I recently had the opportunity to take a two-day certification course for the Agile Scrum Master certification offered by the Scrum Alliance.  This course is a prerequisite for taking the certification exam, and teaches you the principles you need in order to understand the Scrum methodology and adequately prepare for the exam.

The course was taught by Peter Borsella with Winnow Management and was a superbly-run session with great information and an impressive relation to individual experiences and stories that Peter has accumulated over the years.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is a simple yet incredibly powerful set of principles and practices that help teams deliver products in short cycles, enabling fast feedback, continual improvement, and rapid adaptation to change. As the leading Agile development framework, Scrum has predominantly been used for software development, but it is also proving to be effective in efforts far beyond.

What is a Scrum Master?

The Scrum Master is responsible for making sure a Scrum team lives by the values and practices of Scrum. The Scrum Master is often considered a coach for the team, helping the team do the best work it possibly can. The Scrum Master can also be thought of as a process owner for the team, creating a balance with the project’s key stakeholder, who is referred to as the product owner.

I currently have a Senior Professional Human Resources (SPHR) certification that I’m allowing to run out, mostly because my line of work has changed enough that it’s simply not worth the time and expense of keeping it current through educational credits.  My Six Sigma Black Belt certification does not expire, which is nice.

My next undertaking will be the Project Management Professional (PMP) which is arguably the most valuable certification in my industry.  It’s also one of the more rigorous and the fact that the body of knowledge you must understand is just really dry.  Studying for the exam couldn’t possibly be less fun.

Oh, the things we do to be competitive in our work lives..