Comparing Agile Certification Part 1 - ICAgile, Scrum.org, ScrumAlliance and PMI

Some time ago, I moved from a company that lived in the world of hard Waterfall and harsh plans in MS Project a few thousand lines to a company that lives in the world of Agile - the values ​​that products pay more attention than following a plan, focus in developing made for speed and quality, development is iterative here, there are coaches and a scrum master to help teams, MS Project is used very rarely, and nobody has heard about Oracle Primavera.

Not that it was new to me, I had previously worked for a company that actively used the best practices from Scrum and XP, but I didn’t have experience at such a high level. Then I thought about how I could pump in flexible methodologies, and also how to understand how pumped you are? After a quick study of the issue, I learned that in the world of Agile, in addition to specialized courses, there are also certifications - companies that set the trend in the market, conduct special training and tests, the results of which can tell you about what qualification there is (or no) at one or another specialist.

After I completed several courses and passed some tests, my colleagues (current and former) gave me questions - “Where to study?”, “Which certificate is better?”, “What to take?”, “How to prepare?”. In order not to write the same thing in a telegraph a hundred times, and also to systematize and fumigate my knowledge in this area, I decided to prepare this article in which I will analyze the most popular certifications and present my thoughts on their usefulness, complexity, cost and ways of preparing .

Why do we need certification for people who work in Agile?

For each, of course, your answer. In general, certification is usually needed for the following reasons:

• In order to check how much your knowledge coincides with the expectations of the industry. Very often, managers say that they are well versed in Agile, because they have a good managerial background. Certification ruthlessly looks at your knowledge and experience and will tell you whether you really are a guru or you need to grow in some areas.
• In order to pass the employers filter. In IT in general, and in the Agile community in particular, not much attention is paid to entities and certifications. And yet, very often when looking for employees, the first filter can be a certificate. This is especially true of two types of companies - integrators who like to show certificates of employees in response to the question of high outstaffs, and bloody enterprises, where large enterprises are willing to pay many times more, but that in addition to knowledge would be beautiful certificates, love for dress - code, excellent English, etc. Whether it is necessary is only for you to decide, but if so, then get ready for the fact that certificates are needed at the first stage, or at least you will have to answer the question about their absence.

In general, if you are an accomplished specialist, then either you know better than me what certification to choose, or you no longer need any certifications and there are queues behind you from Madrid to Beijing. But many famous coaches, coaches and edzhal-leaders have certificates, and not one by one. This makes me think that most likely certification is not superfluous.

What is important for any certification

If you want to be an Agile, Scrum, Kanban or Lean Certified Specialist, you should start by learning English. All the tests, and most of the materials - alas, exist only in English, or have such a translation, from which sometimes you do not even want to cry, but the tests with him just do not work out. For example, compare the translation of some principles of Agile Manifesto from the official site :

Ang > Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Rus > A working product is the main indicator of progress.

Of course, the general meaning is clear, but if in the certification test you get a choice between product and software, you will answer incorrectly.

So, I took 4 well-known providers that provide certification services. Some of the certificates I passed myself, some did not pass, so I judge only by the experience of preparing \ written on the Internet.

Icagile

general description

Strictly speaking, it is more like certification of courses and coaches. According to the founders, the international consortium ICAgile defines the international standard of training in the field of Agile and after passing the trainings you can get a certificate that is an international standard and is appreciated by companies all over the world.

In general, certification goes by as many as 8 tracks, a picture with the tracks is presented below, there are 2 levels in each track (though, as I understand it is not hierarchical), you go through both levels - you will receive status throughout the track.

It should be noted that they do not give lectures to anyone — for example, ScrumTrek, a company that has proven itself in Agile-tusovka, works in Moscow and Petersburg. They diversify the courses with practical exercises, provide a lot of material for self-study, attempts to sit on the phone during classes are skillfully suppressed.

