Recently I was accredited as a Certified ScrumMaster by the Scrum Alliance. This came after I attended a 2 day training course and successfully passed an examination.

The course was ran by the excellent and enthusiastic Petri Heiramo and consisted of lectures, group exercises and interactive question and answer sessions. A fair amount of background reading and preparation was required before attending the course but I felt that the real value came from the instructor’s vast experience in consulting at various companies which added a great deal of context and depth to the materials.

One thing I particularly liked was that there was no evangelising or excuses made for Scrum in the content of the course, instead Petri was very pragmatic and upfront about the goals and expected outcomes of the Scrum framework and in what situations it can and cannot be effectively deployed as well as what alternatives exist. Moreover, it was emphasised that Scrum is not a magic formula that must be followed to the letter but a framework for iteratively developing a process which is tailored to suit a specific team.

As a direct result of this training I now feel far more capable and confident in engaging with my team and members of the wider organisation in the use of Scrum, how we can improve and provide guidance on the reasoning behind sometimes obscure methods and processes before they are abandoned in ignorance.

Overall I was very pleased with the course and would urge anyone with the opportunity to sign up.