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Why PSD is such a great Training

October 19, 2017

I came into contact with the Professional Scrum Developer training in Zurich, Switzerland in 2012. I had been invited to a Train the Trainer event there to become a Professional Scrum Trainer myself.

It was the best course I had ever been to. It was fun and demanding and had the right balance of theory and practice.

Today the PSD training is still my favorite. It is the optimal way to get Scrum Teams started. I would like to tell you the reasons for that.

Become a Scrum Team

Usually when a Scrum Team is formed, the Scrum Master to be will be sent to a training and then introduce the rest of the Scrum Team about the rules and concepts.

While this is not at all bad, it is not exactly perfect: a Professional Scrum Master training teaches the rules of Scrum and how to apply them. It even delivers information on how the Product Owner work is organized and executed. It doesn't talk about how software development and delivery change in Scrum.

And exactly these aspects are most important for a Development Team in Scrum. They have to learn and know about

  • What is this Done Increment and how do we develop it Sprint by Sprint?
  • How to do the right work up-front without going into too much (wasteful) details?
  • Which software engineering practices can help creating quality code and quality software?
  • How to break down big features into small parts to get frequent feedback and how architecture can help with this challenge?

Theory & Practice

Professional Scrum Development can't be learned by lecture - it has to be experienced. You have to sit down with your team and create something. You have to live through technical and social issues and solve them. You have to feel Scrum to get its true meaning.

And - most importantly - you have to experience the awesome feeling at the end of a Sprint when your product Increment really rocks. The reason is because the whole team worked together as one unit.

The PSD training teaches the theory behind Scrum, the above mentioned topics, and more. But it also gets the team to work in three Sprints and create software. You will use your every day tools and will get hands-on experience in practices like

  • - Pair Programming
  • - Test Driven Development
  • - Continuous Integration

Of course you will also follow the Scrum rules with its roles, events and artifacts.

Why Professional Scrum Developer?

The PSD training is not only a training for a Development Team. It is most beneficial to experience the PSD as a whole Scrum Team, including Scrum Master and Product Owner. Since everyone in a Scrum Team has to understand the basics of work on the Product Backlog or the rules of Scrum, why shouldn't every member of a Scrum Team learn about Professional Software Development?

Furthermore, having the complete Scrum Team in the room for this training surfaces so many interesting team aspects that can be worked on directly. There will be so many "Aha!" moments where a Product Owner gets an insight on why "simple" stuff can be hard to do. Or a Scrum Master, who has to learn when to support the team actively and when to just be there, waiting to be approached.

Conclusion

If you are starting with Scrum or you have started a while back, but you feel there is still much room for improvement: why don't you invest in three days of Professional Scrum Development?

From my own experience I can say that teams leave the training being different from when they entered.

Scrum On!

Peter


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