The Value of Scrum Certifications

(Singapore)

November 13, 2018

Ahhh... the never-ending debate. What's the value of (Scrum) certifications? Is there any value? Why should you get certified? Is it even necessary? Hmmm...

discussion

Definitely an interesting topic and when you start "googling" it, you'll stumble upon many MANY yes, no, yes, no, maybe debates.

For this blog, I'll be focussing on Scrum.org. So let's take a step back again. What's the value of Scrum.org certifications? Is there any value? Why should you get certified?

I would say, it depends on your intentions. If your intention is only to get the Scrum certifications, then I'm sorry, there is no value there. Perhaps you should not even be doing it then Why? Because you're doing it for the wrong reasons!

Then what should be the reason?

But, if you're intrinsically motivated to help your organization become Agile by adopting Scrum, improving the profession of product delivery with Scrum and be an ambassador of change then yes, there is definitely value in getting yourself certified.

Knowing Scrum vs. Understanding Scrum

Every Scrum role, event, and artifact has an important purpose. What does empiricism truly mean? What's the power of bottom-up intelligence through self-organized cross-functional teams? How to use the Scrum Values as a compass? What's validate-learning? What do we mean by value? Know where you can bend the rules without breaking the principles. All of this, Scrum.org has a clear vision when it comes to the usage of Scrum. The fundamental distinction between knowing Scrum and understanding Scrum.

Scrum grew lighter and lighter. Less complete, less perfect in a way. Prescriptions, situational practices and techniques were gradually removed from the official definition of Scrum as it is documented in the Scrum Guide. Scrum turned into the framework that it was always designed to be. - Gunther Verheyen

Conclusion

Experience is not equal to knowledge. Having the knowledge doesn't always mean you understand it.
Scrum is a simple lightweight understandable framework, but extremely difficult to master.

Scrum.org training and exams (especially the advanced ones such as PSM III and PSPO II) consists of the case studies in essay format, where your in-depth understanding of the application and practices of Scrum (Scrum Master, Developer, Product Ownership, Scaling), the values and underlying principles in a variety of complex team and organizational situations are being challenged. In my opinion, a verification of this understanding is valuable!

It's clear that passing the exams doesn't make you an expert yet:

First, work on understanding Scrum. A training could be a great way to kickstart this process.
Once you have the proper understanding, you can start exploring Scrum to gain experience.
When you have the proper understanding and start applying Scrum in real life, you'll experience the challenges and highlights. Don't walk away from challenges, but face them! Eventually, knowledge will come.

So, what were your intentions when you decided to become Scrum certified?

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Comments (5)

Khushboo Sawlani

08:41 am November 14, 2018

Couldn't agree more on this. Just reading Scrum guide and couple of agile articles doesn't mean you understand Scrum. Validated Learning plays an important role to master it and gain benefits from it.

Eric Naiburg

09:14 pm November 16, 2018

Great point Adam. That is why Scrum.org has added learning paths for Scrum Masters and Product Owners with more to come for other roles. These are free resources to help you learn and can be found here:
https://www.scrum.org/pathw...
https://www.scrum.org/pathw...

Or found by clicking Resources then ...for Scrum Masters or ... for Product Owners

Colin McIntosh

09:47 pm November 20, 2018

Agile is empirical.

Experience is a critical factor in true understanding.

The value of certifications like PSM is certainly not in the certification itself, but in the way it makes you study, learn, experiment and adapt. Some people will get to the study & learn stages enough to pass the exam, but never become practioners. I would encourage people to use the certification as part of the practical nature of being agile.

Good article that encourages people to use certification as a building block of using the Agile framework, being able to adopt and adapt.

Larry Blankenship

06:28 pm December 12, 2018

I took the PSM-I certification not because I wanted the letters after my name (though that's a nice perk), but because I wanted to show I had taken the time to really understand Scrum. The big thing I've noticed is that there seem to be people who understand that Agile > Scrum, and that Scrum is a starting, not an ending point of becoming agile.

Sen Sei

05:16 pm January 13, 2019

For me the reasons were many:
- validating that my understanding of Scrum is actually in line with, erm, Scrum. Some people tend to give some hack understanding of Scrum without any proof. Because obviously if you're doing the same thing for 10 years you're a senior now.
- having better chance at interviews - well, PSM 1-3 opens up some doors.
- ending some pointless debates - when people tend to argue about some concepts you can just tell them to pull out their ranks:) But that's something I do not like, though sometimes it seems like the only valid thing to do.

Of course, doing certs for certs' sake is pointless unless you like to collect those icons as people tend to collect odd things indeed.

Don't look down on people who are reluctant to getting those, rather talk with them. Just like that. Maybe they'll end up interested, maybe not. All fair game I guess.

Try not to be a fanatic though. Of course, Scrum Shock Therapy seems very reasonable but once again - if everything you have is a hammer, things start to look as nails. Yes, this is also subjective.