Certified ScrumMaster®

Additional Exam Information

A full and active attendance of the CSM® course will be necessary in order to be registered for the CSM® exam.

The exam is a self-proctored, online exam which can be sat any time after the course has completed.

The CSM test is 50 multiple-choice questions, with a pass mark of 74%. It has a one-hour maximum duration.

All new Scrum Alliance certification holders receive a complimentary two-year membership with their initial certification. Join local user groups and online social networks, gain access to deep discounts on Gatherings, and more.

Scrum Theory

• How Scrum is aligned with the values and principles of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
• What is Scrum and what is its purpose.
• The five core Scrum values.
• Define Empirical process control and the three pillars of Scrum.
• Product planning in an empirical environment.
• Pitfalls of partially implementing Scrum.
• Benefits of an iterative and incremental approach.

Scrum Events

• The benefits of timeboxing.
• The five events within Scrum, the purpose of each event, and the participants, timing, and maximum recommended timebox.

Scrum Artifacts

• The three artifacts within Scrum and the purpose of each.
• The definition of “Done,” its purpose, and how it evolves over time.
•  Why the Scrum Team dedicates time for Product Backlog Refinement.
• Activities that may occur as part of Product Backlog Refinement.

Scrum Roles

• How the Scrum Roles interact with each other to deliver the increment within a Sprint.
• The cross-functional team and the benefits of a cross-functional, self-organizing team.
• Rights and responsibilities of the Product Owner, Development Team and Scrum Master.
• Why the Product Owner is a single person and not a group or a committee.
• How and why the Product Owner maintains authority over the product while working collaboratively with the Development Team and stakeholders.
• The characteristics of the Development Team.

Scrum Events and Artefact Transparency

• How a Scrum Team will inspect and adapt and increase transparency at each of the Scrum events.
• Describe at least three responsibilities for the Development Team, Product Owner, and Scrum Master during Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Retrospective.
• Why the Sprint Goal does not change during a Sprint.
• What is the outcome of every Sprint.
• Why the increment must be brought to the current definition of ‘Done’ regardless of whether the Product Owner chooses to release the increment.
• The focus of the activities of the Product Owner and Development Team during the two topics of Sprint Planning: the ‘What’ and the ‘How.’
• Practice writing a Sprint Goal.
• How the Daily Scrum differs from a status meeting and why the various constraints exist to support the Development Team.
• The activities that occur during the Sprint Review other than; a demonstration of the increment.
• Potential outcomes for a Sprint Review.
• How to conduct a Sprint Retrospective.
• The essential characteristics of the Product Backlog.
• Attributes of a Product Backlog item.
• Essential characteristics of the Sprint Backlog.
• How the Sprint Backlog can be changed without endangering the Sprint Goal.
• The importance of a strong definition of “Done” and describe at least two risks associated with a weaker definition of “Done.”
• Creating a definition of “Done.”
• Why multiple teams working on the same Product Backlog have a shared and consistent definition of “Done.”

Scrum Master Core Competencies

• Situations in which the Scrum Master could serve the needs of the Scrum Team or organization through facilitation.
• Techniques for facilitating group decision making.
• How facilitating, teaching, mentoring, and coaching are different.
• Techniques that could help resolve a challenge faced by a Scrum Team.
• What is servant-leadership.
• Scenarios where the Scrum Master acts as the servant-leader for the Development Team.
• How to resolve possible violations of Scrum by a Product Owner or stakeholder who is applying excessive time pressure.
• Technical debt and explain the impact of accumulating technical debt.
• Development practices that will help Scrum Teams deliver a high-quality Product Increment and reduce technical debt each Sprint.
• Ways the Scrum Master could support the Product Owner.
• Benefits that arise if a Product Owner participates in the Sprint Retrospective.
• Ways that the Scrum Master assists the Scrum Team with impediments.
• Organizational impediments that can affect Scrum Teams.
• Organizational design change caused by adopting Scrum.
• Why Scrum does not have a project manager and what happens to traditional project management activities.

Benefits for you as an individual

• Attain your Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®) certification - the most broadly recognised in industry.


• Join the Scrum Alliance community - 2 years membership awarded upon certification.


• Attain 16 Scrum Education Units (SEUs) by the Scrum Alliance towards Certified Scrum Professional® (CSP®) certification.


• Attain 15 Professional Development Units from Project Management Institute if you are Project Management Professional.


• Learn the foundation of Scrum and the scope of the role.


• Engage with Agile practitioners committed to continuous improvement.


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Benefits for your organisation

When operating in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous arenas, traditional plan-driven approaches have long been associated with high levels of risk and delay. As the leading Agile framework, Scrum addresses this by fostering a more empirical approach to value generation - releasing benefits earlier, curtailing risk and retaining an ability to respond to evolving customer needs and emergent technologies.