are always there as a choice. With this information now in hand, who has 100% of the corporate mindshare based on job applications?

Simon, everyone is entitled to their opinion but your comments don't resonate with reality here in the US.

We have talked to Acclaim along with many others as they are one of dozens of platforms that are out there for badging and certification holders.  We continue to evaluate platforms, however none have yet to come to the top as a leader and putting you as a certification holder into the wrong one won't help you or anyone.  As always, please stay tuned as there is always more to come.

As for credibility, we are seeing more and more organizations including many in the US moving to Scrum.org Professional Scrum certifications.  This as always when coming to the market 4 years after takes some time and it is happening quickly.  We now have over 230,000 certified around the globe, see https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-certifications/count more than 235 Accredited Professional Scrum Trainers globally and more continuing to come.  I would leverage this link in your description if needed: https://www.scrum.org/why-scrumorg

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

I second the nomination for Acclaim.  The certification holder has made the investment to proudly display their badge on repository sites like Acclaim or LinkedIn.  Several providers, including your competitors are providing the ability to display badges.  As someone with several certs, I'd much prefer Scrum.org do the same.

I second the request to add the badges to acclaim.

Same here, please add the badges to youracclaim.com.

I feel all certification bodies should collaborate & provide their feed to a common repository which can make validation easy.

I also agree, please make badges available to youracclaim.com.

+1 to add scrum.org certifications to youracclaim.com

I also agree, please make badges available to youracclaim.com.

I also agree, please make badges available to youracclaim.com.

I agree too, +1 to add scrum.org certifications to youracclaim.com

+1 for Acclaim. You'd think there'd be a backlog to vote on things :D

+1 to have a digital badge for scrum.org certification

Definitely go for it! From this link yesterday, Scrum.org has made its great progress by adding open badges support with Badgr.io.

I'd request Scrum.org to think from the user (certificant) perspective; we need a one-stop solution for showcasing our badges. 

@Aditya you can use the Open Badges Backpack to add your badges to add your badge to Acclaim or others that support backpacks.  That gives you as the badge holder the option to use the product of your choice.  Badgr, Acclaim or any of the others that you may use rather than locking you in.  Open Badges Backpack support is widely used by most of the major badge management vendors like those 2 mentioned above.  

For some reason, Acclaim did not show Scrum.org as organizations issuing badges. While I have noted the point that Acclaim supports Open Badges, my observation is, direct linking is not possible in Acclaim.

Acclaim has at least for now stopped supporting Open Badges, hopefully they get back on board with open standards soon.

+1 for Acclaim.

@Steven, if you are an Acclaim user, you should pressure them into supporting Open Badges.  That is the open standard for badge and certification management supported by many.  Acclaim supported it until they were acquired and now have gone against the open source movement and fully proprietary.  We currently have no plans to support proprietary badge technologies and are focused on open standards.

@Eric Not very customer-oriented, but thank you anyway for these giving insights.

@Steven, I hope that wasn't taken the wrong way.  We are having conversations with them, but we cannot support every technology out there, hence we went with the standard of Open Badges which Acclaim supported in the past, but then went proprietary.  The only way to get them to change is their customers (you), not organizations like us as they just want more money from us hence blocking the open standard. If you the customer puts pressure on them, they will change which was what I was trying to say.  

 Please make badges available to youracclaim.com.

@Ramesh,  We support OpenBadges which is the open standard for badging globally.  Acclaim supported that too until they were acquired and then decided to close their platform and only export to OpenBadges, but not import any longer. I suggest that if you use Acclaim, as a user you pressure them to support the open standard.

Thanks!

+1 for Acclaim

Linking to your Scrum.org or other certification profile page is direct verification of your credential. I have not ran into any issues with HR during background investigations. So I'm not sure why I would want to add another layer between me and the certification body.

Linking to your Scrum.org or other certification profile page is direct verification of your credential. I have not ran into any issues with HR during background investigations. So I'm not sure why I would want to add another layer between me and the certification body.

I agree. I put my certification (PSM I) on my LinkedIn profile, and mention it on my resume. You can also add the link to your Scrum.org page to LinkedIn.

I don't understand the need to add this badge anywhere?

Please support Acclaim... My Microsoft, PMI, and The Open Group certs are all on my Acclaim profile.  

@David Torres, we support Acclaim through Open Badges which is the open technology for badging.  

Please add badges to Acclaim... 

@Ravi, if you are a good customer of Acclaim, please work with them to support the open standard of Open Badges.  We support open standards and do not want to have to raise the cost of certification because Acclaim charges vendors a significant amount to support their platform.

