Certified ScrumMaster

Certified ScrumMaster
Name	Certified ScrumMaster
Issued by	Scrum Alliance
Type	Professional certification
First issued	2002
Prerequisite	None

Contents

Certified ScrumMaster

Certified ScrumMaster is a professional credential created to validate knowledge of the Scrum framework and its facilitation practices. The credential is administered by Scrum Alliance and is used across organizations such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM, and Salesforce to indicate mastery of Scrum roles and ceremonies. Employers including Deloitte, Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, and Ernst & Young often list the certification in job postings for agile roles at firms like Siemens, General Electric, Apple Inc., Intel, and Cisco Systems.

Overview

The credential originated with Scrum Alliance in the early 2000s after practitioners like Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland popularized Scrum at conferences such as OOPSLA and events like Agile Alliance gatherings. Training is delivered by Certified Scrum Trainers associated with organizations including Scrum.org, Project Management Institute, Scaled Agile, Inc., ICAgile, and corporate academies at Spotify and ING Group. The certification signals familiarity with Scrum artifacts used in implementations at Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Barclays.

Candidates typically attend a two-day course taught by a Certified Scrum Trainer accredited by Scrum Alliance or authorized partners such as LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Udemy, and corporate training units at Toyota Motor Corporation and BMW. After completing classroom sessions with instructors from institutions like Harvard Business School Executive Education, Stanford University Continuing Studies, MIT Professional Education, and INSEAD Executive Education, participants receive exam access. The assessment process is administered online and modeled on practices endorsed by figures such as Martin Fowler, Alistair Cockburn, Mike Cohn, Lyssa Adkins, and Roman Pichler. Employers that recognize the credential include Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, Atlassian, Red Hat, and Zendesk.

Course syllabi cover the Scrum Guide authored by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland and teach facilitation, servant leadership, and removal of impediments. Core topics are taught using case studies from NASA, European Space Agency, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and SpaceX as well as simulations modeled on projects at Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and Nestlé. Exam questions evaluate understanding of Scrum artifacts cited in materials by Gregory A. Keegan, Ken Rubin, Jeff Patton, Chet Hendrickson, and Jim Coplien. The curriculum references agile events and outputs used in enterprises like McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, Capgemini, and Booz Allen Hamilton.

A Certified ScrumMaster is expected to coach teams, facilitate Scrum events, and serve as a servant leader in organizations such as Facebook, Twitter, Snap Inc., Pinterest, and Tencent. Responsibilities include shielding teams from external interruptions experienced at McDonald's Corporation, Walmart, Target Corporation, IKEA, and Home Depot and aligning stakeholders like Civic leaders and NGOs during public-sector adoptions in agencies such as UK Ministry of Defence, United States Department of Commerce, Australian Public Service, Government of Canada, and New Zealand Government. Practitioners collaborate with product owners and development teams in environments established by Netflix, Hulu, Disney, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures.

Maintaining the credential requires renewal through continuing education and community involvement promoted by Scrum Alliance, including contributions to forums such as Agile Alliance conferences, Scrum Gathering events, and workshops led by instructors from Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Berkeley Executive Education, Columbia University Executive Education, Yale School of Management, and Oxford Saïd Business School. Renewal pathways mirror professional development frameworks used by Project Management Institute, ISACA, AXELOS, Lean Enterprise Institute, and Skillsoft.

Critiques have been raised by commentators including Steve McConnell, Seth Godin, Tom DeMarco, Frederick P. Brooks Jr., and Eliyahu M. Goldratt about perceived commoditization of agile certifications and variability in trainer quality. Debates appear in venues like Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg, and Forbes and among practitioners associated with Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban (development) practitioners, Lean Startup proponents, Scaled Agile Framework critics, and members of Agile Alliance. Legal and trademark disputes have involved parties such as Scrum.org, Ken Schwaber, and Scrum Alliance in industry discussions alongside analyses by McKinsey Global Institute, Gartner, Forrester Research, IDC, and O'Reilly Media.

Category:Professional certifications