FAQ: Understanding Your Professional Scrum Experience
Before submitting the Scrum.org PST Application, we ask you to have at least 4 years of experience creating value through the use of Professional Scrum. If you’re curious about whether or not you have the type of experience we require, browse the following FAQ to learn more.
What does it mean to have experience creating value through the use of Professional Scrum?
First and foremost, this means you have worked hands-on with multiple Scrum Teams as they use the Scrum framework and complementary practices to deliver useful increments of value to stakeholders and customers. You should have multiple examples of ways you have helped these teams become effective in Scrum as they work through a series of Sprint Goals to make progress towards a Product Goal.
The emphasis of tangible value is important. Successful PST Candidates are able to concisely share stories about value delivery because teams they work with use metrics to evaluate the usefulness of the increments they deliver. If you are focused on measurable business outcomes and creating impact for stakeholders and customers, you’re on the right track.
How do I know if I am supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide?
Having a strong understanding of The Scrum Guide is important. This includes having awareness and appreciation for why the current iteration of The Scrum Guide is the way it is (see The Scrum Guide revision history.) If you are doing the following things, you can feel confident that you’re supporting Professional Scrum:
- Moving from more traditional ways of working to purposefully using all parts of Scrum to frequently deliver value
- Taking action to enable teams’ self-management.
- Helping individuals to fully embrace their Scrum accountabilities.
- Emphasizing why the elements of Scrum are important and how they contribute to success.
- Cultivating empiricism within others by being radical about transparency, what can be learned (inspected) and how that informs what to do next (adaptation).
- Leading with an experimentation mindset and supporting others in iterating towards learning through hypotheses.
- Being rigorous about continuous improvement, not only by demonstrating it yourself, but by helping others do it too.
How much experience is needed serving at multiple levels of the organization?
Ultimately, we are looking for candidates who have a range of experiences working with leaders and stakeholders to create an environment where Scrum Teams thrive. This means you should have stories to tell about how you’ve worked with individuals and teams to influence organizational change.
My experience applying Scrum is largely confined to a single organization, is that sufficient?
Connecting with learners means being able to relate to the wide variety of environments they come from. Each of them are navigating the application of Professional Scrum in a different context. As a result, we look for PST Candidates who have leveraged Scrum across a wide range of settings. It is possible to gain this range of experience in a single organization if you’ve served teams across multiple organizational divisions or departments and used Scrum to build multiple types of products / services.
Most importantly, we want you to have a diverse set of pragmatic stories about the ups (and downs) of applying Scrum with teams that illustrate there is no 1-right way to be successful.
Is 4 years of Scrum experience truly required?
Truthfully, the most successful PST candidates typically have more than 4 years of hands-on experience with Scrum. It takes a number of years to first develop your own mastery of Scrum and then collect a sufficient range of experience to resonate with learners. If you’re able to convey stories that illustrate the concepts outlined within this FAQ, then we encourage you to consider applying to become a PST.
We’re Here For You
If you’re wondering if you’ve got the experience needed to be successful as a PST Candidate, or are looking for tips on how to expand your range of experience with Professional Scrum, please contact us.