Kanban Certification

In October 2020 I published an article talking about the main Scrum certifications in the market, or the most recognized certifications.

Today I will talk about a methodology that has strong roots in the automotive industry, a result of Toyotism but today adopted in agile project management with great success. Highly adherent to Scrum and other agile project management methodologies, Kanban has established itself as a visual method for monitoring projects around the world.

Initially thought of as a queue management technique for inventory control, an analogy of "task inventory" was added to this idea and thus Kanban started to be seen as a way to organize agile projects through incremental improvements, i.e. small gradual advances in performance or functionality.

Based on a visual control, it uses a Kanban board, which should consist of 3 to 6 columns (depending on the complexity of the process), from left to right, through which your tasks should pass, following a logical monitoring flow.

For example, we could have a kanban board with the following columns:

- Tasks: inventory of what needs to be done

- Planned: list of priorities

- Developing: what is currently running

- Testing: what is under approval

- Deploying: what is under adoption or incorporation

- Done: completed, delivered

Thus, it is possible for people to organize themselves visually and to understand more quickly the progress of the work, the individual effort of each team member, tasks past the deadline, change control, etc.

Being a very adequate technique for managing agile teams, it has gained strength, valuing its adoption and also its possible certifications.

The goal of this article is not to discuss agile methodologies or Kanban in particular. It is to bring the options and reflections of the certification exams available in the market to support professionals who are in the phase of deciding which is the best option for their training and their resume.

The best known certifications are linked to Kanban University (https://www.kanban.university/), and the Kanban Institute (https://kanbaninstitute.com/). Both offer several courses and exams, of various levels of depth, with partners all over the world. However, some institutions with agile alignment also offer Kanban exams or even Kanban knowledge in their exams.

These institutions have a large amount of materials, articles, and documents that are useful and necessary for those who want to know more about the subject, as well as for those who are studying for certifications.

I will specifically analyze the Kanban Foundation exam of Certiprof, a partner of Kanban Institute.

Certiprof, in solidarity with the pandemic, held a set of certifications with substantial discounts, from offering some exams for free for very limited periods, to giving discounts of up to 50% on their main exams. With the dollar on the rise, I took the exam because I thought it would be a unique opportunity.

And what is this test like?

First of all, you do not need to take or pay for any course to take this certification. Of course it will be necessary to have a complete understanding of Kanban, reading specific materials on the subject on the mentioned websites (especially the Kanban Institute, if you are taking this exam) but also understand the main similarities (and differences) to Scrum. So a basic knowledge of Scrum will also be necessary.

Since it is a "foundation" level exam there is no need to go too deep, but I recommend following the material indicated on the Certiprof website (https://certiprof.com/). There are even some quick videos in Portuguese that give access to the knowledge needed for some questions in the certification exam.

The exam is online, directly on the Certiprof site. User registration is required.

The exam is in Portuguese (optionally) and in my exam at least, the questions were well translated. I can say that only one of them had an obvious translation error.

There are 40 questions to be solved in one hour (60 minutes), which is more than enough for those who study hard. You must get 70% right (i.e. 28 of the 40 questions), and if you do not pass, you are given a second chance immediately after the first attempt. However, if you pass, there is no second chance (to improve your performance, for example).

The certification is called Kanban Foundation, and after completing the exam, there is the option to share the certificate on your social networks. Your certification will be valid for 2 years from the date of issue.

I could not find any up-to-date free simulations on the internet, but I always recommend that candidates studying for a certification should look for a list of questions that prepare them for the required level of the exam. In general I recommend looking for paid mock exams at institutions such as

https://www.testking.com/

www.test-king.com

https://www.examcollection.com/

https://www.testkingdump.com/

https://www.pass4sure.com/

A few other institutions sell simulations. And why the recommendation to buy, when there are so many free materials out there? For the updating and the responsibility of the institution. It is common for freely available materials to be of dubious quality, and they can have wrong answers, distorted comments, and outdatedness that can jeopardize your certification. Therefore, I recommend that you always use official materials, because the certification exam can be much more expensive.

I hope this material is useful.

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