Professional Scrum Master - Advanced

The Professional Scrum Master™ - Advanced (PSM-A) is a two-day class where students learn about areas critical to growing as a successful Scrum Master, such as:

• how the principles and values of Scrum help guide Scrum Masters in the decisions they make, and
• how the Scrum Master can help change the environment of Scrum Teams, creating an environment for agility to thrive.

The course help Scrum Masters apply different stances to be effective, such as teacher, coach, mentor, facilitator, or change agent. As a Scrum Master, identifying and effectively applying which stance would benefit your team the most depending on the situation or circumstance could prove to be the key to the success of teams.

The course also includes a free attempt at the globally recognized Professional Scrum Master II (PSM II) certification exam.

Note: This course was previously called Professional Scrum Master II

The 2-day Professional Scrum Master - Advanced (PSM-A) course is an advanced course helping students to understand the stances that characterize an effective Scrum Master and servant-leader. The class teaches students about related practices and skills to enable them to have the right types of conversations and how to apply them to become better Scrum Masters.

Who Should Attend

The Professional Scrum Master - Advanced course is specifically designed for experienced Scrum Masters who have a thorough understanding of the Scrum framework.  It is particularly beneficial for those people with at least one year of Scrum Master experience. It would benefit

• Experienced Scrum Masters
• Agile Coaches
• Leaders and Managers
• Product Owners wanting to explore the Scrum Master accountability further

What You Will Learn

Over the 2 days, students will learn about areas critical to growing as a successful Scrum Master. They'll learn how the principles and values of Scrum help guide Scrum Masters in the decisions they make and how the Scrum Master can help change the environment of Scrum Teams, creating an environment for agility to thrive. The Scrum Master role is complex and often, a Scrum Master must be able to apply different stances in order to be effective, such as:

• The Scrum Master as a Teacher
• The Scrum Master as a Coach & Mentor
• The Scrum Master as a Facilitator
• The Scrum Master as a Change Agent

As a Scrum Master, you need to be able to identify, and effectively apply which stance would benefit your team the most depending on the situation.

As a Scrum Master, part of your role is to help management and other stakeholders across your organization understand the benefits of Scrum and Agile. Therefore, it is imperative that you have the information and background that is needed to gain credibility in order to be an effective change agent.  Throughout the class, your Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) will provide stories, exercises, facilitation techniques (such as “Liberating Structures”), resources and more. There will also be time in class for the PST to provide coaching on challenges that you and your classmates may be experiencing today.

Course Objectives

• What practices, tools, skills and stances make an effective Scrum Master
• How the Scrum principles and values help guide Scrum Masters in the decisions they make
• How the Scrum Master acts as a servant-leader and improve their ability in this role
• What the Scrum Master can do to support Developers and Product Owners to become more effective
• Ways that the Scrum Master can help to change the environment making it more conducive for Scrum Teams to be successful with greater agility
• Provide tips and techniques for the Scrum Master to work with the rest of the organization in support of their Scrum Teams
• Improve effects on the organization of a successful Scrum Master
• Dealing with team conflict
• Removing impediments
• Communicating the importance of a "Done" Increment
• How to support the Scrum Team
• Understanding the challenges of middle management 

Certification and Assessment

All participants completing the Professional Scrum Master Advanced (PSM-A) course will receive a password to attempt the Professional Scrum Master II (PSM II) assessment. PSM-A class participants who attempt the PSM II assessment within 14 days of receiving their free password and do not score at least 85% will be granted a 2nd attempt at no additional cost.

Students of official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master - Advanced classes are also entitled to a 40% discount on the PSM III assessment.

PDU Credits

Students of Scrum.org courses are able to claim Project Management Institute (PMI) PDU credit: 14 PDUs after attending the two-day Professional Scrum Master (PSM). Please note that PMI PDUs are earned for course attendance and not for passing a Scrum.org assessment. Students can claim PDUs under PMI’s "Education courses provided by other third-party providers” category. You can claim your PDUs online at https://ccrs.pmi.org.