Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

Upcoming CSM Courses

Why get Certified?

More and more these days, people believe that the Scrum Master role in Scrum is the same as some other role they’ve seen before. So it ends up becoming a duplicate of something that doesn’t even resemble the true Scrum Master role. The Scrum Master is supposed to be a master of the framework called Scrum, but what we continually see is Scrum Masters who don’t have any idea what Scrum really is, or what it is supposed to be used for. People who value their craft learn their craft from trusted experts. That’s why we are here.

It’s all lecture, right?

No way!!! We get bored of lecturing faster than you get bored of being lectured to, making it a lose-lose situation! Most of this class is discussion-based and activity-based. Very little of the class is actual lecture. We like to spice things up with bad jokes, deep discussion, and exercises that allow you to make mistakes and learn from them.

By the end of class, you will know enough about Scrum that you will be teaching the instructor! (Not a joke. You actually end up teaching Scrum to the instructor.)

What’s Covered?

• Dispelling Scrum Myths
• Agile Manifesto (Values and Principles)
• Empiricism
• Scrum Values
• The Roles, Rights, and their Responsibilities
• How to pick out a Great ScrumMaster in a crowd
• The Scrum Events and their inputs/outputs
• The Artifacts and who is responsible for them
• Maintaining transparency of the Artifacts
• Definitions of Ready and Done
• Product Backlog Refinement
• How to plan and facilitate an effective Retrospective
• Iterative and Incremental Development
• What to expect out of a Sprint Review
• Coaching the PO and Dev Team
• Serving the Organization
• An optional mock CSM Exam (after class)

Is there Prep Work?

Not really, but it would be great if everyone would come to class having read the Scrum Guide.

Since this is a virtual class, and we do lots of collaborative exercises, we use the industry-leading visual collaboration tool Mural. To get familiarized with it before class, you will be invited to a Mural Room and asked to follow the instructions on all of the Mural boards labeled with a zero “0”.  These boards have short exercises to get you familiar with the tool.

You will also need a computer with a good microphone, working webcam, and Zoom installed. We’re going to want to see your beautiful face in class (even if you are dressed in your favorite pajamas).

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for taking this class.

Is there an exam?

Yes. Don’t stress though. 90+% of students pass the exam on the first try. Here’s some info about it:

• 50 multiple choice questions (one right answer).
• A passing score is 74% (or 37 correct answers out of 50).
• Timed: 60 minutes.
• Not proctored, so you can take the exam from any computer and location of your choice.
• You have 90 days after class ends to start the exam.
• You can bookmark questions and return to them later.
• You may not pause the exam once you’ve started it.
• The exam is random.
• You may refer to notes and other references.
• You may not ask a Scrum Alliance certified individual for help on the exam while you take it.
• You have 2 attempts at taking the exam included with your course registration fee. After that, you have 2 more chances, but you will need to pay a $25 fee each time.

What if I want to take the class again?

It’s not often that students want to take the class again, but it happens, and we get it.

Need a refresher? Not totally confident about taking the exam? Took a CSM class with a different trainer, and want us to fill in any gaps?

No problem. As long as you can commit to being completely engaged throughout the entire class, we’ll gladly let you sit in on our class. Just contact us at wisdom@wisecrum.com, and we’ll get you all setup. No fees, no payments, nothing. Just show up for class and participate.

I took your CSM and LOVED it! … Now what?

So you’ve taken the class, you’ve passed the CSM exam, and you want to continue your journey to becoming a Certified Agile Coach, and/or a Certified Scrum Trainer. Excellent! We love hearing that!

Contact us at wisdom@wisecrum.com. We’ll either email back and forth with you, or jump on a phone or Zoom call to discuss the options that lie ahead of you. There’s a ton of options, by the way! No worries – all consultations are free of charge. Remember, once you are one of our students, we are your Scrum Trainer For Life!

Scrum Trainer For Life, to us, means that we will agree to give you biased (because we are only human) advice based on our industry knowledge and work experience. For life. For free. So we will coach you, for life, for free. Just you though… Not your whole team.