Our new Professional Certification Path for Lean-Agile Teams
Our new Lean-Agile Project Manager curriculum, as part of our Lean-Agile training initiative, is unique in the industry and has brought thousands of professionals into successful transitions and adoptions of Agile practices. Our certification program began with providing Scrum Certification:
Podcast: Professional Scrum Certification by Net Objectives
Net Objectives is not affiliated with the Scrum Alliance.
There is a lot of buzz about certification these days. In our mind, almost all of it is hype and marketing. So why do we have a certification program ourselves? We have one to provide an honest alternative to the entry level that most people are looking for.
First of all, what does certification mean? Well, there are really two kinds of certification programs. One is a certification of an individual and the other is certification that you have successfully completed a set curriculum. In both cases, however, what competencies the certification represents should be stated for the certification to have any meaning.
Almost all Scrum certifications awarded up till now have been given by the Scrum Alliance. While they offer a certification of having taken a course, they make it sound as if the person himself/herself is being certified. True, a test is given, but the certification is provided regardless of the results of the exam. Even this test, however, is about the basic rules of Scrum – providing little insights into what someone needs to know to apply Scrum to the real world. It’s like saying a person is a certified football player because they know the rules of game even if they don’t know what to do in response to a given situation.
In our mind, a certification that you’ve taken a course has very little meaning. It has even less meaning if there is no list of competencies that the person being certified should have. We clearly state and promote our certification as being certified in attending a course. We also state the competencies someone should have to do Scrum – providing our Lean-Agile Pocket Guide for Scrum Teams to each attendee.
We’ve summarized some of the differences between our and the Scrum Alliance certification programs in the following table:
| Net Objectives | Scrum Alliance | |
| Course evaluations given to ensure quality level of instructor? | Yes | No |
| Statement of competencies needed to be an effective Scrum Master given to students? | Yes | No |
| Consistent curriculum covered by different instructors? | Yes | No |
Required to pass exam? | Yes | No |
Our Certification Program Is Better In Other Ways
Knowing rules of the game are not enough. Knowing the principles on which the game is based is critical. We teach the principles underneath the practices we cover in our courses. Our Scrum Master Certification program is not just about the rules of Scrum, but rather about the principles on which Scrum rests. Scrum's roots come from Lean-Thinking. In an interview with Agile Collab, Ken Schwaber (co-creator of Scrum and former head of the Scrum Alliance) said -
In analyzing where and why Scrum teams have failed to get the results desired, we have come to an inescapable conclusion - Scrum works readily in some contexts and not in others. This should not be a surprise. But the second conclusion is more profound - in many contexts in which Scrum does not work readily, Scrum has no power to improve the context in which it is in. In other words, the impediments that one must fix are often outside of the scope of what Scrum helps you do. These impediments are often not even seen or if they are, are often viewed as "just the way it is." In fact, I'd go so far as to say certain Scrum attitudes often makes things worse.
We address both of these issues by providing Lean-Thinking in our Scrum training as well as by providing the Lean-Agile Project Manager Certification course which teaches Scrum, Kanban and Scrumban – thereby ensuring you will understand the process you should be using.
People attending any of our Scrum, Lean-Agile Project Management, Product Owner, or Advanced Lean-Agile Project Management for Scrum Masters, receive the following benefits:
- Subscriber access to our web-site for one year (a $195 value). This gives access to days worth of Lean, Agile, and Technical training
- A copy of the Net Objectives Pocket Guide for Scrum Teams