Therefore, if you do not smoke on a three-day bamboo course, knowledge will be obtained exactly before the certificate.

In general, one of the advantages is that you do not need English to get a certificate, the knowledge on the courses is accurate.
Of the minuses - the test is still not necessary, so you get a confirmation that you have attended the course, and not proved later

ICAgile track description picture

How to start training

Determine which skills you need to pump from which track, then find the courses. I do not want to advertise, but most likely the road to you in SkramTrek.

The test will not be prepared not necessary.

How much is

Courses will cost 30-90 thousand rubles, depending on the track. The certificate after passing will be sent free of charge. The certificate does not need to renew.

Scrum alliance

general description

The most famous and popular certification at the moment. Hundreds of thousands of certificate holders, hundreds of course providers, recognition from Asia to America. Also, the shortest way to possession of a certificate is to find courses and successfully complete them, after which you will be given several attempts to pass the tests.

We offer three tracks for the certification of roles from the Scrum-team - for the scrum master, product owner and developer. Scrum master and product owner have three steps - certified, advanced and professional, the developer has only two - certified and professional.

Scrum Alliance track descriptions

Certification involves passing courses and this is the main minus and plus. On the one hand, the test is still necessary, on the other hand, it is very simple and you will have several free attempts, and paid ones will not be very expensive compared to other certifications.

In my opinion, if you are eyeing the passage of the ScrumAlliance courses, it makes sense to pass them abroad. Be that as it may, if in addition to the CSM certificate you mention in the summary that you studied Scrum in Germany, it certainly won't be superfluous.

Also, Scrum Alliance offers 2 more tracks - Guide Level Certifications for coaches and trainers and Agile Leadership for Edgele leaders. They are more interesting, but today we will not consider them.

Test Format ( CSM )

Number of questions: 50 questions
Passing criteria: 37 correct answers
Time limit: 1 hour

How to start training

Find authorized courses on the site . Further, do not clap on courses with ears, quickly pass tests.

How much is

In Russia - about 50,000 rubles for the course, 2 certification attempts after the courses for free, followed by about $ 25. In Europe - can reach 2000-25000 thousand euros for the course. In general, it all depends on the provider, track and duration. Keep in mind that you will have to renew the certificate, and this is most likely some additional costs.

Scrum.org

general description

In my opinion, quite complex certification, focused on classic scrum, while taking into account the principles and values ​​of Agile. Scrum.org has also established itself well around the world, the certificate will facilitate the search for work in Europe and in the countries of the former CIS, training courses are also common.

For us at the moment 6 tracks are supposed - 3 of which are organized by the roles of the Scrum team - Professional Scrum Master, Professional Scrum Product Owner and Professional Scrum Developer. The remaining three - Scaled Professional Scrum, Professional Scrum with Kanban and Professional Agile Leadership will not be reviewed today, but focus mainly on PSM. PSM (like PSPO) has three levels, one more difficult than the other. In the first, you need to answer questions, quite a lot of which are practical, in the second, the questions will be much smarter and pass without special training and much experience most likely fail, well, and in the third, you must explain each question with text that the coach will then review scrum.org. The second and third levels are more necessary if you are going to become a coach, but the first one is a very good proof that you are not a stranger in a scram and understand the terminology and rules of the game.

The trick of the test is mainly that there are not very many questions on the theory, but there are plenty of practical questions. At the same time, the decision must be made fairly quickly, 80 questions are given in just an hour and by the end of the test there is usually no time for review. At the same time the threshold of entry is quite high - 85% of the answers should be correct.

The good news is that right on scrum.org there is a free open assessment test that anyone can pass. The certificate will not be given, but you can understand the level of preparation for the test (but do not expect that if you have passed it, then everything is OK, the real test is much more complicated).

Test format ( PSM1 ):

Number of questions: 80 questions
Passing criteria: 85% correct answers
Time limit: 1 hour (45 seconds for a question!)

