Certified Scrum Master

This post is about Certified Scrum Master. Agile project management is as radically different from traditional project management as agile processes are different from traditional methodologies. Rather than plan, instruct and direct, the agile project manager facilitates, coaches and leads. This person is called a ScrumMaster in the Scrum agile process to denote the difference and remind the person filling this role of the new responsibilities.Accepted participants learn how to be a ScrumMaster and how to make a development team, a project, or an organization agile. Exercises, case studies, and examples used to bring home the realization of how to be a ScrumMaster instead of a project manager.
Scrum Certification is about attending a two-day course, which gives participants hands-on experience using Scrum. Participants gain practical experience working with Scrum tools and activities such as the product backlog, sprint backlog, daily Scrum meetings, sprint planning meeting, and burndown charts.
Following successful completion of the course, each participant will be designated Certified ScrumMaster. This certification includes a one-year membership in the Scrum Alliance, where additional ScrumMaster-only material and information are available.

Scrum References

Following are some of the Scrum References

1. Agile Project Management with Scrum (Ken Schwaber)
2. The Scrum Papers (Jeff Sutherland)
3. Scrum and XP from the Trenches

Scrum in a nut shell

Scrum is an Agile process or framework for managing Agile projects. It is a project management process, certainly not a methodology, as that would be too heavy. Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework. Scrum structures product development in cycles of work called Sprints, iterations of work which are typically 1-4 weeks in length, and which take place one after the other.
Scrum is one of several Agile methods for developing and deploying software, although it may be used for non-software initiatives whenever people need to work together to achieve a common goal. The primary objective of Agile development is to deliver value early in the Project Lifecycle based upon customer and market demands. The ability to deliver value early and often, yet readily adapting to change, is considered to be a major contributor in making Agile Development one of the more rapidly growing trends in technology.
Scrum is a method for project management that is becoming increasingly more common
in the software industry. Small teams consisting of a maximum 6-8 people divide their
work into “mini projects” that have a duration of about one month during which a limited
number of detailed tasks are solved. Where traditional methods focus on staying on
track, Scrum is aimed at – like other agile methods - delivering business value

Scrum Basics
Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework.

Scrum is not a process – rather, it’s a framework which provides a lot of visibility to the team, and a mechanism that allows them to “inspect and adapt” accordingly

Scrum structures product development in cycles of work called Sprints, iterations of work which are typically 1-4 weeks in length, and which take place one after the other.

The Sprints are of fixed duration –they end on a specific date whether the work has been completed or not, and are never extended.

At the beginning of each Sprint, a cross-functional team selects items from a prioritized list of requirements, and commits to complete them by the end of the Sprint; during the Sprint, the deliverable does not change.

Each work day, the team gathers briefly to report to each other on progress, and update simple charts that orient them to the work remaining.

At the end of the Sprint, the team demonstrates what they have built, and gets feedback which can then be incorporated in the next Sprint.

Scrum emphasizes producing working product at the end of the Sprint is really “done”; in the case of software, this means code that is fully tested and potentially shippable

Scrum Values

1. Openness
2. Focus
3. Commitment
4. Courage
5. Respect and
6. Visibility

Scrum forces teams to take ownership of the success or failure of their project. In traditional waterfall methodology, its more often than not, a project manager who is responsible for project's success or failure.