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Certified ScrumMaster®

Learn how to apply scrum and gain practical agile skills to drive results in any role, whether you want to work as a scrum master or grow your capabilities. CSMĀ® courses are delivered by Scrum Alliance-certified trainers who possess deep scrum knowledge. When you complete the course, you will receive a two-year Scrum Alliance professional membership.
Details
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    Mon Aug 12 - 13, 2024

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    08:30 EDT

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    8 hours each day

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    In-Person

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    5960 Fairview Road

    Charlotte, NC 28210, US

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    $1,300

Early bird pricing:
Price increases to $1,400 after 08/11/2024

Course details

Joe Little

CST®, CSP®‑SM, CSP®‑PO, A‑CSM®, CSM®, CSPO®

LeanAgileTraining.com

Charlotte, NC - Discovery Certified ScrumMaster Course (CSM)

[Note: Answers to some common questions are in the FAQs under DETAILS.]

Our approach to this course is unique, in at least two ways: our approach to Scrum and the Agile Release Planning Workshop available as an add-on. 

We want you to have significantly better results from Scrum, in terms of more fun, more Velocity (productivity) and more Business Value. We use many ideas to help you make this significant paradigm shift. We use interaction, Q&A, exercises, improv, break-out discussions and other techniques to get you involved and to help you experience what it is like to be on a great Scrum Team.

Joe Little will lead this course. He has co-taught eight times with Jeff Sutherland (one of the co-creators of Scrum). Joe is an experienced Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), and he has worked with other great Scrum trainers since 2005.  

He also has an MBA, which is fairly unique among trainers.

You can take the 16-hour course and complete the CSM certification or you can continue for another 8 hours in a practical Agile Release Planning Workshop. 

Attendees strongly recommend the ARP Workshop. This covers Agile Release Planning and  Product Backlog Refinement. There are a number of practical sub-topics, including story writing, Story Points and BV Points. These topics are covered in the course, briefly. The big difference is that you work in a team and you practice them with real work. (Note: The ARP workshop is not included in the price quoted here.)  

With the CSM, Participants Will Learn:

  • To plan, initiate and lead a Scrum project
  • To establish a shared vision for the entire team
  • To generate an Agile Release Plan utilizing user stories and Story Point estimation
  • To lead your Scrum Team through planning, review and retrospective sessions
  • To create an environment in which self-managing teams can flourish
  • To identify and remove impediments
  • To identify, engage and involve Business Stakeholders in your project
  • How to take an existing team to the next level
  • Practical suggestions purchased expensively from the school of hard knocks

In this course, we typically mix in XP and Lean ideas. Having worked with Jeff Sutherland, Joe mixes in many of his ideas and stories. Having a business background and an MBA, Joe is oriented more than others toward the Product Owners and business issues. We want you to have full business success, not a mere technical success.

You will get useful knowledge about how and why Scrum works.

Again, we strongly urge you to also register for the Agile Release Planning Workshop that immediately follows. This workshop gives you practical experiences that will make you more effective.  

Virtual Course:

The essential content of the course and workshop are the same as for the in-person versions. But we are doing a number of small things to make the online experience more enjoyable.

Some quick notes:

  • We keep it lively.
  • We have frequent breaks, roughly every hour.
  • We use Mural.co to keep it interactive.
  • We engage you and the group in the learning.
  • We keep the class small (not more than 16 people).

Additional Information:

  • We are using two formats: 4- and 8-hour days. See the registration page at LeanAgileTraining.com to confirm exact hours. 
  • The course will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, and from 8:30 a.m to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
  • Following successful completion of the course and passing of the CSM Test, a participant becomes enrolled as a Certified ScrumMaster. (Scrum Alliance also requires a (virtually) signed license agreement.)
  • The CSM Test, which is covered by your fee to us, is online a day or so after the course and takes one hour (time boxed). We have a 99% pass rate.
  • Once certified, you will also receive a two-year membership in Scrum Alliance, where additional ScrumMaster-only materials and information are available.
  • You will receive a copy of our book on Agile Release Planning and our draft book, “An Introduction to Scrum.” You also will receive access to other valuable materials.

Course Material:

Participants will receive a "book," which is a soft copy of the course slide deck. (We have many discussions and exercises outside the slide deck.) You can also download Joe’s draft book, “An Introduction to Scrum.”

In addition, participants should obtain (at their own expense) "Agile Project Management with Scrum" by Ken Schwaber or "Scrum" by Jeff Sutherland. You may also wish to obtain the first Scrum book, "Agile Software Development with Scrum," by Schwaber and Beedle.

After the class, you will be given a free copy of Joe’s book on Agile Release Planning, and a copy of all the drawings Joe does in class. Of course, there will be updated materials and training exercises in the course that you cannot get from books.  

You will also be invited to monthly webinars where Joe addresses key subjects areas (areas of your questions).

There is a 10% discount for any group of three or more. Alternatively, there is an 8% discount for members of local Agile or PMI or SPIN groups.

We offer Early Bird pricing to encourage you to sign up early. Early bird pricing can end at ANY time. If you would like us to hold early bird pricing for you for a few days (e.g., to get approval), please contact us, and we can probably do that.

If you have any questions, please click "more information," or contact our office at (800) 209-1280.

In-House Course: If you think you need an in-house course, please contact us. We do in-house courses frequently.

 

FAQs:

Other charges. Are there any other charges, such as for exam fees? No, the course fee is all-inclusive.  

Discounts. Do you have any discounts? The current fee is discounted and we assume you have tried your best to get your company to pay for the fee. And… yes, we will consider discounts for special situations. As examples, we typically offer discounts to the unemployed, veteran returning to the private sector, and sometimes students. Please contact us to discuss.

 

  • Overview of Scrum
  • The key values and principles behind Scrum
  • The importance of a real, stable team
  • The roles
  • The meetings
  • The artifacts
  • Creating the Product Backlog
  • Release Planning and Estimation
  • How the Product Owner and ScrumMaster work together
  • Leading self-organizing teams
  • Sprint practices
  • Metrics and reporting

In sum, everything we can give you in 16 hours to (a) pass the CSM Test, and, more importantly, (b) do Scrum effectively in the real world.
 

This course is often taken by everyone connected to a Scrum Team. The future ScrumMaster, Product Owner, team members, managers and other stakeholders should attend. This is the course for training the whole team, not just for future ScrumMasters. It is often used as team training or as an "Introduction to Agile."

The CEO, COO and CFO of a small company have attended and all were convinced it benefited the company. It is common for whole teams (and related stakeholders) to take the course at one time. This is very valuable.

As you can tell by the title of the course, it was originally designed to teach people to become ScrumMasters. Sometimes one person can take the course, learn about Scrum and then go back and implement Scrum quickly with success. Usually greater investment leads to even better results.

The course includes many interactive exercises and small-group discussions. These will prepare you to plan your first Sprint immediately after this class. Being practical and useful are key values we will emphasize in the course.

Other Benefits: 

  • 16 PDUs toward PMI requirements
  • 16 SEUs toward Scrum Alliance requirements
  • An additional 8 PDUs and 8 SEUs if you take the Agile Release Planning workshop
  • A free copy of our book: "Agile Release Planning”

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