Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

 

The "Certified ScrumMaster" course is presented Live Online in partnership with Scrum WithStyle.

 

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) is the most widely recognised Agile-related accreditation in the world. Certification body Scrum Alliance was founded in 2001 and is a not-for-profit association. With over 1 million practitioners having been accredited with Scrum Alliance, it is the largest Agile-specific professional membership organisation globally.

There are three steps to earning a Certified ScrumMaster accreditation:

1. Familiarise yourself with Scrum through our pre-course study material
2. Complete our Virtual CSM course including 16 contact hours
3. Pass the CSM Test administered online by Scrum Alliance within 90 days of completing the course

For further information on the certification process, see the Certified ScrumMaster page on the Scrum Alliance website.

This course qualifies Project Management Professionals (PMPs) for 14 PDUs as approved by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

 

Prepare with our CSM Practice Tests

You can be very confident of not just passing but excelling at the CSM test after preparing with Scrum WithStyle.

We have crafted multiple practice CSM tests that you take at the end of sessions during the course. Each question follows the 4 option multiple choice format of the certification test with coverage of all CSM test topic areas. Substantial answer explanations are provided immediately upon responding to each question. The most difficult questions are discussed at the start of the final session.

Our practice tests are more difficult than the official Scrum Alliance certification test. As such, if you do well at the practice tests, you can expect to do even better at the certification test.

 

Live Virtual Training

Our virtual training continues to be called "amazing", "insightful", “fun and informative" by participants (see testimonials below).

There's no need to worry about missing out compared with in-person training. This course is not a series of pre-recorded videos that you passively watch. This CSM is a live interactive virtual experience with the trainer coming to you live from Sydney, Australia. It covers all the same learning objectives as the in-person CSMs - just using a different interaction medium. As a bonus, you will come away with a lot of practical techniques for remote working!

You can expect a highly interactive virtual learning experience with continuous live video amongst all participants. The course is designed to exploit the potential of state-of-the-art online collaboration tools as well as leveraging research-based adult eLearning approaches to maximise learner interaction and retention.

This course is scheduled in 8-hour sessions across 2 consecutive business days.

 

Learning Objectives

Reviewing the learning objectives for the course is an excellent and in-depth way to find out what participants will be learning during the course. Scrum Alliance define the learning objectives that learners are to work to in all Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) offerings. For CSM, this includes both of the following sets of learning objectives.

• Scrum Foundations Learning Objectives - January 2020 (PDF)
• Certifed ScrumMaster Learning Objectives - January 2020 (PDF)

Scrum WithStyle's CSM is up-to-date with the latest learning objectives that were published in early 2020.

 

Initial Course Backlog

The following Backlog provides an initial course agenda. Just like any good Agile initiative, the backlog that we choose to pull in can change as we inspect feedback from stakeholders and make adaptations to the backlog during the course within the constraints of the Scrum Foundations and CSM learning objectives.

Scrum Framework

• Scrum Values – create working agreements based on the 5 Scrum Values for use during the course.
• Scrum Overall – discover many specific connections between Scrum and Agile as well as where implementation flexibility is and is not.
• Scrum Events – create your own Scrum diagram and practice teaching about the Scrum events.
• Empirical Process Control – connect empirical process control to your work context and its implications for planning.
• Session 1 Quiz – test your understanding of material covered in session 1 with substantial answer explanations provided.

Scrum Practical

• Pre-Sprint Practical – self-organise into teams and do initial backlog refinement
• Sprint 1 Practical – produce a real product Increment using Scrum and identify ways to improve it in the Sprint Review.
• Sprint 1 Retrospective Practical – apply techniques from the 5-part Sprint Retrospective agenda to produce as measurable improvement experiment.
• Sprint Planning Practical – apply capacity-based Sprint Planning (not velocity-based).
• Sprint 2 Practical – iterate and increment on the product incorporating learnings from Sprint 1.
• Scrum Artefacts – identify the purpose of each of the Scrum Artefacts and the responsibilities of each of the Scrum Roles in relation to them.

