Scrum Assembly Review and Recognition?
Hi everyone
I found a web site which they call themselves, Scrum Assembly.
It looks like they're the cheapest deceiving copy of some other decent scrum certification providers. Can I ask for opinions about Scrum Assembly (www.scrumassembly.org)?
According to their web site at www.scrumassembly.org, Abraham White and his co-founder are on a mission to open-source Scrum training and certifications.
They wrote that: As of May 1st, 2019, they had helped more than 160,000 students with their programs.
As their numbers and facts do not add up in any possibly conceivable reality, I have several questions about this web portal:
1. After a small check, I found that: According to the "whois" records of scrumassembly.org, an unknown person registered this domain on 15.November 2018.
That means even if they had a ready web portal to run on 15. November 2018, in 5 a half months these chaps managed to certify 160,000 people.
Is this even possible? Remember Scrum.org has certified about 200,000 people in more than 12 years.
Is Scrum Assembly a scam establishment?
2. The "whois" record of the scrumassembly.org was hidden under privacy protection. Why would a passionate company with a big mission protect the real name and address of its owners?
Is Scrum Assembly a fake establishment, so the owners are afraid of showing themselves to the world.
3. On LinkedIn, I was able to find a few individuals from South Africa and Peru with scrumassembly.org certifications. Where are the rest of the 160,000 people? Or is Scrum Assembly a scam establishment that pretends like a real company?
4. There are a few video testimonials on this portal, but they all seem to be fake testimonials that anyone can but from fiverr for $5 each. The identities of these persons on video testimonials are obscure, and they don't seem to know what they're talking about.
Are these people real scrum masters? Or Is Scrum Assembly a fake establishment and they try to convince innocent people to catch on their spider nets?
5. Scrum Assembly has an advisory board which constitutes six persons.
These persons are Cameron Etazadi, Rithika Baruah, Erick Vilela, Derya Sel, Fernando Serrano, Gautam Thapar.
And yet, on their LinkedIn and other social media profiles, none of these persons reveals anything about Scrum Assembly. Furthermore, according to their resumes, they don't seem to be experienced in the Scrum framework.
Can a company make an advisory board for a Scrum Certification Authority out of these persons?
Or is Scrum Assembly a fake establishment to collect money out of nothing?
6. Last but not least, according to Washington State Secretary records (https://opengovwa.com/corporation/604380624), a company named Scrum Asssembly LLC belongs to a MEHMET BARIS SAYDAG. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mehmet Baris Saydag is an expat engineer living in Redmond, but he has no association with Scrum Assembly whatsoever.
Is this a proof that Scrum Assembly a fake establishment, so even his owner has no guts to update his resume to avoid charges of scam and felony?
7. Moreover, who is this Abraham White, the great leader of Scrum Assembly? There is no record anywhere about Abraham White in association with Scrum Assembly. There is no photo, no presence, zero! Welcome to our ghost leader who saves the Scrum world, Abraham White! :)
Or is this a proof that Scrum Assembly a fake establishment to collect easy money from innocent people in underdeveloped countries?
I am puzzled with this level of organizational crime, scam, deception, and chain of lies.
I would advise everyone to stay away from Scrum Assembly.
And yet, I am curious to see your feedback!
Thanks in advance!
David
A brief glance does indicate to me at least that they have some idea of what they're talking about, but I wouldn't give them much more credit than that. In one section, they advocated a 4th Scrum role called the Scrum Executive (?).
In their practice exam, they have a number of minor inconsistencies related to Scrum. Overall, the practice exam was quite rudimentary and not really confirming Scrum much (one of the questions asked if individual salary was something to be discussed in the Daily Scrum - LOL!)
Among other inconsistencies in their 10-question practice exam:
- They refer to "grooming" instead of refinement
- They have a question about the right Scrum Team size. The Scrum Guide makes a recommendation, but it isn't a hard and fast rule
- I only got 9 out of 10 correct. The question I got wrong was asking if a Scrum Master was a full-time job. I answered yes, but according to Scrum Assembly, it isn't!
I'd steer clear. It's been said many times on this board - beware of Scrum certification bodies that don't appear to have a solid understanding of Scrum.
The first thing I looked at on the site was their page on certifications. There is a image of a certificate for an International Scrum Master. If you look close in the bottom left there is a signature that can't be read and no indication who's signature it is. Also this person is signing on behalf of ISA Accreditation Committee. If you look at the ISA website they list a number of certifications but not the International Scrum Master. Their list of certifications does not include any of the certifications that the Scrum Assembly site has listed.
The "about" page has this statement.
About ISA
The International Society of Automation (www.isa.org) is a nonprofit professional association founded in 1945 to create a better world through automation. ISA advances technical competence by connecting the automation community to achieve operational excellence. The organization develops widely used global standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; hosts conferences and exhibits; and provides networking and career development programs for its 40,000 members and 400,000 customers around the world.
