How to Get PSPO I Certified: a Short Guide
A week ago, I passed my Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I) assessment from Scrum.org. My score was 98.8% (79 points scored out of 80 maximum points). In this story, I would like to share the steps I took in order to get certified. Hopefully, they will help you in your journey. Good luck!
Step 1 — Read the book
I do recommend starting your preparation with the book “The Professional Product Owner: Leveraging Scrum as a Competitive Advantage” by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham.
Step 2 — Read the Scrum & Nexus Guides
I know you probably read the Scrum Guide in former times, but I recommend reading it very thoughtfully now.
To understand how Scrum scales, also read the Nexus Guide.
Step 3 — Know the professional Scrum competencies
Just go through the professional Scrum competencies as they are mostly covered in the book “The Professional Product Owner: Leveraging Scrum as a Competitive Advantage” I mentioned above.
Step 4 — Read the Scrum Glossary
Review the glossary to make sure you understand all the important terms.
Step 5 — Review other materials
There are many other additional study materials you could review, e.g.:
- “The New New Product Development Game” article;
- “A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making” article;
- Product Owner Learning Path from Scrum.org (as for me, I reviewed just several articles and videos).
Step 6 — Practice tests
This is an important step to understand what kind of questions are being asked and know the knowledge of what should be improved.
Free tests:
- Scrum.org open assessments (try Scrum Open, Product Owner Open, Nexus Open, Agile Leadership Open, Evidence-Based Management Open);
- Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I) Practice Assessment by TheScrumMaster.co.uk;
- PSPO I™ Preparation Quiz — Learning Mode by Mikhail Lapshin;
- Product Owner exam simulator (practice tests) by volkerdon;
- PSPO 1 Mock Test — Open Assessment by ProProfs Quizzes;
- PSPO I Exam Simulation by Solution Delivery Knowledge Center;
- PSPO I ® Certification Preparation — Mock Exam by AgileScrumban.
Paid tests:
- Product Owner Certification Mock Exams 2022–800 questions by Ludovic Larry.
⚠️ While practicing tests, I do recommend doing the work on mistakes: review the questions where you were wrong, understand your mistakes, and take the corresponding notes.
Final step
You are almost done!
One day before the assessment:
- Actively practice tests, especially those where you got not the best results previously;
- Reread the Scrum Guide;
- Review your notes.
On the day of the assessment:
- Take the assessment in a quiet environment in the morning;
- Do not stress out — you already know everything, believe me!