Scrum Roles

• Scrum Roles – study and teach about the 3 Scrum Roles, how Scrum provides an alternative approach to project management and what each Scrum role does in the Scrum Events.
• Team Development – clarify the difference between a work group and a team, the benefits of a cross-functional self-organising team and models to assist with team development.
• Service to the Scrum Team – identify when to apply teaching, mentoring, facilitation, coaching and impediment resolution facilitation.
• The Sprint – explore the benefits of iterative, incremental, time-boxing and their implementation in The Sprint.
• CSM Practice Test – practice for taking the official CSM exam with substantial answer explanations provided.

Continuous Improvement

• Practice Test Answers – discuss the thinking behind the most challenging practice test questions.
• Service to the Product Owner – identify the many ways to enhance Product Ownership and Product Backlog Refinement.
• Definition of Done – create a mindmap as step 1 of 2 toward commitment to a Definition of Done and an associated Undone work list making improvement opportunities transparent.
• Q&A – have your remaining questions answered.
• Development Practice – compete in a "gameshow" challenge to identify Agile development practices and explore the multiple types of technical debt.
• Leadership and Organisational Change – design interventions to team and organisational difficulties that exhibit servant-leadership as well as practical techniques for operating as a Scrum Master.
• Next Steps – identify a practical next step and someone to support you in following through with it.

 

10 reasons to choose this course

1. 12 years of refinement - your trainer - Rowan Bunning - has delivered almost 400 Scrum Certification courses and has inspected and adapted this course frequently for over the last 12 years.
2. Recommended again and again - many participants choose us based on word-of-mouth recommendation such as those below in the "What others are saying about this course" section.
3. Emphasises the impactful Why? - unlike courses that stop at the process "mechanics" and spoon feed you tactical tips, this course focuses on the principles and deep insights. These allow you to navigate your own situationally appropriate tactics relative to your context levering values and principles - something that is necessary for sustainable Agile.
4. Smaller, more interactive class - some courses will have you compete to have your questions answered amongst 40 or more participants! We keep our class sizes small to provide plenty of opportunity for direct trainer interaction as well as hearing from a diverse group of other learners. Our typical class size is 12 with a maximum of 20.
5. Stories from 19 years of experience - Rowan brings the principles alive with (often dramatic) Agile adoption stories from the trenches in a wide variety of organisations both down under and in Europe since 2001.
6. Learn from the region's first Path to CSP Educator - Rowan is the first trainer in Australasia to be approved to teach Advanced CSM courses. This CSM course prepares you to take the Path all the way to Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM) - the ultimate accreditation for a ScrumMaster - with a consistent learning programme.
7. Rich mix of learning approaches - we use highly immersive adult learning techniques such as problem-solving discussions, visual modelling and neuroscience-aligned Training from the Back of the Room activities to enable self-directed learning and enhanced retention.
8. PDF of All Course Material - you will receive all course material used in PDF format including an export of the online workspace, practical tips not found elsewhere and CSM Practice Test answer explainations.
9. Detailed next steps - since we teach the next course after CSM - Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM) - we offer detailed information on how you can prepare for taking the next major step in your professional development as a Scrum Master.
10. Ongoing support - have a question (or three) later on? Graduation from this course gains you access to the Scrum WithStyle Alumni community which has an active discussion forum on Slack where the trainer and many other experienced practitioners respond to your ongoing queries.

 

Inclusions

• 16 contact hours of training - with an Agile practitioner with 19+ years of experience and Certified Scrum Trainer since 2008
• Certification Test - administered online by Scrum Alliance
• Multiple Practice Tests - including answer explanations for the tests unique to Scrum WithStyle
• CSM Certification - active for 2 years for participants who pass the post-course Certification Test
• All course material - PDF export of the entire Miro workspace including all course material and output from group exercises.
• Personal Workbook - containing your notes.
• Daily Scrum tips – a compilation of practical tips from 19 years of coaching on Daily Scrums.
• Encouraging Shared Responsibility and Self-organisation – a checklist of ingredients to stimulate effective self-organisation.
• Example Checklist for ScrumMasters – practical examples of ways to make a big impact as a Scrum Master.
• Ongoing Support – ask questions any time ongoing in the Scrum WithStyle Alumni workspace on Slack.
• PDU Letter - a letter of course completion that may be submitted to your employer and/or a professional body (PMI, ACS or similar) for PDUs (available on request)

 

Registration

To register one or more participants for this course, select "REGISTER" above and complete the online sign-up at Eventbrite.com.