Having a badge is a nice "cosmetic" but as Eric explained, if it means increased certification prices to cover for youracclaim charges, I'd rather not have the badge.

I learnt, I got the certificate and I got the public link to share on linkedin so anyone can verify. That's more than enough I guess.

Listen to the customer voices & please make badges available to youracclaim.com.

@Ramin, I find it interesting that you would be posting this here and not on Acclaim's website and going to them to support the open standard that they abandoned just so that they can make money after acquiring the company that did support the open standard.  We have supported the open standard for badging in OpenBadges which many other badging companies support.  To have your badge on Acclaim they charge a significant fee per certificate and it cannot be by individual basis, it is all or nothing. So that would mean having over 300,000 existing badges plus all future ones while only a very small percentage of people want Acclaim support, yet certifying bodies have to pay for all of them, not just the ones who want to use it.  This is the business model by Acclaim why you see only the biggest vendors supporting them because they have deep pockets. Please spend your efforts to get Acclaim to support open standards.

@Umar " if it means increased certification prices to cover for youracclaim charges, I'd rather not have the badge." I agree!

As is, your certification is linked directly to the Scrum.org website, which is authentication enough as opposed to a third-party site.

+1 Acclaim

@Thomas, please contact Acclaim and push them to support import of the Open Standard of OpenBadges.  Rumor is that the effort of others is getting them to possible support it again as they did before getting acquired and chasing the $$$

I agree. PSM1 certificate badge should be available at Acclaim.

My all Microsoft certificates are there, not only this PSM1.

@Milan, as stated many times above, please contact Acclaim not us.  They are the ones who refuse to accept currently the Open Standard and require that certification bodies pay them several dollars for every certification holder that holds a certification whether they want to use Acclaim or not.  So Microsoft may be able to afford that, for you, that would mean us increasing the cost of certifications quite heavily to support the few who want it.  

We are discussing with them supporting the open standard again.  In the past they did, but then they were acquired and that changed their support for open standards.

Why would somebody want to put a middle-man between direct Scrum.org verification of their credentials and their LinkedIn profile/resume?

Compared with CSM, I firmly believe that in 2-5 years, org will surpass scrumalliance and become a favorite and sought-after brand.

Because org maintains unified courseware and materials globally and keeps them updated, and scrumalliance's approach is that each different CST writes its own PPT to lecture based on its own experience, which is very different and cannot achieve a unified depth of knowledge and knowledge domain.

Shame that Acclaim does not support Open Standard badges... would've been nice to have my other technical/cloud certs all under one roof.. but what better place to have it linked than on the Scrum.org website, (THE authentic place) !

I think it is time to add PSM and other certifications from scrum.org to youacclaim

@Ramzi, please see the above notes and get Acclaim to support the open standards and not force money from non-users.  They require large payments for all certifications whether the holder wants to use Acclaim or not. That would mean all 400,000+ certification holders would have to be paid for so that less than 4,000 people could use it.  That doesn't seem to be the most valuable thing for the 400,000 to have to pay for.  

We support OpenBadges which is the open standard for badging and hope that Acclaim will do the same for their customers.  They did before they were acquired and changed their business model to chase money.

+1, Acclaim has all the major vendors Certification batches in display. Having the addition from scrum.org will definitely add further value.

@Debabrata please get Acclaim to support the open standards if you want it, the other option is to raise certification prices significantly to support it.  Acclaim is chasing money and don't care that less than 5% of holders want it, they charge for 100% anyway.

It is a business decision to enter into partnerships or not. In this case, this does not seem to be an option for various reasons. Okay.

However - and I apologize for the frankness - I find it a bit strange to try to appease the wishes and questions of "clients" with the snippy hint that they should contact Acclaim directly to demand open standards and a different pricing model.

In the end this will not help. There is obviously no intention to cooperate with Acclaim at this time. In this respect there is no need for further discussion. Scrum.org has every right to make such a decision - even if some people do not like it.

In my personal opinion Acclaim solves a problem that would not really exist without Acclaim. Almost all certification providers have long since started to operate their own platforms and can integrate both badges and verifications - the advantage of this decentralized solution is that there is one "data collector" less to worry about.

 

And let's be honest: Where do you think recruiters and colleagues rather look for suitable candidates: On established platforms like LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook & Co., where members reveal a lot of interesting information, or on platforms like Acclaim, which hardly anyone uses for more than redundant display of acquired certificates?

Just my 2 cents... ;-)