Certified ScrumMaster

All CSM courses are taught by Certified Scrum Trainers. Taking a CSM course and the corresponding evaluation designates you as a Certified ScrumMaster, which indicates that you have been introduced to the basic concepts you need to perform as a ScrumMaster or team member on a Scrum team. This course also satisfies two elements of the CSD track: Scrum Introduction and Elective.

 (This course lasts from 8:00 to 17:00)

About the Course

Short, five-minute exercises and case studies will be scattered throughout the two-day session.  Longer exercises are detailed below.  Ample material is available for this session, and while all essential information will be covered, time spent on each topic will vary depending on the composition of the class and the interest in particular areas.  A more detailed course outline is available at our website.

Agile Thinking:  In order for us to understand the benefits of Scrum and the nuances behind its framework, we begin with the history of agile methods and how relatively new thoughts in software development have brought us to Scrum.  “The Art of the Possible” is an opportunity to understand how small changes in behavior can have a large impact on productivity.  This also turns our thinking towards new ideas and a willingness to change for the better.

The Scrum Framework:  Here we’ll ensure that we’re all working from the same foundational concepts that make up the Scrum Framework.  We’ll review the three areas that impact an organization most as we move ahead with Scrum and explain the different Scrum Roles, Artifacts, and Meetings.

Implementation Considerations:  Moving beyond Scrum’s foundational concepts, we’ll use this time to dig deeper into the reasons for pursuing Scrum.  We’ll also begin a discussion of integrity in the marketplace and how this relates to software quality.

Exercise:  understanding customer expectations.  This exercise is the beginning of an extended exercise involving agile estimating and planning.  During this first portion of the exercise, we’ll work with a fictional customer who has a very demanding schedule and understand how our assessment of project work plays a significant role in customer satisfaction.

Exercise:  The 59-minute Scrum Simulation.  This popular exposure to Scrum asks us to work on a short project that lasts for just 59 minutes!  We’ll walk through all of the key steps under the Scrum framework as we work in project teams to deliver a new product.

Scrum Roles:  Who are the different players in the Scrum game?  We’ll review checklists of role expectations in preparation for further detail later in our session.

The Scrum Team Explored:  Since the ScrumMaster is looking to protect the productivity of the team, we must investigate team behaviors so we can be prepared for the various behaviors exhibited by teams of different compositions.  We’ll also include small exercises to help participants understand how to handle difficult situations.

Exercise:  Agile estimating and planning.  Although agile estimating and planning is an art unto itself, the Mike Cohn's concepts behind this method fit very well with the Scrum methodology an agile alternative to traditional estimating and planning.  We’ll break into project teams that will work through decomposition and estimation of project work, and then plan out the project through delivery.

The Product Owner:  Extracting Value:  The driving force behind implementing Scrum is to obtain results, usually measured in terms of return on investment or value.  How can we help ensure that we allow for project work to provide the best value for our customers and our organization?  We’ll take a look at different factors that impact our ability to maximize returns.

The ScrumMaster Explored:  It’s easy to read about the role of the ScrumMaster and gain a better understanding of their responsibilities.  The difficulty comes in the actual implementation.  Being a ScrumMaster is a hard job, and we’ll talk about the characteristics of a good ScrumMaster that go beyond a simple job description.

References and Advanced Considerations:  This section of our material acts a reference for more detailed information regarding Meetings, Artifacts, and Advanced Considerations.

Closing Topics:  We’ll wrap up with direction on where to go next with your Scrum experience, some Scrum reference sites, and our graduation ceremony.

About Certification

All attendees who complete the course will become Certified ScrumMasters (CSMs), and will be listed on the Scrum Alliance website's CSM registry

About the Instructor

Bas Vodde, originally from Holland, has lived in China and Finland. Currently he lives and works in Singapore. In Holland he was working as a developer and always felt a mismatch between the style of development he experienced as working and the style of development that "the official literature said you should do". This mismatch was solved when Extreme Programming was introduced and with the introduction of the Agile Manifesto.

In early 2001, he had enough of the "normal life" and moved to China and started working for Nokia. In Nokia, he worked on very large and traditional projects. This uncomfortable experience convinced him that Agile Development is the best way of developing software product -- no matter how large your development is. After a couple years, he moved to Helsinki with the purpose of introducing Agile Development (and in particular Scrum) in Nokia Networks (later NSN). He watched dozens of product groups adopt scrum and other agile practices. After a while, he moved back to China (Its too cold in Finland) and helped one large product group with its Scrum adoption.

Bas work for a small consulting company based in Singapore called Odd-e specializing in training and coaching related to agile and lean development in Asia.

Bas is interested in Scrum with a special focus on large companies and large product development. But he also enjoyed working on technical practices, especially test-driven development (especially in embedded environments) and continuous integration. He keeps working as a developer because he strongly believes you need a well-factored code base if you want to be fast and flexible. His hobbies are studies in lean production and quality management and, of course, programming.

Bas is the author of the "Scaling Agile and Lean Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum" and of "Practices for Large-Scale Agile and Lean Development", both together with Craig Larman. He is also one of the authors of the CppUTest unit test framework for C/C++.

Peter Borsella is the founder of Winnow Management Corporation, based in Parkland, Florida.  Peter is an IT professional with over 25 years of experience in application development and IT leadership. In addition to being a Certified Scrum Trainer he is also a Project Management Professional (certified by the PMI).  His ability to contribute across a wide range of environments has taken him to companies such as Sony, Hilton, and the US Dept. of Defense, and to a variety of places such as India, Israel, and Hungary. 

Peter is adept in administering all aspects of project management, as well as providing authentic leadership to create effective teams.  An active and contributing member to both the PMI and the Scrum Alliance, Peter’s speaking engagements focus on bridging the gap between traditional Project Management and Agile Project Management.  His goal is to help others understand how to get the best return from any project by achieving higher levels of software quality, increased customer satisfaction, and cohesive teams that enjoy increased productivity.

The topics covered:

• Agile Thinking, including the Agile Manifesto, Defined vs. Empirical Processes, and Self-Management
• The Scrum Framework, including the basic expectations of working in a Scrum environment
• Implementation Considerations, including things you want to have in place when launching Scrum
• Scrum Roles, including a checklist of responsibilities for the Development Team, Product Owner, and ScrumMaster
• The Scrum Team, including considerations for high performing teams, maintaining quality, team variations, and scaling Scrum
• Agile estimating and planning, including the creation of a Product Backlog, prioritization, estimation, user stories, and Planning Poker
• The Product Owner's value considerations, including things a Product Owner should be aware of as the the party responsible for ROI
• The ScrumMaster, including characteristics of an effective ScrumMaster, and what a ScrumMaster does on a typical day

Anybody who wants to have an in depth knowledge of Scrum should participate in this course.