In addition to the certificate itself, your portfolio will be available on scrum.org, which will indicate which certificates you received and which courses you took. An example of my modest and German eminent coach.

How to start training

Select a certification track, then download and carefully read the Scrum Guide and go through the Open Assessment. Please note that the Scrum Guide is very small, but there is no water in it at all and every sentence in it has a certain meaning in the exam. In addition, it is strongly recommended to read the Nexus dictionary and guide on the same scrum.org
Also, Mikhail Lapshin’s test is haunting the net, the questions are completely different, but the topics are similar - it is worth going through and see the arguments of the answers.

How much is

150 dollars and higher, depending on the track. Courses cost 1-2 thousand dollars, there are both in Russian and in English. After the course - usually get 2 free attempts, one of which burns down within two weeks. The certificate does not need to renew.

PMI Agile Certified Professional

general description

Last but not the easiest certification on our list. Not only is the specification focused on project management, it’s also quite broad - apart from understanding Agile, you’ll definitely need knowledge in Scrum, XP, Lean, Kanban, and possibly DSDM, the Crystal and FDD families, and simple project management with PMI point of view.

In order for you to be admitted to certification, you need to submit an application in which you will describe in detail the experience (2,000 hours of project management and 1,500 hours in ejail projects), education (higher) and 21 hours of training. You may have to confirm all this if you are unlucky, and the application will get for an audit.

This whole game will cost a lot of dressing - what PMI is known to everyone in the world of project management, their certificates require large and rich companies.

In general, PMI is better known in the world of managing huge and bureaucratized projects than in the world of ejail transformations and small teams. However, this certificate will make an impression on corporate monsters in Europe - just a quick search on Monster.de to understand that European employers know and love it.

IMHO, the test is the most difficult of those presented here. The questions are mostly practical, while preparing you need to take into account a rather wide range of methodologies, many terms and definitions are used, and the exam contains tasks for calculations (albeit not as complex as in the PMP). Not happy passing the same control on the exam.

Test format

Number of questions: 120 questions (of which only 100 answers are counted, 20 test questions are hidden inside the test, but you won’t find out which ones).

Passing criteria: not open, but rumor has it that about 70%
Time limit: 3 hours

It was possible to hand over only internally, in the center of Prometrik, now there is the possibility of online delivery (not a fact that it will be easier, it may be easier to drive in Prometrik, especially if it is in your city).

How to start training

First you need to study the exam description on the PMI website and decide whether you need it at all or not.
Probably, from the course at Udemy - cheap, gives the clock. Next, you should buy the classic Rita Mulcahy PMI-ACP Exam Prep System - there is also an exam simulator.

How much is

$ 435 for PMI members and $ 495 for everyone else. Plus, getting ready for free is most likely not going to happen - get ready to spend money on materials.
The certificate should be renewed, but it seems they don’t ask for money, the main thing is to visit periodically authorized trainings and trainings.

Summary

It will not be news that to ensure that you can well facilitate events, develop a team, transform an organization or successfully complete projects, no certification can. If you have the time and desire - go ahead, start choosing certification from the role in which you work in the organization. If you are SM \ PO - Scrum.org or Scrum Alliance, if you are RM - PMI-ACP, if you are just starting the path and want to understand what is happening - try to take courses from ICAgile. Think about the fact that the worst courses and certificates are usually better than a good absence. In any case, I wish you success!

The track for developers in my opinion is better not to pass. If you want certificates - welcome to specialized things like Oracle Certified Associate \ Professional, Microsoft Certified Professional Developer, and the like. In this case, any employer will first look at technical knowledge and skills, only then at the certificates.

I plan to write two more parts this year:

Agile Certification Comparison, Part 2 - Rare Beasts - PSK, PAL, KMP, Prince2 Agile
Agile Certification Comparison, Part 3 - The Effect of Scale - LeSS, SAFe, SPS

If you have any suggestions or suggestions, or want to share your experience - welcome in the comments!