Recommended Courses for Scrum Masters
As a Scrum Master, you have a lot on your plate and have to take on several different stances depending on the situation in order
to be successful. The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide by helping everyone understand Scrum theory and practice, both within the Scrum Team and the organization. They are also accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness by enabling the Scrum Team to improve its practices, within the Scrum framework. This poster describes more of the characteristics of a Scrum Master.
Scrum Masters are true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization in many ways. We have put together a series of courses to help you as a Scrum Master be more effective and better support your team and organization.
Core Courses for Scrum Masters
In the Professional Scrum Master™ course, you will gain a strong understanding of Professional Scrum, an agile mindset and the accountabilities of the Scrum Master. The course uses a combination of instructor-led and activity-based learning where you work together with other students in teams. Professional Scrum Trainers (PSTs) bring their own Scrum Master experiences and stories to the class and use their skills as professional trainers to deliver the material using their own unique delivery style. The result is an engaging, enjoyable learning experience where you will gain a deep understanding of Scrum theory and principles, the Scrum Master accountabilities and why each element of the Scrum framework is important.
In the Professional Scrum Master™ - Advanced course, you get a deeper understanding of the accountabilities of the Scrum Master and explore the challenges that Scrum Masters face, how to handle them by applying the principles and values of Scrum to help support the Scrum Team, and dive deep into how to serve the Scrum Team, Product Owner and the organization. This advanced course will help you to understand the stances that characterize an effective Scrum Master. You will also learn related practices and skills to enable you to have the right types of conversations and how to apply these practices to become a better Scrum Master and create an environment for agility to thrive.
In the Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills™ course, Scrum Masters will develop a facilitator’s mindset, increase proficiency in facilitation skills, and learn when and how to select effective techniques for various circumstances to better solve problems, create a shared understanding and foster transparency. The course addresses a series of common Scrum-related scenarios while you learn to apply several facilitation techniques that you can add to your collection of agile practices. You will create and leave with your own facilitation “plan” to improve their next team discussion or Scrum event by becoming a better facilitator to improve Scrum Team, stakeholder and customer interactions.
In the Scaled Professional Scrum™ course, Scrum Masters develop a collection of skills that can be applied to help overcome challenges when your product development spans beyond a single Scrum Team, while learning about and using the Nexus framework. Throughout the course you will work together in a Nexus to organize and simulate a scaled product development project. In this case study based class, common challenges that are encountered when scaling are presented and more than fifty practices for overcoming them are revealed. Some of these practices rely on what you already know about Scrum and some are complementary techniques.
In the Professional Agile Leadership™ - Evidence-Based Management™ course Scrum Masters are often joined by Product Owners, coaches and consultants where you will experience how to work together toward continuously improving customer outcomes, organizational capabilities and business results. You will learn what EBM is and how to apply the framework to set clear goals and measures through a series of exercises. You will learn techniques that support a more agile mindset by shifting the conversation away from measuring progress purely through team performance metrics, toward a focus on customer-centricity and improving customer outcomes.
Supporting the Team
In the Professional Scrum Product Owner™ course, you will explore and learn the accountabilities of the Product Owner to better support them and others on your Scrum Teams. During class, you will gain an understanding of the pivotal role the Product Owner plays in bridging strategy and agile product management in order to create valuable products. Throughout the class, you will learn a number of Product Ownership practices that you can use when supporting your Product Owner and helping them improve.
In the Professional Scrum™ with Kanban course experienced Scrum Masters and other Scrum practitioners learn how to improve the way you work by applying Kanban practices in the context of Professional Scrum. Through theory, case studies and hands-on exercises, you will learn the importance of flow and be equipped with practical knowledge to implement Kanban practices to help Scrum Teams enhance how they work. You will leave with a better understanding of what good Kanban looks like and how to implement it within a Professional Scrum environment.
Scrum Master Self Assessment
In Scrum, we are constantly looking for ways to improve. As a Scrum Master, there are many skills required to be effective and it is important to grow and nurture those skills. Together with Comparative Agility, Scrum.org offers a self-assessment to help you grow as a Scrum Master. This tool helps you evaluate your Scrum Master skills and assess areas for improvement based on the Professional Scrum Competencies by Scrum.org.