The Circus of Agile Certifications

Are Agile Certifications a scam or are they meaningful and valuable? Make sense of the 200 agile certifications and decide which might be best for you.

Previously I wrote about the three most popular entry-level agile certifications and I referenced a great 2016 article from Bob Galen. I was surprised — shocked actually — to learn that Bob had cataloged 113 possible certifications for agile people. The list was overwhelming and I put it aside.

In 2019, Tom Cagley and I created a hiring guide for Scrum Masters and Coaches. We thought it would be helpful to hiring managers if we included a reference table in our guide, listing all the possible agile certifications out there, sorted alphabetically.

Little did we realize how challenging that would be since there are many more certifications than we previously knew. Let’s look at that circus of agile certifications.

But first an aside about my relationship with Agile Certifications.

My Love-Hate Relationship with Agile and Scrum Certifications

You may recall my rant a year ago when I found out that my certifications from the Scrum Alliance would expire. I was already…