Certified ScrumMaster®

Charlotte, NC - Discovery Certified ScrumMaster Course (CSM)

[Note: Answers to some common questions are in the FAQs under DETAILS.]

Our approach to this course is unique, in at least two ways: our approach to Scrum and the Agile Release Planning Workshop available as an add-on. 

We want you to have significantly better results from Scrum, in terms of more fun, more Velocity (productivity) and more Business Value. We use many ideas to help you make this significant paradigm shift. We use interaction, Q&A, exercises, improv, break-out discussions and other techniques to get you involved and to help you experience what it is like to be on a great Scrum Team.

Joe Little will lead this course. He has co-taught eight times with Jeff Sutherland (one of the co-creators of Scrum). Joe is an experienced Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), and he has worked with other great Scrum trainers since 2005.  

He also has an MBA, which is fairly unique among trainers.

You can take the 16-hour course and complete the CSM certification or you can continue for another 8 hours in a practical Agile Release Planning Workshop. 

Attendees strongly recommend the ARP Workshop. This covers Agile Release Planning and  Product Backlog Refinement. There are a number of practical sub-topics, including story writing, Story Points and BV Points. These topics are covered in the course, briefly. The big difference is that you work in a team and you practice them with real work. (Note: The ARP workshop is not included in the price quoted here.)  

With the CSM, Participants Will Learn:

• To plan, initiate and lead a Scrum project
• To establish a shared vision for the entire team
• To generate an Agile Release Plan utilizing user stories and Story Point estimation
• To lead your Scrum Team through planning, review and retrospective sessions
• To create an environment in which self-managing teams can flourish
• To identify and remove impediments
• To identify, engage and involve Business Stakeholders in your project
• How to take an existing team to the next level
• Practical suggestions purchased expensively from the school of hard knocks

In this course, we typically mix in XP and Lean ideas. Having worked with Jeff Sutherland, Joe mixes in many of his ideas and stories. Having a business background and an MBA, Joe is oriented more than others toward the Product Owners and business issues. We want you to have full business success, not a mere technical success.

You will get useful knowledge about how and why Scrum works.

Again, we strongly urge you to also register for the Agile Release Planning Workshop that immediately follows. This workshop gives you practical experiences that will make you more effective.  

Virtual Course:

The essential content of the course and workshop are the same as for the in-person versions. But we are doing a number of small things to make the online experience more enjoyable.

Some quick notes:

• We keep it lively.
• We have frequent breaks, roughly every hour.
• We use Mural.co to keep it interactive.
• We engage you and the group in the learning.
• We keep the class small (not more than 16 people).

Additional Information:

• We are using two formats: 4- and 8-hour days. See the registration page at LeanAgileTraining.com to confirm exact hours. 
• The course will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, and from 8:30 a.m to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
• Following successful completion of the course and passing of the CSM Test, a participant becomes enrolled as a Certified ScrumMaster. (Scrum Alliance also requires a (virtually) signed license agreement.)
• The CSM Test, which is covered by your fee to us, is online a day or so after the course and takes one hour (time boxed). We have a 99% pass rate.
• Once certified, you will also receive a two-year membership in Scrum Alliance, where additional ScrumMaster-only materials and information are available.
• You will receive a copy of our book on Agile Release Planning and our draft book, “An Introduction to Scrum.” You also will receive access to other valuable materials.

Course Material:

Participants will receive a "book," which is a soft copy of the course slide deck. (We have many discussions and exercises outside the slide deck.) You can also download Joe’s draft book, “An Introduction to Scrum.”

In addition, participants should obtain (at their own expense) "Agile Project Management with Scrum" by Ken Schwaber or "Scrum" by Jeff Sutherland. You may also wish to obtain the first Scrum book, "Agile Software Development with Scrum," by Schwaber and Beedle.

After the class, you will be given a free copy of Joe’s book on Agile Release Planning, and a copy of all the drawings Joe does in class. Of course, there will be updated materials and training exercises in the course that you cannot get from books.  

You will also be invited to monthly webinars where Joe addresses key subjects areas (areas of your questions).