Scrum Master Certification program is
conducted by several bodies like Scrum Alliance, Scrum.org, Scrum Institute,
ScrumStudy, Exin, PMI etc. and also called by different names.
Each body
claims its certification to be the best and most valued in the market. However
as with any certification, the most important thing is knowledge and real
experience which can only be achieved by doing a training from an experienced
trainer followed up with real life work experience in Scrum over several years.
Here is a
summary comparing the different options:
Summary of
Training Cost:
There is
difference in the price of certifications as well –
Certification body
|
Name of Certification
|
Certification Only
|
Training Only Cost
|
Certification Plus Training
|
Scrum Institute
|
Scrum Master Accredited Certification
|
USD 39
|
Rs. 8,000
|
USD 150
|
Exin
|
EXIN Agile Scrum Master
|
USD 200
|
INR 22,000 to 24000
|
|
Scrum Alliance
|
Certified ScrumMaster®
|
Not available
|
Not available
|
INR 26,000 to 29,000
|
ScrumStudy
|
Scrum Master Certified
|
USD 300
|
Rs. 8,000
|
INR 20,000 to 24000
|
Scrum.org
|
Professional Scrum Master I
|
USD 150
|
Rs.10,000
|
USD 300
|
PMI
|
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (It goes beyond just
Scrum)
|
USD 435
|
INR 12,000
|
Which certification is legitimate?
If one were to browse the internet then one will come across
several posts bad-mouthing the certification bodies. Read for yourself …
Against
ScrumAlliance
Against
ScrumStudy
Fair Synopsis
ScrumAlliance is the oldest body offering Scrum Certification.
It is an alliance of trainers known as ‘Certified Scrum Trainers’. Although
ScrumAlliance is a not-for-profit body, their trainings are prohibitively
costly.
They are now seeing themselves being challenged by ‘newbees’
like ScrumStudy and others which can potentially upset the ‘applecart’ and
cutting into their pie. Hence, founders of SrumAlliance are furious at
ScrumStudy and are going hammer and tongs against them.
Another comparison point is the amount of training materials
made available on the net from ScrumStudy is much more than that available from
ScrumAlliance. One can do the comparison by visiting their respective websites.
In all fairness, it is a free market and there are several
bodies offering similar certification. So ScrumAlliance is as legitimate as
ScrumStudy or any other body offering the certification. There are many
corporate bodies who have got their employees certified through ScrumStudy to
avoid the ‘Big Boy’s Club’.
Since there is no official regulating body for scrum
certifications, like PMP, CPA, etc. It seems one is as good as the other!
Unless you have actual experience managing scrum projects the only thing that
certification represents is a base level of knowledge at best. Employers would
be smart to require hands on experience over the CSM certification if their
goal is to hire resources who will know what they are doing!
