Passing the PSM I assessment with 100% — a retrospective
My own story and learning material
Bragging about certifications is pointless — use your experience to help others. That said, now first comes the learning material that I used to learn and can recommend from my own experience, followed by my own story.
Professional Scrum Master I learning material
- The Scrum Guide — the #1 document to know, available in >40 languages
- The Scrum Reference Card by Michael James and Luke Walter — a very valuable quick overview
- PSM Workbook and PSM Reference Guide (material from Xebia’s PSM training, not publicly available) — crucial for the “thinking parts” of the exam, to understand the reasons behind the rules
- Scrum.org Open Assessments — take the Scrum Open until you pass it 100% in a fraction of the time and the Nexus Open Assessment at least once
- Have an idea about how architecture works with Scrum — suggested reading: Emergent Architecture — “An Introduction to Agile Emergent Architecture — Always Intentional” by Charles Bradley
- Have an idea about how several Scrum teams can work on one product — suggested material: The Nexus Guide and the Nexus Open Assessment
- PSM I Exam Study Tips — a starting point which links to other resources; by Charles Bradley
General Scrum resources (very useful)
- Scrum — A Pocket Guide from Gunther Verheyen (handed out during Xebia’s PSM training) — very concise yet still a much softer introduction than just reading the Scrum Guide
- Scrum Training Series — a series of videos and a Q&A section
- Scum.org: Scrum Glossary — if it begins to bore you because everything seems so familiar, you are on the right track!
Specific topics (useful)
- Problem Solving in “Brain on” Mode by Wolfgang Wiedenroth — a lot of useful tips for teams, especially for the daily work
- Safety Check — How to make sure that people feel safe to discuss their ideas in meeting? — by Steven M. Smith
- Applied Macromeasurements to Ensure On-Time Delivery, an Agile Approach to “Metrics” (PDF) — for Product Owners: How to measure progress well? — by Michael James
- “Agile is Dead (Long Live Agility)” by Dave Thomas (alternative version, some anecdotes differ)
Scrum blogs (nice to read)
- Willem-Jan Ageling
- Dr Ian Mitchell at dzone (newer articles) and Google Sites (good overview of articles)
- Scrum.org Community blog
The story behind the 100%
If you have read so far, congratulations. I will tell more about my personal journey and explain why I think success in learning cannot be copied 1:1.
Where do I come from?
I have seen all four possible combinations of good or bad software development with or without Scrum. In order to express nicely what I experienced before the current Scrum transformation, let’s use a song title:
The broad timeline starting two years ago: In January I got a training by Jesse Houwing. The company reorganised its R&D department in March to do Scrum; work in my new team started in May. Roel Trienekens and Just Meddens worked as Agile coaches for some time.
Immediately after the training, I read a lot about Scrum, Agile and related topics. As I like to share and exchange knowledge, I compiled a list of links that my colleagues could use to learn about Scrum and to study for their certifications. I refined that collection over the course of time and not everything I have is included in the list above. As an example, I mentioned the excellent video “What truly motivates us?” in an earlier post — it’s definitely worth watching but I do not want to repeat myself.
Who am I?
I had a lot of comments and questions during the training. Important for me when being confronted with a new concept is that it withstands critical examination (at least a first round of it). The openness to debate was an essential factor for staying interested. This spirit was carried over into a series of critical-constructive sessions by the Agile coaches in the following months. And last but not least, I had a lot of discussions with Willem-Jan Ageling about Scrum and Agile, often coming from articles he had written.
This kind of motivation is nothing you can get by just learning for an exam. I included Dave Thomas’ speech in the link list because he criticizes how Agile has become too much about selling and scaling. This reminder served to me as an important counter-weight during all this time: Don’t be too impressed by any certificate you hold — in the end, what you achieve at work is what counts!
I was extremely busy delivering value, so getting the PSM I certification moved to the background for more than two years. After all, was it so important in that situation? I did not even work as a Scrum Master.
However, the PSM I assessment always remained a goal for me. As part of the training, I had gotten a free trial that did not expire. Therefore, there was no pressure to deliver, neither in costs or time. Comparing this to what kills my motivation, it gets clear that these are the best circumstances under which I achieve something.
For more than a year, I had felt that I had little autonomy about what to work on. For more than two years, I had trouble focussing on learning for an exam because work was consuming almost all of my concentration. And now this happened when I changed both for the first time…
My main take-away from the learning experience is that I have to insist more on my own autonomy, even if I get heavy pushback. I am a responsible person and will make sure that I deliver value as an employee.
Where do I go?
One reaction I got as a result to the 100% was “You have to do the PSM II immediately”. On the one hand, I can understand that as a lot of background knowledge is still in my mind, now it will be easier. At the moment the ratio between PSM II and PSM I certifcate holders is about 1:63 — this might help in discussions with people who cling to authority by titles. And I am very curious about the extra learning material that I already found.
On the other hand, I had no problem in reactivating my knowledge after two years and the practical experience had made it much easier to keep some parts constantly on my mind. My own path until now was not one of “first doing the exam and then using it for good” but “first gathering real-life insights and then conforming them by a formal exam”.
What keeps me thinking is how much I saw the difference between “can remember the exact wording from the official source” and “can explain the reasoning behind the words and think of how to apply them in a concrete situation”. I see more value in the second one.
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