Suggested Reading for PSD™

Modern Tooling and Practices for Software Developers

Prior to taking the PSD I certification a great way to prepare is to attend the Applying Professional Scrum - Software Developer training course, taught by a Scrum.org Professional Scrum Trainer.

Where to begin

Study the Scrum Guide.
- Valuable series of articles, blogs, videos and more that pertain to the 2020 version of the Scrum Guide released on November 18, 2020.
Learn from the Software Developer Learning Path.
Read this blog about Scrum and Best Practices.

The assessment will randomly draw questions from each of the sections listed below.

The Scrum Framework

Scrum theory includes timeboxing, and specific accountabilities, rules, and artifacts. All elements of Scrum complement each other to form a consistent whole. All work is performed in Sprints. All base rules, events, and accountabilities are described in the Scrum Guide, the acknowledged Scrum body of knowledge. Each part of Scrum ties back to the principles and theory.

This is foundational knowledge for every Scrum Team member and anyone involved with Scrum. A Professional Scrum Developer works effectively on a Scrum Team within the Scrum framework to deliver value.

Scrum Theory and Principles

Scrum is founded on empirical process theory to deal with the complexity typical to software development. All principles and values of Scrum are based on the fundamental view of software development as creative and complex work.

Scrum Developers recognize and acknowledge this complexity. They can explain and promote the use of concurrency, self-management and modern, agile software development techniques as an answer to this problem of complexity.

Cross-functional, Self-managing Development

Developers in Scrum are self-managing. Self-management requires not only the availability of the right development skills, but also collaboration, team commitment, joint problem ownership, shared goals and creativity. The Developer autonomously make all decisions on how to do the work that they have forecast to could complete in a Sprint.

Backlog Refinement

Creating great software includes understanding the needs of users, stakeholders and the market place. In today’s highly complex markets with many unpredictable changes, details are added to requirements last minute, and even while programming. The Developers and the Product Owner collaborate on the software expectations in creating, clarifying, and estimating items in the Product Backlog.

Emergent Architecture

Scrum has an iterative-incremental approach to software development and the focus is on shippable software at the end of every Sprint. In the domains of software design and architecture this leads to a major shift, i.e. from prescriptive and upfront to emergence. Designs and architectures grow and change as applications and products grow and change.

Technical Practices

As part of incremental development, Scrum puts quality before scope. Writing high-quality code is an art in itself. It requires skills, dedication, mastery, agreed practices, and agreed on standards.

Testing

It is considered a good agile development practice to think through requirements before writing functional code. It helps to consider work in terms of how it will be tested, but it also creates and improves traceability and eliminates other wasteful activities that are traditionally part of upfront requirements specification processes. The ability to deliver shippable software by the end of every Sprint requires different testing strategies, where testing activities are to be done as part of development.

Standards

Scrum Developers work toward company, development and organizational standards. Such standards provide guidance. The Developers decide on the actual implementation, thereby respecting the standards.