Confusion and Clarification - Part 2 (CSM/PSM, CSD/PSD, CSPO/PSPO, ScrumAlliance/Scrum)
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In continuation of the series, let us move ahead and try to seek more clarification of one of the major confusion which is prevalent in today’s times and every other person is going through it.
In my recent conversations with some people, they said, “I am thinking of doing CSM certification”. Upon further probing, I realized that they are not even aware about Scrum. They don’t know whether it is the right certification considering their current or aspired role, but as the trend is to get certified, so be it.
So, in today’s blog, I will provide clarification to these confusions.
Phase of Confusion
So, why is everyone running after CSM certification? Why not CSD or CSPO? Even in Organizations, Supervisors are asking their juniors to go for CSM without understanding the relevance and basic meaning of each.
There is one more confusion about ScrumAlliance.Org and Scrum.Org (I am considering only 2 prominent ones, though there are others which give independent Scrum certifications).
Let us seek clarification about these in the below phase.
Phase of Clarification
Before moving ahead, it is important to understand Scrum’s History and its origin.
The history of the Scrum method started in 1986. That year, two Japanese business experts Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka published the article, “New New Product Development Game” in the Harvard Business Review. They described a new approach for product development which would increase speed and flexibility.
Later, during the early 1990’s, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland jointly presented a paper at the Business Object Design and Implementation Workshop (OOPSLA Conference, 1995) in Austin, Texas. This gained more publicity in the 2000’s and led to the birth of what we now know as SCRUM.
Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland formed the Scrum Alliance and added a certification arm to the Organization with Certified Scrum Master (CSM) programs. In 2006, Sutherland created Scum Inc. and continued to teach Certified Scrum courses. Later, in 2009, Schwaber left and created his own Professional Scrum Master (PSM) program at Scrum.org.
So, now you see, both Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org have the same roots, both are popular, both provide same Scrum knowledge but they follow different approaches which we will discuss below. There are advocates for both but i will break it down in a simple neutral way as -
Scrum Alliance
The Scrum Alliance offers certification to become proficient in Scrum, whether as a Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Product Owner (Certified Product owner) or even Developer (Certified Scrum Developer). The test’s only requirement is a two day training. Once you have completed your training, you can take your test online.
Scrum.org
For those who cannot attend 2-day training can go for Scurm.org certifications. Scrum.org offers certification with no mandatory training. You will need to gather your own training courses together. The courses are named differently than those of the Scrum Alliance (e.g. CSM is PSM (Professional Scrum Master), CSD is PSD and CSPO is PSPO) but they cover the same knowledge.
So, it is personal preference or the path one wants to go. Both are equally good and recognized all over the world.
Now, coming to the first question. Which certification should one go for? The names of each certification (whether from Scrum Alliance or Scrum.Org) themselves suggest for whom it is meant and the track one should follow. Obviously there is no restriction and anyone can do any certification based on the interest but it is advisable to follow the track based on your current role or aspired role and then go for extra knowledge.
I hope with this series, I am able to address common problems faced by all and it would be my pleasure to provide answers and enlighten you.
Like before, Clarify your Confusion and get on the path that you are Passionate about and makes you Happy...