What is CSM?

Certified ScrumMaster is one of the integral certifications that is offered by Scrum Alliance for professionals who wish to embark on the journey of a ScrumMaster. CSM certification is an introductory certification in the line of Scrum Certifications that help working professionals to start on their Agile journey with confidence. 

How to be a Certified ScrumMaster?

  • In order to be CSM certified, candidates need to mandatorily attend a 2-day training imparted by a Certified Scrum Trainer® (CST®).
  • The theoretical and practical knowledge of Scrum and the values embedded in it will be taught as part of the CSM Training where  the candidates can put it into use in real life.
  • These principles of Scrum can be implemented in both Agile and Non-Agile scenarios to deliver high quality products.
  • Knowledge of Scrum Framework and it’s practical implementation in the form of lectures, exercises, discussions and simulations associated with these learnings will be covered as part of these training sessions.
  • Generally the training will be conducted by Industry experts and the materials used will be abreast with the current market.

Benefits of CSM certification

  • Candidates who have attended Certified Scrum Master Certification training can lead the teams better.
  • Their chance of advancing in the career becomes easy with the CSM Certification as the training covers all nuances that are essential to handle the projects.
  • CSM Certified professionals will be confident to coach their respective teams in adopting the Agile and Lean techniques and ensure the organisation reaches its desired potential.
  • CSM certified professionals are in great demand in all companies. It provides the necessary boost to career and also helps to get better salary packages.
  • There are a few organisations which are insisting their employees to get a mandatory CSM certification so as to reap benefits from the training in terms of on-time completion of projects and better quality of deliverables.
  • Additionally, the knowledge of Scrum facilitates organisations to self-organise the teams. 

Topics covered as part of training

  • In addition to the 2-day training, the candidates have to acquaint themselves with the Agile Manifesto, Scrum Guide and values of Scrum to successfully pass the exam.
  • Also the candidates can familiarise themselves with the CSM Learning Objectives in order to identify the type of questions that can come from each section.
  • Additionally, the team that defines the changes, protocols and policies are expected to align themselves with the knowledge of Agile.
  • CSM Course helps the candidate to understand the roles and responsibilities of everyone in the Scrum team and also the servant-leader relationship.

Who can take CSM?

  • This Certification can be taken up by anyone who wants to understand and incorporate the knowledge of Scrum in their professional working environments.
  • Project Managers, Program Managers Team leaders, Members of development team, Business Analysts, System Analysts, Testing team, Founders, Entrepreneurs and Fresher’s are eligible to take up the Certification and progress in their career.

All about CSM Exam

  • Upon enrolling for the course and attending the 2-day CSM training, the candidates will be eligible to take up the exam on receiving a mail from Scrum Alliance.
  • This is an online based and an open book exam.
  • The candidate has to be familiar with the Learning Objectives associated with CSM that includes:
    • Scrum Theory
    • Roles associated with Scrum such as ScrumMaster, Product Owner and Development team roles
    • Events related to Scrum such as Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, Daily Scrum, Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog & Scrum Artifacts.
  • The exam spans for an hour and is available in 13 languages consisting of 50 multiple choice questions. The candidate that appears in the exam gets a passing score of 74% (minimum 37 questions need to be answered correctly)
  • On passing the exam, candidates will have to create a profile on ScrumAlliance.org and further can download the certificate after accepting the license agreement on the website.

Certificate Validity and renewal

  • The validity of the certification is 2 years and it can be further renewed by earning SEUs and paying the renewal fees of 100 USD.