How to pass Professional Scrum Master I(PSM I)Certification

One of the most sought certifications in the Agile industry for Scrum Masters is Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I). The certification is offered by Scrum.org — The Home of Scrum. A foundational certification in the field of Scrum Mastery.

There are three levels of Professional Scrum Master Certifications Scrum.org offers. The other two are Advanced (PSM-II) and Distinguished (PSM-III) level certifications. There is no definitive order that you have to go. One can directly appear for PSM-III if they have a deep understanding of Scrum.

As the name suggests, “Professional” — One must exhibit a high standard of understanding in Scrum to gain this certification. PSM I demand an understanding of Scrum, as mentioned in the PSM training online Guide and it tests the consistency in using Scrum.

In this blog, I am going to cover the

·       Ways to get Professional Scrum Master Certified

·       Assessment areas

·       Learning references

·       Tips to crack the exam

Ways to get Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) Certified

Scrum org offers two paths to PSM I Certification — Training with exam & Exam (Direct).

Training

Training for PSM I are offered

·       By Professional Scrum Trainers accredited by Scrum dot org after a rigorous assessment of depth in Scrum knowledge and Scrum Mastery experience.

·       By Professional Training Networks (PTN) — Recognised training partners of Scrum dot org in collaboration with Professional Scrum Trainers.

As part of the training, a candidate gets two attempts at PSM I exam.

Note: Beware of the bait that few people in the industry claim to take Scrum workshops to help get PSM. Go with Authenticity.

Direct Exam

One can directly buy a password from the Scrum dot org store by paying $150. The password is valid for only one attempt.

PSM I Assessment Areas

The foundational level, Professional Scrum Master (PSM I), assess a candidate’s basic understanding of the below areas.

Scrum Framework Understanding & its Application

·       Empiricism

·       Scrum Values

·       Scrum Team

·       Events

·       Artifacts

·       Done

Enabling Teams

·       Self-managed teams

·       Facilitation

·       Coaching & Mentoring

Agility in Product using Scrum

·       Product Value

·       Product Backlog Management

·       Stakeholders & Customers

·       Forecasting & Release Planning

Learning References

In my humble opinion, attending a Professional Scrum Master Workshop gives one well-rounded knowledge in all the above areas.

Apart from the class, use the below references.

·       Reading & the Scrum Guide is of utmost importance. Do not stop just by reading it. Use your learning preference to annotate it or digest it.

·       Finish the learning path for Scrum Master in the Scrum dot org

·       Reading references in Scrum dot org

·       Scrum Framework Foundational videos

·       Scrum Myths busted

·       True Leader

·       Whitepaper — Scrum Master Stages

·       Forever Scrum Master

·       Scrum Master & Product Owner — Same Person?

·       Product Goal — A commitment

·       A-Z with Scrum

Tips to crack the exam

Let us start with the Assessment,

·       The assessment is of 80 Multiple Choices questions. And the time limit is 60 minutes. One has to get 68 questions right to achieve the pass percentage, 85%.

·       Bookmark questions to revisit. One may run out of time if more time is spent on a single question.

·       Utilise the Scrum Open Assessment to get yourself confident with the format of the main exam. The open assessments are free. Take it as many times as possible to get familiarised. The open assessments provide feedback for every question at the end.

·       Take the assessment in a calm place where one can have the utmost focus.

·       Be sure to have a good internet connection as well. Do not close the browser at any cost; the attempt will be lost.

·       For technical glitches, reach out to Scrum dot org support.

Learning Tips

·       Practice the usage of Scrum terminologies as in Scrum Guide. Maybe through forming peer groups or self-recordings to reflect. Like, Daily Standup →Daily Scrum; Backlog Grooming → Product Backlog Refinement.

·       Scrum demands Empiricism, Self-management and Product thinking. Understand the why’s behind Scrum carefully and be mindful to choose answers adhering to it.

·       Watch out for universal statements in the exam. It may trap you to choose the wrong answer. Learn to differentiate the mandatory and non-mandatory elements in Scrum.

·       If you are unsure of the answers, try to avoid bad answers to nail the correct answer.

·       Move away from the traditional phase gated approaches. Learn to differentiate Scrum from traditional thinking and practices.

·       The Exam demands the information by the books. Go by the books and authentic information. Try not to bring one’s experience with Scrum, as in practice, one may not follow Scrum by the books.

