Certified ScrumMaster®

Course Introduction

This Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®) course is taught by BoB Jiang, a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) with Scrum Alliance® – combining deep hands-on Scrum expertise with practical experience.  

Over two intensive days, you won’t just “learn the Scrum framework to pass an exam”. You will:

- Understand why Scrum works – the mechanisms and principles behind the framework
- Practice Scrum through experiential learning, simulations, and games
- Explore real transformation stories, pains, and patterns from BoB’s hands-on consulting work
- Leave with a concrete, step-by-step playbook to start or improve Scrum in your own team immediately

About Your Trainer – BoB Jiang

- Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), Scrum Alliance® – globally vetted and approved to teach CSM, aligned with the latest Scrum Alliance learning objectives.  
- Hands-on practitioner – has coached and trained thousands of people across teams, departments, and whole organizations, with a strong focus on making Scrum actually work in real life, not just on paper.

BoB’s focus areas in this CSM:

1.    Mechanism over mechanics
You’ll go deeper than “roles, events, artifacts”. We discuss why Scrum is designed this way, how empiricism and systems thinking sit behind it, and what breaks when organizations treat Scrum as a process checklist.

2.    Experiential, gamified learning
You’ll learn through games, simulations, and experiments, so the principles stick and you can re-use these techniques with your own teams.

3.    Real-world transformation, not theory
We’ll openly discuss typical failure patterns: fake Scrum, cargo-cult ceremonies, command-and-control “Scrum Masters”, misuse of Product Owner role, and how to deal with them.

4.    Scaling mindset from day one
As a LeSS-Friendly Scrum Trainer, BoB weaves in large-scale Scrum thinking: how to keep things simple while multiple teams work on one product.

Course Highlights
- Scrum from “Tao – Method – Strategy”

We decompose Scrum on three levels:
- Tao – principles, values, and mindset
- Method – the Scrum framework itself
- Strategy – how to apply Scrum in your organizational context

You’ll leave with:
- A step-by-step guide to kick off your first (or next) Sprint
- Concrete patterns for events, backlogs, and roles
- Practical tools for facilitation, coaching, and removing impediments
- Direct discussion on transformation pains

We intentionally reserve time to talk about your context – management resistance, legacy projects, “project manager vs ScrumMaster” conflicts, distributed teams, etc.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Explain Scrum principles, values, and the Scrum framework clearly to others
- Understand Scrum accountabilities (ScrumMaster, Product Owner, Developers) and how they collaborate
- Design and facilitate Scrum events that create real transparency and inspection/adaptation – not just ritual meetings
- Create and refine Product Backlogs that are DEEP (Detailed appropriately, Emergent, Estimated, Prioritized) and ready for use
- Apply agile estimation and multi-level planning (product vision, release planning, sprint planning) while staying true to “responding to change over following a plan”
- Recognize common anti-patterns in Scrum adoption and know how to address them
- Understand the basics of scaling Scrum and how LeSS keeps scaling simple

Major Benefits
- Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®) certification from Scrum Alliance® (including the exam)  
- 2-year Scrum Alliance membership with access to global community, events, and resources
- Practical workbook you can use as a reference with your team
- 16 PDUs / SEUs (where applicable) towards your professional development

Course Agenda

Module 1 – Agile & Scrum Overview
- Why so many organizations say they are “doing agile” but still fail to deliver real business value
- Agile values & principles, Scrum values
- Scrum from Tao – Method – Strategy
- Scrum as a minimal framework: simple to understand, hard to master

Module 2 – Scrum Roles / Accountabilities

2.1 Developers (Development Team)
- Self-managing, cross-functional, small teams
- How to build a team that can truly deliver “Done” increments
- Motivation, focus, and swarming on work

2.2 ScrumMaster
- Why ScrumMaster is not a project manager
- ScrumMaster as coach, facilitator, change agent, and “sheep dog”
- How ScrumMasters support team, Product Owner, and organization

2.3 Product Owner
- Maximizing product value and ROI
- Techniques for ordering the Product Backlog
- Collaboration with stakeholders, users, and teams

Module 3 – Product Backlog & Items
- Characteristics of a good Product Backlog (DEEP)
- Splitting work into valuable, testable items
- What belongs in the Product Backlog and what doesn’t

Module 4 – Agile Estimation & Planning
- Estimation techniques that support empiricism
- From product vision to release plan to Sprint plan
- Planning in a world of constant change – balancing predictability and adaptability

Module 5 – Scrum Events
- Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, and Product Backlog Refinement
- Purpose, timing, participants, and common failure patterns for each
- Co-creating effective events that increase transparency and drive continuous improvement