Which Scrum certificate should I Opt ?

Do not do Scrum Study; that organization is a joke.

Scrum Alliance is good but you have to attend a training and depending on the facilitator; you may not actually learn much of anything. Not to mention the CSM is so easy to pass it's laughable.

Obviously, you're on a Scrum.org forum so you should expect people to encourage them. I'll encourage scrum.org because the exams are HARD. They weed out the ones that did not study well enough or the ones that just do not know anything about Scrum. I'll also encourage them because you do not have to attend a class in order to get a certificate, classes are available depending on your location but you do not have to take one.

I agree with Curtis  mostly. Beware of online training companies they are a dime a dozen and then give you a cert that is not industry acknowledge.

In this day and age, you can do a lot of self-study you have a world of material you can look at for free.

TOP 2

Scrum Alliance – I was a former Scrum Slliance guy but switched because I could take tests on my own time frame. I also did not like I had to re-certify every couple year’s.

Scrum.org – Real good material and you can self-study. I like the Scrum.org Certs better because you have to apply yourself to pass them.  You have to have a good understanding.

Scrum study – MEH! Not terrible but they are a Certification Mill. They just churn out Certs to anyone with a PC.

Read the scrum guide here and material here. Scrum Alliance has good material as well.

Google will help you and You Tube.  Then come back and take PSM 1 maybe pass maybe fail just wash rinse repeat.

Hi Bhargav - The nice aspect of Scrum.org is that training is separated from certification, and if you have the knowledge you can take the test.  Since there are no courses in your local city, the Scrum.org assessments may be just what you are looking for.  The other vendors mentioned require you to pay for a course.

Here are some links that may help:

• Suggested Readings: https://www.scrum.org/resources/suggested-reading-professional-scrum-master
• Over 200K certified: https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-certifications/count   

Wishing you all the best!

Hi Bhargav,

There are various Scrum.org courses and certificates, and the best choice for you will depend on what you expect or wish to do in your career. I can't claim to know about all of them, but you can find an overview at: https://www.scrum.org/courses

As for there being no training in your city, I believe you can search this website for courses in other cities in your country. If everything is too far away, perhaps you should contact Scrum.org and ask whether they are aware of plans to provide training near you.

In any case, although training is very valuable, and will help in passing exams, it is possible to pass Scrum.org exams without attending classes. Once you have found an exam you wish to take, you can read the advice on this website, about suggested preparation and reading materials.

Furthermore, I'll try to add some advice, based on what I do know about your options.

It is common for Business Analysts to become Product Owners, and if that is your plan, you may wish to take the Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) course and/or exam.

Within Scrum, it is sometimes, but always necessary to have someone with Business Analyst expertise within a Development Team, but unless you plan to work as a software developer, my understanding of the Professional Scrum Developer course and exam is that they are of limited value to you.

If you plan to become a Scrum Master, then the Professional Scrum Master (PSM) certificates and courses (note: Scrum.org just announced the PSM II course in the past few days) are of the most value. These are also probably of value to anyone working in a Scrum Team or leadership role, but there is also a Professional Scrum Foundation course, which I've never experienced, but I believe to be for those who are new to Scrum.

I think the Professional Agile Leadership (PAL I) certificate is of value to anyone working with Scrum, although perhaps more so for those in a leadership role. The associated course is Professional Agile Leadership Essentials, but I have not attended that, and can't comment on it's usefulness.

Beyond that, there are also courses and exams related to using Kanban with Scrum or scaling Scrum with the Nexus framework. For this, I have experience of both the Kanban course and certificate, but I can't say the same about Nexus. I believe these are also potentially useful for anyone working with Scrum, but primarily for Scrum Masters, and particularly in contexts, where applying Kanban is desirable, or where there is a need to scale product development with multiple teams

Circling back to Scrum Study.  YEEESSSHHHH Their SBOK sucks do not read that if you ever want to pass a scrum.org test or a Scrum Alliance test.

Do not do Scrum Study; that organization is a joke.

+1

I can’t agree with you more!!

Go for Scrum.org.

You(being a business analyst currently) can start with PSPO I & follow it up with PSM I...and then - by this time you will figure it out based on what you want to learn in your career path.

It all comes down to what you like, Bhargav. What do you want to do next? What's your goal? That should be step 1.

Step 2. Once you identify what you want (you likely already know by now), don't get a certification just for the sake of it. The question is do you want to be certified and put the diploma on a wall or do you want to become more proficient in an area? If it's the latter, then what is it? Is it anything Agile? Do you lean towards Scrum? Why - have you worked in this framework or have plans to? Are you part of a Scrum team, more precisely, of a Dev Team?

Step 3. Scrum - you've mentioned it in your message so I reasonably assume you're interested in it. But why? For what purposes? Would you like to become a PO? BAs usually get certified as POs, but not all become POs if you know what I mean.