Special Note: Do not refer to any mock-ups or practice tests as those are not endorsed by Scrum dot org and may not be authentic.

Resource: https://www.tryscrum.com/blogs/how-to-pass-professional-scrum-master-i-psm-i-certification/

Read More

How to pass Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO I) Certification

Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) is a series of certifications from www.scrum.org for Product Owners. It contains 3 levels of assessment: PSPO I, PSPO II, and PSPO III. Depending on the level of understanding and knowledge of Product ownership ranging from beginner to distinguished, people can select the assessment level. The assessment covers the knowledge, understanding and the ability to apply the learning in practical experiences. In the product ownership journey, one can advance from the 1st level to the level of mastery by gaining ground-level experience and appearing for the final assessment (PSPO III).

PSPO I

The first level, Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I), tests the fundamental know-how, about the Scrum framework and optimal value creation and delivery, of the product owners. Beginners in the role can use agile product owner certification in Bangalore assessment to help validate their knowledge. This assessment can be taken from the scrum.org website by paying the necessary exam fees, which currently is USD 200 for 1 attempt. People wishing to appear for the assessment need not take any course, although attending the class is highly recommended.

PSPO I Assessment

The assessment consists of 80 questions, and the timebox for the exam is an hour (60 minutes). It has multiple choice, multi-answer, and True or False questions. Currently available in English only, the passing score is high at 85%, which means that applicants should get at least 68 correct out of 80. The assessment is not a proctored one. It can be taken from the comfort of your home or any place where there is minimal disturbance.

Once you pass the assessment, you will receive an industry-recognized certification. This certification does not expire and does not warrant any renewal payments. The focus areas of this assessment are as below:

Understanding and Applying the Scrum Framework:

* Empiricism, Scrum Team, Events, Artifacts, Done.

Developing People and Teams:

* Self-Managing Teams.

Managing Products with Agility:

* Forecasting & Release Planning, Product Vision, Product Value, Product Backlog Management, Business Strategy, Stakeholders & Customers.

Alright, let’s get to the part of discussing the preparation aspects. In my view, there are essentially 3 parts to it:

Learn

Build a strong fundamental knowledge of the Scrum framework and product ownership. This can be obtained by appearing for classes from any of the Professional Training Network (PTN) partners. As I have mentioned earlier, this is not mandatory to appear for the assessment. However, it is very useful in understanding the nuances of product ownership and sets a solid foundation to grow on.

Study

·       Read the latest and official Scrum guide from here.

·       Review the EBM guide and the Nexus framework.

·       Learn more about the subject areas as outlined above.

·       The Professional Scrum Product Owner book by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham is another good resource.

·       Product Goal – A Commitment

·       Read blogs from authentic Professional Scrum Trainers

Practice

The Open assessments provided on the scrum.org website are a great start. These are free and can help with gaining confidence initially. Continue practicing with them until you get a 100% score continuously at least 3 times. Discuss with like-minded people on various forums, and validate your thoughts. Gain knowledge by applying the principles and learning in the workplace. Keep looking for opportunities to improve.

When appearing for the assessment, ensure that your time is free from distractions. Stay hydrated as necessary and remember that you will lose time if you have to take pee breaks. Be confident in the learning that you have gained. Pay attention, and interpret the questions correctly as they might not be straight from the book (Scrum guide). If you are not so sure of the answer to a question or two, flag them and move on with the rest. You can come back to them at the end or when the time permits. Inspect and adapt!

Resource: https://www.tryscrum.com/blogs/how-to-pass-professional-scrum-product-owner-i-pspo-i-certification/

Read More

Three Pro-Tips for Mentoring Conversation

Mentoring is a choice.

Mentoring is not a spare time activity. It is more a relationship. It needs to have both mentor and mentee know about each other well. Also, one needs to be committed to making the mentoring work.

Mentor Considerations

Mentoring is about the mentor willingly sharing their experience and knowledge for mentees to learn from them. The mentor needs to be mindful of the general behaviour of people.

Let us consider the concept of advising. Humans are, in general, good at heart. Therefore, if someone finds it difficult to find a solution, it is natural human behaviour to help them out.

