Certified ScrumMaster®

Why take this course

Plenty of teams hold the Scrum meetings and miss the point. The stand-up is a status report, the sprint is a deadline, and the retrospective changes nothing. A Scrum Master's job is to make those events earn their time, and to get the team what it needs from the rest of the organization.

This CSM is practice on that job, including how to estimate and forecast with The Keystone & The Story Gauge™, Mark's own method.

What you will be able to do afterwards

• Run each Scrum event so it produces something the team actually uses.
• Explain Scrum to a skeptical manager in terms of their own problems.
• Get what is quietly blocking the team to the person who can remove it.
• Estimate and forecast with The Keystone & The Story Gauge™, Mark's story-point method.
• Take the CSM test understanding the material rather than memorizing it.

What your seat includes

• Live and online with Mark, capped at 12 seats.
• Your CSM exam fee, and a retake if you need one. His students average 94.5%.
• Two years of Scrum Alliance membership.
• Lifetime coaching with Mark. Email him, book a call, bring him the stand-up that runs forty minutes. There is no end date on it.
• Hundreds of downloadable resources, kept current after you leave.
• A money-back guarantee.

How the time is spent

Live and online, in small-group exercises and simulations. You run the Scrum events yourself and get feedback as you go.

Scrum itself

• The Scrum Master's accountability, and what it does not include.
• Sprint Planning, the Daily Scrum, the Sprint Review and the Retrospective, run in simulation.
• The Product Backlog, the Sprint Backlog and the Definition of Done, and keeping them honest.

Estimation and forecasting

• The Keystone & The Story Gauge™: Mark's method for sizing work with story points, reading velocity, and forecasting a date the team can stand behind.

The team and the organization

• Coaching a team toward owning its own work.
• Removing impediments, including the ones that live above the team.
• Working with managers and stakeholders who are new to Scrum.

The exam

• Preparing for the CSM test, and taking it with the material understood. The fee is included, and Mark pays for a retake if you need one.

Who this is for

• Aspiring and new Scrum Masters who want to start with a practical foundation.
• Project managers, team leads and developers moving into Scrum.
• Product Owners and managers who work with Scrum teams and want to know how they should run.
• Anyone on a Scrum team who wants the events to be worth attending.

Prerequisites

None. No prior Scrum or agile experience is required.

Who is teaching it

Mark Palmer is a Certified Scrum Trainer and a Certified Team Coach, a pairing most trainers do not hold. He has coached and trained at Capital One, State Street, Anthem, Phillips 66, SWIFT, and federal agencies in Defense, Justice, and Transportation. Before that he held the jobs his students hold, at Advance Auto Parts, Prison Fellowship, FamilyLife, and WMATA. He teaches every Great Fish class himself.

What is different about this class

• Twelve seats. Small enough that you are practicing, not watching.
• Your exam is covered. The fee is included, and Mark pays for a retake if you need one.
• The Keystone & The Story Gauge™. Mark's estimation method, which you will not get from another trainer.
• Coaching that outlasts the class. No end date, and it is with Mark rather than a support desk.