Become Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) and learn how Scrum works!
Scrum is the most common agile framework with over 72% of its respondents citing it as the methodology adopted by their organization. According to the 13th Annual State of Agile Report.
Recently, I achieved the Professional Scrum Master I(PSM I) assessment. I answered 77 questions correctly, obtaining 96.3%. So let me share my experience with you in the next few lines to know more about how to become a Certified Scrum Master.
My Journey with Scrum
I have been working as a Software developer for several years now at corporate companies that use agile and specifically Scrum framework and I wanted to learn more about Scrum and understand how to adapt it better to my work.
So I asked about how I could study Scrum and all answers led me to get a well-respected certificate but that would need some time investment and also some time to study as the exam isn’t easy at all.
After my experience taking the exam and starting working again, the Scrum certificate is worth it as I was studying, I discovered that I really didn’t know so much about Scrum after all, and I discovered a whole new, different Scrum that I didn’t know about. Most companies don’t implement Scrum well as they don’t understand Scrum well.
Here I will share with you my guide to make it easier for people who already have worked in scrum teams before and want to pursue the PSM exam so they can pass the exam like a boss ;)
Assessment Preparation — Overview
First, Scrum has two well-known organizations that adopt it in the market Scrum.org and Scrum Alliance so you have two options: take the PSM certification provided by Scrum.org® or the CSM certificate provided by the Scrum Alliance® Long story short both are equally respected and the only difference is in the way of acquiring the knowledge, not the knowledge itself.
If you will study on your own and take the online exam, then go for PSM. If you enjoy class courses and practical live classrooms or your company provides scrum training, then go for the CSM.
Now Good job so far my friend, as you are still reading then you, decided to be a Certified Scrum Master and there are many questions that popped up in your mind so let's answer them together :)
First, How much time it would take you to understand Scrum and also get Certified?
For the PSM exam: in my experience, Full-time for 8 hour's study would take on average two or three days but if you will study 4 hours per day or less than double the time for a maximum week of study.
For the CSM exam: Most trainers that provide CSM do it for a maximum of two or three full days and you will do the exam conducted by the trainer on the last day.
Second, How much is the Scrum certification?
The Professional Scrum Master (PSM) course costs around $350 -$1500 (that’s not mandatory as you can self-study).
And the PSM Exam is 60 minutes long, has 80 questions, and costs $150.
The Certified Scrum Master (CSM) course costs around $1000-$1400 (including the exam).
Now you are finalizing your decision and here it comes to the last question.
Third, what is the learning path I should take to learn Scrum and get Certified?
For CSM when you apply for the training the instructor will introduce you to their way of learning Scrum and also their understanding of it to pass the exam.
For the PSM exam let me introduce you to my super-learning path ;)
First, read those two Golden Guides well ONCE
First, the Scrum guide that you will find here https://www.scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2017/2017-Scrum-Guide-US.pdf
Then the Nexus guide (Scaled Scrum Guide) that you will find here
https://scrumorg-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/drupal/2018-01/2018-Nexus-Guide-English_0.pdf
Second, Do The Scrum Master and Product Owner Open Assessment
I advise you to do the Scrum Master and Product Owner as they both have superb questions that will help you understand Scrum more and also you will find questions from both of them in the PSM test.
Scrum Master Open assessment: https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/scrum-open
Product Owner Open assessment: https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/product-owner-open
Third, check the learning path for PSM in Scrum.org
You will find many categories and many resources in every category but you need not read everything in every module… you should only check one or two links and that’s enough to understand the material.
Here is the link https://www.scrum.org/pathway/scrum-master.
The purpose here is not only to study for the exam but to understand the topics of the SCRUM GUIDE as the PSM exam has questions about every point in the learning path but only tests understanding of these topics through situation questions.
The one before last re-read the SCRUM GUIDE again
Yes, please re-read the SCRUM GUIDE again multiple times and focus on every word and imagine how you can apply every part to your team.
And do the Open Assessment for both PSM and PSPO AGAIN until you can solve the tests in a few minutes.
Finally, The last piece of advice
The last check is to be sure that you can pass the PSM test in 60 minutes. You may purchase the practice exam from mplaza it’s for £30 only but it’s worth it as it has many questions you will find in the exam and give you detailed feedback for answers.
Also, there is a FREE website called mlapshin that offers real-mode exam questions too. They are both fine and give you an overview of the exam questions and also the exam mood.
When I did my exam, I finished the exam and had 20 minutes extra left and I revised the questions all again but that’s because I had done the practice exams that I mentioned over and over till I could finish them in less than 15 minutes as I prepared myself to be so fast at responding to all questions.
Conclusion
Scrum is an outstanding framework but you need to understand it well before adopting it to your team and PSM exam is not a hard exam but you need to be prepared well as its success rate (85%) is high and the time allowed (60 minutes for 80 questions) is short so you need to understand the scrum guide well and practice the exam enough time to get the most out of The Scrum and surely pass the exam.
An early Congratulation from me to all of you and good luck in your careers :)💪
