Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM)

Out next 'Advanced Certified ScrumMaster' course will run as a multi-session 'Live Online' course - see the upcoming courses here.

The 'Advanced Certified ScrumMaster' course is delivered 'Live Online' in partnership with Scrum WithStyle.

Our Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM^TM) course is focused on practical skills acquisition to help you to more effectively deal with your real-world challenges and take your leadership of Agile capability building to the next level. It builds on your learning and work experience during and since your CSM course. It is also the required next step for ScrumMasters and Agile Coaches who are looking to attain the high bar of Certified Scrum Professional – ScrumMaster^® (CSP-SM^®). Here are some reasons to become a CSP.

An A-CSM credential says to your peers, employer and the job market that you have proven that you can work effectively as a ScrumMaster with teams, Product Owners, stakeholders, complimentary frameworks and techniques.

From your CSM you already know about the values, principles, and practices of Scrum. Now it is time to extend your capability to overcome the challenges that you have been facing in implementing it at work.

Having practised Scrum or a Scrum-like Agile approach for 12 months or more, you know that the ScrumMaster role is a very challenging role to perform in an impactful way. It involves much more than being just a “team facilitator”. It requires the development of a variety of skills from professional coaching to systems thinking to change and growth leadership whilst serving the Product Owner and broader organisation in addition to one or more development teams. It requires a deep understanding of Scrum, Agile and Lean principles as well as the confidence to challenge both yourself and your colleagues to change their thinking and unwind their ingrained habits.

Advancing as a Scrum Master

Live online training

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 A-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 our in-person A-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. All this from the comfort of your own home / office / home office!

Learning outcomes

You will learn:

• Personal Development – identify your drivers, strengths and weaknesses as a ScrumMaster.
• Teaching Stakeholders – practice explaining Scrum to stakeholders who don’t share your frame of reference… including executives.
• Violations of Agile principles – better recognise when people are ignoring Agile principles, when Scrum’s self-adjusting empirical control is compromised and what to do about it.
• Team Dynamics – understand the attributes of effective teams, a rich team development model, be equipped with techniques for improving team performance and team development pitfalls to avoid.
• Conflict Navigation – recognise different types of conflict and ways to respond to it effectively.
• Facilitation – practice techniques for energising regular Scrum events and other meetings, getting past clashes of perspective to get the most out of groups and arrive at decisions that the group is committed to.
• Coaching – understand how professional coaching differs from advising and practice coaching techniques that you can use every day.
• Servant Leadership – learn about specific characteristics of a Servant-Leader and how to lead capability building from the stance of Servant-Leader.
• Serving the Product Owner – practice techniques for moving from vision to product backlog and through to refined backlog with shared understanding.
• Resolving Impediments – practice systems thinking techniques for revealing the dynamics causing impediments and where to best intervene to truly eliminate them.
• Definition of Done – practice surfacing what is required to deepen your Definition of Done to Potentially Releasable every Sprint.
• Complimentary frameworks – know when to leverage XP, Kanban and Lean Startup techniques in ways that complement Scrum.
• Engineering Practices – understand the various technical practices and how they improve the team’s ability to sustainably deliver potentially releasable increments and enable scaling.
• Scaling Scrum – understand key differences between scaling frameworks, gain techniques for visualising, reducing and eliminating dependencies and well as for facilitating large-scale meetings.

Certification

To earn the A-CSM certification, you must:

• meet the prerequisites (as stated below),
• participate for the full 16 contact hours, and
• complete all coursework, including all in-class coursework and any pre, during and post-training event coursework that we provide as part of the course.

Beyond this there is no certification test or exam for A-CSM.

Attaining your A-CSM is the second of three substantial accreditation steps toward becoming a Certified Scrum Professional in the ScrumMaster track (CSP-SM).

Prerequisites

To obtain your Advanced Certified ScrumMaster accreditation, you must satisfy the following:

• Hold a current ‘active’ Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM) accreditation*,
• Have at least one year of work experience in the role of ScrumMaster, and
• Actively participate in the full 16 contact hour course and complete all coursework to the satisfaction of the trainer.

* A participant who was first awarded their CSM more than two years ago and has not renewed it will no longer have an ‘active’ CSM. To activate it again please go to the Scrum Alliance renewing certification page, click RENEW NOW.

Inclusions

• 16 contact hours of training with an Agile practitioner with 19+ years of experience and Certified Scrum Trainer since 2008
• Certification as an Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM) for participants who satisfy all coursework requirements to the satisfaction of the trainer.
• Digital Course Workbook containing all standard course material
• Graphic illustrations by trainer in addition to the workbook
• A digital portfolio of the collaborative work that you contribute to
• Ongoing support via the Scrum WithStyle Alumni Workgroup on Slack
• 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)
• Guidance on continuing your professional development along the Path to CSP.

Find out more

If you have any questions, please see the FAQ or contact us.

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 courses are available as highly interactive virtual experiences leveraging the best online learning tools to an extreme.