I am really trying hard to understand how ISA would be involved.
The "Free Assessments" are only available if you sign in. Sounds like a scam to gather info.
The address on the site appears to be an apartment complex on Google Maps satellite view.
I haven't even looked into the actual contents and I'm already saying "SCAM".
Looked at their book on Amazon. It has 3 glowing reviews. Looking at the individual that posted the first one, "Team manager", shows that this individual has posted 3 reviews. The one for this book and 2 others in 2013 for a tool and a pair of motorcycle saddlebags.
I can go on but I've made up my mind that this is very much a scam and I wish I had never actually went to their website so that they know I was there.
I was contemplating to purchase a scrum certification from Scrum Assembly, but I knew that something stinks about them. I am glad that I found this confirmation of my suspicions here on this forum.
Thanks everyone for highlighting these facts about Scrum Assembly. Such revealing Scrum Assembly Reviews are quite eyeopening, so people should understand this subtle deception game driven by founders of scrum assembly.
After having a deeper look at what is going on here, I also would like to draw attention to some other Scrum Assembly's Fraud Attempts, so here is my own Scrum Assembly Review:
Point 1. Deceptive Branding and Product Introduction
Scrum Assembly announces on their web site that: "Scrum Assembly™ is a Seattle - United States based organization that roots back to early days of Agile movement in 2000s."
Again according to their web site, they proudly advertise that their scrum master certification (ISM) program was first released in June 2014.
Can someone tell me how it is possible that scrumassembly.org has its roots in the early agile movement and released a product in 2014?
A whois check confirms that Scrum Assembly just registered its scrumassembly.org domain late in 2018.
$ whois scrumassembly.org
Domain Name: SCRUMASSEMBLY.ORG
Updated Date: 2019-03-24T00:20:45Z
Creation Date: 2018-11-15T17:43:35Z
Point 2. Trademark Infringement.
I sincerely appreciate Daniel's comment here and many thanks for highlighting ISA. With their signatures on their certifications, Scrum Assembly is attempting to sign on behalf of ISA, so they infringe and attempt to associate their name with registered trademark of International Society of Automation and ISA. According to formal records of State Washington, Scrum Assembly LLC was registered by a person named Baris Saydag. But this signature on those certifications do not belong to a Baris Saydag. If I read it correctly, signatures belong to an A. White who must be their founder Abraham White of Scrum Assembly.
Point 3. Deception of Identities
One other big problem I see here is that: Neither Scrum Assembly's Baris Saydag, nor Scrum Assembly's Abraham White do reveal anything about Scrum Assembly on their LinkedIn profiles. In fact, there is no viable Abraham White profile on LinkedIn in this particular certification mill business, but I have my solid guess who this person from Seattle is. I think Abraham White is afraid of the consequences of the game he is playing. And Baris Saydag is reluctant to reveal anything about Scrum Assembly on his public profile. But somehow Abraham White managed to convince Baris Saydag to open an LLC for a deceptive business practice. Clever. No joke. Honestly clever. Everyone should take this advise and choose their friends wisely. :)
Point #4. The address of the Scrum Assembly is an exciting highlight too.
The whois record of scrumassembly.org does not reveal any address. So much about two major Scrum values. Openness and Courage.
Baris Saydag registered Scrum Assembly LLC at 8201 164th Ave Ne Ste 200 Redmond WA 98052-7615
But the scrumassembly.org gives 1546 NW 56th Street #747, Seattle, WA 98107 on its footer.
My conclusion of Scrum Assembly review: Take action and write a formal complaint to Attorney General today!
I am filing a customer complaint for Scrum Assembly LLC by using the form located at:
Washington State Office of the Attorney General, Bob Ferguson.
Here is the link: https://fortress.wa.gov/atg/formhandler/ago/ComplaintForm.aspx
I am not sure which physical address I am supposed to use to fill in the complaint form.Therefore, I will supply all these addresses mentioned above including the names of two persons who are associated with Scrum Assembly.
I encourage everyone who were trapped by Scrum Assembly to do so too.
Please include the records of payment transactions and email correspondences you conducted with them, so authorities can easily trace back to the source of where your hardly-earned money will be transferred.
While ISA (International Scrum Assembly) has been completely debunked here at Scrum.Org, they are still active around the world peddling their certifications and claiming they are a good option for those seeking Scrum knowledge. This is simply not a good thing.
They occasionally spam my inbox, and I just wanted to post their latest Scrum offering to once again highlight that this organization does not have a good understanding of Scrum.
"At the beginning of each sprint, the development team determines a subset of the product backlog that it believes it can complete during the sprint. This activity is called sprint planning."
Who here can identify what is incorrect or misleading with the above statement?