Preparing for Professional Scrum with Kanban (PSK) Certification
How I prepared for this tough assessment
Since Professional Scrum with Kanban (PSK I) certification became available (25th April 2018), only 2777 people have passed the certification as of 10th May 2021. Clearly, this is not the most popular certification compared to PSM I with 389,987 certifications and PSPO I with 103,636 certifications. Maybe that is why there are very few resources available to prepare for PSK.
I attended the PSK training and passed the assessment last week. The training was good but it is neither necessary nor sufficient to pass this assessment.
There are some accounts of experiences on how to prepare for PSK here (May 2018), here (June 2018), and here (May 2020). Since I didn't find any recent articles, I decided to write one.
I found the PSK assessment to be harder than PSM II and SPS.
Preparation before taking the Training
I believe I have a reasonably good understanding of Scrum. To prepare for the training (not certification), I read the Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams and practiced the PSK Open Assessment a few times. This gave me a good idea of what to expect. If you are new to Scrum, I suggest reading and understanding the Scrum Guide as well. It will also help if you have PSM or PSPO certifications.
Preparing for PSK Assessment
As I mentioned earlier, don’t rely too heavily just on the training. I think there were several questions that I couldn’t have answered if I had relied solely on the class.
It goes without saying, that reading the Scrum Guide and the Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams several times is an absolute must. There are 16 blogs and articles here. Read all of them. Then read again, and again. These articles along with the above-mentioned guides form the backbone of the certification. If you have to prioritize, focus on these 16 blogs and articles. Daniel Vacanti has several videos on YouTube; watch a few. After a point, they will all look the same (in my opinion of course :-)).
I also read Daniel Vacanti’s book, Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability: An Introduction. The book is good, but if you have read and understood the above blogs, I don’t think there is a need to read this book for this assessment. The test focuses on your understanding of the concepts and doesn’t go into too much depth.
Just as Scrum has 3 responsibilities, 3 artifacts, and 5 events, Kanban for Scrum Teams has 4 practices and 4 metrics. While preparing, keep in mind how each of the new Kanban concepts impacts the Scrum Responsibilities, Artifacts, and Events.
Think about how and when you can use Kanban practices to improve Scrum. Make sure you understand how Kanban helps with empiricism.
Kanban optimizes flow by improving the overall efficiency, effectiveness, and predictability of a process. — Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams (Jan 2021)
For example, the Kanban guide states — “Kanban optimizes flow by improving the overall efficiency, effectiveness, and predictability of a process.” What does it really mean? How does Kanban optimize the flow, how does it improve the overall efficiency and productivity?
Let’s take another example — WIP Limit. The concept is simple. But what does it really mean? When can you change it? When can you not change it? When should you not change it? Who can change it?
Going deep into each concept will help you do better in the test.
Mock/Practice Tests
Unlike PSM and PSPO, there are not a lot of free options where you can practice taking mock tests. In addition to Scrum.org’s Open Assessment, I used the practice tests at thescrummaster.co.uk and redtangerine.org. They are good, but not sufficient.
PSK Certification
PSK assessment focuses on 3 areas –
1. How Kanban practices complement Scrum
2. How Kanban metrics complement Scrum
3. Understanding and applying the Scrum Framework
It is a 60 minute, 45 question test. Questions are single select as well as multi-select. 60 minutes is sufficient to answer all the questions and then go back to those that require additional thinking. I doubt anyone will be rushed for time.
Some questions were very easy and straightforward. Some questions were straight from the Open Assessment. There were some questions that were not covered by any material that I had read. There were also some questions that required your own analysis.
Those questions required significant thought about the underlying intent of the Scrum framework and the Scrum with Kanban strategy.
It will help to be aware of details like the implications of flow and flow metrics and the differences of how Scrum accommodates them and can be improved by Kanban.
Last words
Yes, the test is a bit tough, but it is not impossible. With sufficient preparation, you can complete it successfully. If 2777 people can do it, so can you!
How did you go about preparing for PSK? Would love to hear your thoughts…