But if you ask someone about their opinion on getting advice from a different person, the answer is usually a NO. In contrast, the answer changes if you ask them about getting the same advice from an influencer in a specific field. So always leave the mentee’s of their choice to consider or ignore your advice.

Mentee Considerations

Talking from my professional experience, I can recommend that, “If you want to grow in a field, find a good mentor from the domain.” The reason behind this statement is, it is a prime tool to rise above the mediocracy and succeed more.

There are multiple reasons why you require a mentor to succeed. The advice and information that you receive from a mentor help in your career development with agile scrum master certification. It also helps you to drive through the different career paths. At distinct career junctures, you would need different mentors to guide you through.

Mentoring Conversation

The core of mentorship gets defined by the people concerned with the matter. However, it is a worthy point to note that real magic truly happens during productive mentoring conversations.

But, do you know what makes the process so special? Here are the three things that need consideration:

·       Humility and humanity are the two things that people bring with their relationships, provides strong power to mentoring.

·       Having a conversation helps in converting ideas and learning from two individuals into context.

·       The support system between a mentee and a mentor plays a prime part in outshining. Overcome the obstacles by learning from past mistakes.

If you put all of these aspects in a combined effort, you can make a powerful mentoring relationship. It impacts other people’s careers and lives, besides influencing the organization positively.

Three pro-steps will help you with mentoring conversations and developing profound relationships:

Develop a rhythm and flow

The foundation base between the relationship of a mentee and mentor is the conversation. It stimulates development in every way. The conversation quality truly impacts on a deeper level in developing a mentee.

Mentoring conversations require the right rhythm and flow. You need to find it and follow it right. Set a pattern in the conversations which suits the concern and follow it time and again. Notable points to consider are

·       The actional progress since the last meeting

·       Which actions worked and which did not

·       Recommending the next trial

·       Path to follow next

The conversation model must be cyclical in pattern, which you can follow through the complete relationship course. First, the focus needs to be on short steps to later jump into bigger goals to progress rightly.

Convert the mentoring conversations into actions

Conversing about issues and concerns with mentoring partners forms the mentoring foundation. You can take things further with productive conversations, which stimulates personal development. Close any conversation on an active note for the next step. The three ways to accomplish it are:

Focus on goals

Mentees: Focus on ideas and activities that can enhance your skills to make you closer to mentoring goals

Mentors: Think about asking the reason behind every action. It helps the mentee to move ahead towards the goal with a clear perspective. They can express better and present the reasons behind every action.

Be practical

Mentees: Choose a straightforward way to adapt key learnings. Focus on actions that align with the principles of your conversations. Report your experience to the mentor and explain your observations to generate newer conversational dimensions.

Mentors: Guide your mentee by following their ideas to learn how to put the ideas into action in reality. Encourage discussions on both topics of what worked and what did not.

Model representation

Mentees: While conversing with your mentor, reflect on how the discussed concepts influence your existing behaviour. If you wanted to adapt to a new behavioural standard, what would that be?

Mentors: Honest feedback is the key. Tell them your honest observation of their behaviour. It would be better to share personal insights from your experiences with similar behaviour adaptations. Guide them on how you covered the path that they are on right now by sharing your learning experiences.

Expressing appreciation

It is vital to take out time to express your appreciation. You require to express your gratefulness to be a part of the productive mentoring relationship. It is a great conversation generator. It works by building a reliance and rapport between the two.

Do you mention the things that changed in your life for the mentoring relationship? Do you invest ample time to express your gratitude through practical examples related to your mentee or mentor? Also, do you tell them about their impact on your work?

By opening up to each other, you can reduce the distance between minds. Expressing real emotions makes you feel closer to the person more. Therefore, it is vital for a strong mentoring conversation.

Consider the following conversation starters:

·       I am indebted for

·       Conversations are helpful for me when you

·       Your insights/personality/experience/words have helped me . . .

·       Your relationship means a lot . . .

·       I am grateful to you for . . .

It strengthens your relationship when you share genuine feelings. It develops your character as you learn to appreciate the good things. Also, it also creates a sense of commitment for both parties.

While you are still in the process of mentoring, keep in mind that it is a personal relationship. It is between two human beings who are having productive conversations. The conversations help them succeed in life and achieve bigger goals in the future.

Resource: https://www.tryscrum.com/blogs/three-pro-tips-for-mentoring-conversation/

Read More