Prices are in Australian dollars and payment options include:

• Credit card - Mastercard, Visa, Amex
• Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) - choose "Pay by invoice" as Payment Method

Terms & Conditions can be found on the first page of the booking transaction at Eventbrite.com.

 

What participants are saying

All of these reviews are of our virtual online CSM experience.

 

"Amazing course. It has got so many things to learn from which can be useful for future growth. Must recommend."

- Kavita Sippy, ScrumMaster Certified Scrum Master, Team Lead - Desktop Support and Service Delivery at iiNet

 

 

"A really great insight and hands on training into Scrum, what it means and how it applies in the workplace."

- Mark Goss, ScrumMaster

 

 

"Learned many new things in this course and would definitely recommend to others who would want to pursue their career as a Scrum Master."

- Hari Kotha, Intermediate Test Analyst at Kiwiplan

 

 

"I want to thank Rowan Bunning CST from Scrum WithStyle and the team at Equinox IT for the Certified ScrumMaster course. As I have never been in an online classroom environment, I was a little sceptical approaching the course but Rowan Bunning CST made it effortless for us. Really excited to complete the certification and looking forward to using the knowledge as I head into my new role. Great stuff guys!!!"

- Pramod Raveendran, Information Technology Service Delivery Manager at OSS Group Ltd

 

 

"Rowan Bunning is an excellent and experienced trainer, with years of real life experience in the development and Scrum processes. This was very apparent in the level of training that our CSM course group received at Scrum WithStyle.

Learning within different non work groups was a real eye opener as it gave me an insight into how other companies develop and work within the Scrum Agile framework. It was very different to how the company I work for has implemented the Agile framework.

Rowan was an expert at getting everyone in our training course engaged and collaborating in the learning process. It was a real facilitation success, and I could see everyone gained a better understanding of the course material."

- Paul Clarke, Senior Software Developer, Indue

 

Who should attend

This Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) course is the world's most popular foundational course in Scrum and is useful for anyone in any role working in a Scrum-based or Scrum-like Agile environment. This course also provides techniques targeted at Agile capability leaders playing roles such as:

• ScrumMaster
• Agile Coach
• Iteration Manager
• Delivery Manager
• Project Manager
• Team Lead
• Development Manager
• Chapter Lead
• Transformation Lead

This workshop is also relevant to team members who wish to understand the Scrum-based organisational system that they are working in. Such roles vary depending on the domain (business process change, marketing, support etc,). In a software development domain such roles include:

• Programmer
• Tester
• Business Analyst
• User Experience Designer
• Solution Architect
• Technical Writer

 

Pre-requisites

Whilst there are no formal training pre-requisites for this CSM course, it is expected that participants have an appreciation of the challenges involved in product development or project work from first-hand experience.

 

Preparation

A little well targeted preparation enables participants to accelerate their learning. See Virtual CSM Preparation page for details on what it expected prior to course commencement.

 

CSM is a first step towards CSP

Completing the CSM is yourfirst step towards achieving Advanced Certified ScrumMaster^TM (A-CSM^TM) and then Certified Scrum Professional^® – ScrumMaster (CSP^®-SM).

 

 

Your Certified Scrum Trainer - Rowan Bunning

After beginning his Agile journey with eXtreme Programming in 2001, Rowan Bunning began practising as a Scrum Master in 2003 and was the first in Australia to become a Certified ScrumMaster at the beginning of 2005. He was subsequently mentored by the first Scrum Trainer in Europe.

In his first few years as a Scrum Master Rowan coached a high performing team with an executive as Product Owner, led an organisation-wide Agile adoption and was instrumental in recovering a multi-million pound project in Europe. Such experiences are only the start of the many illuminating stories that Rowan embeds into his CSM training.

Rowan is the first and only educator in Australasia approved to teach all courses through to Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) for Scrum Masters. This includes Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM) and Certified Scrum Professional-ScrumMaster (CSP-SM). Starting your journey as a Scrum Master with Rowan means that you have the option to receive a smooth and coherent learning experience all the way through to the highest level offered for Scrum Masters.

This and all other Scrum WithStyle course are available as highly interactive virtual experiences leveraging the best online learning tools to an extreme.