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Why did you choose the Scrum.Org track rather than the Scrum Alliance track?

Explore why Scrum.org is the preferred choice for Scrum training over Scrum Alliance. Uncover insights from an insider’s journey to effective certification!

Published on 24 February 2023

Written by Martin Hinshelwood

4 minute read

https://nkdagility.com/resources/jhpy9Hy8uEw

Why did you choose the Scrum.Org track rather than the Scrum Alliance track?

The initial decision to go with www.scrum.org or with www.scrumalliance.org wasn’t really a decision at all, I kind of fell into the scrum.org track and pursued my skills development from there.

A few months after Ken Schwaber left Scrum Alliance to launch Scrum.Org, I participated in scrum training with Richard Hundhausen , who created the Professional Scrum Developer course, which led to me being inspired to become a Professional Scrum Trainer with Scrum.Org.

I loved the experience, I loved the curriculum, and I loved being a part of such a powerful team who were creating valuable experiences in scrum training and scrum capability development.

Why have I chosen Scrum.Org.

The reason I have stayed with Scrum.Org rather than pursue alliances with other certification bodies or professional industry bodies, is because of their business ethos.

I don’t personally like working with organizations that don’t respect the subject matter, the people, and the professional elements of working with scrum.

I feel like Scrum.Org do a great job with that, and they have consistently met that standard of professionalism and integrity over the course of my relationship with them. They are quick to respond to challenges, and they consistently look to improve what they offer, how they offer that product or service, and the capabilities of the Professional Scrum Trainers who deliver those products.

Certification Renewals

A big criticism I have of the Scrum Alliance is that they insist that every person who has ever attended a scrum course, and achieved a Scrum Alliance certification, must pay $50 every two years to keep that certification.

If you have 4 certifications through Scrum Alliance, you are paying $200 every two years simply to keep a certification that you have already earned. Already paid for. If you have 4 certifications through Scrum.Org, it doesn’t cost you a penny to keep them.

That focus on money to keep something that you have already earned and paid for doesn’t sit well with me. The idea that you would take away recognition and validation of someone’s achievement simply because they aren’t paying you every two years feels out of alignment with agile values and principles, as well as scrum values.

Locking people into an ecosystem

Another sticky point is progression.

If you have completed a Professional Scrum Master course and achieved the certification from Scrum.Org, you cannot achieve an Advanced Certified Scrum Master certification from Scrum Alliance.

You would need to repeat your original course with Scrum Alliance, in the form of the Certified Scrum Master course before you could progress.

With Scrum.Org, you don’t even need to attend the course to validate your skills and knowledge, you can simply write the examination. If you have a Certified Scrum Master credential from the Scrum Alliance and want to progress to the Advanced Professional Scrum Master level, you can simply sign up for the course, write the exam, and increase your value to potential employers and clients with a more advanced qualification.

Again, something that doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t think we should be locking people into a specific ecosystem if we are focused on growing the capabilities and competence of people who use, deploy, and implement scrum around the world.

Community Development

One of the things I love most about Scrum.Org is that they really develop their community of PSTs (Professional Scrum Trainers). Scrum.Org work hard to improve the curriculum and customer experience and encourage trainers to contribute to the curriculum and shared courseware.

If someone has developed a great exercise, great, that gets shared with the community and integrated into classes all around the world.

If a PST wants to learn from another Professional Scrum Trainer, they can reach out and request a co-training session to grow their experience and capability. They will often receive feedback and tips from the more experienced PST and improve the quality of the experience they can deliver to their training clients.

It is great that Scrum.Org embody the scrum values. It really is about continuous improvement and creating a repository of knowledge and capability that lifts the whole community, improves the whole experience for everyone involved.

These are the primary reasons why I have chosen to partner with Scrum.Org rather than explore opportunities with Scrum Alliance.

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Question was why did I choose the scrum.org track rather than the scrum Alliance track and the initial the initial choice was kind of not a choice at all.

Um I kind of fell into the scrum.org track right around the time that that Ken left separated from scrum Alliance and founded scrum.org. A few months after that I participated in training from Richard Hundhausen, who created the professional scrum developer which is now the applying professional scrum with software development.

Um I participated in love beta for his class in Australia so I flew down to Australia to do that. I became uh uh the idea was to become a professional scrum trainer with scrum.org and it was funded by my boss at the time Adam Cogan. Uh so I can blame Adam for that choice there.

Um but I think the reason I’ve stayed with scrum.org is because of a number a business ethos like I don’t like working with organizations that I feel and this this is very personal I feel um don’t um respect the topic respect the people respect the customer.

And I feel like scrum.org do a very good job of that. I feel like um this this idea that you can you as the customer right you’re coming for training that you can you magically forget your your all your knowledge every two years and the way you get that knowledge back is to pay two hundred dollars right that doesn’t sit well with me.

I prefer the scrum.org model where um once you’ve got a certification you’ve got it right like your driver’s license or uh your University degree you’ve got it you’ve passed bar and then if you want to dive more deeply and increase your knowledge there are other bars that you can also add to your story but that’s up to you right that’s your choice whereas that idea that your knowledge is taken away and you have to re-certify as that’s how that one’s crap.

Um and I feel like the investment the scrum.org has made in the idea of community that we are one group of trainers that we collaborate that we have shared courseware that we all contribute to so if you take a class in in uh in Africa or China or Australia or the UK or the US you’re going to get a class that consists of the same fundamental ideas it’s going to consist of the same story right.

Um and that comes through the the the consistent courseware uh the steward system have a steward system for managing that courseware um and the the constant sharing that we do as a community. So for example a lot of uh we use mural now in the virtual space right.

Um and scrum.org provides standard murals that are as generic as possible like they don’t tell the trainer how to teach their class they don’t tell the trainer what to say but here’s a flow with the exercises and the knowledge that we want to want to share in it.

Um and then I have my own version of the murals that I share back to the community and my murals are more specific right I include liberating structures trading from some of the training from the back of the room content.

Um I have created my own ways of telling stories of doing exercises and I create those murals and then I share them back to the PST community so other PSTs can leverage them so that the greater the community as a whole um the the the the more powerful it is in in telling its story right if all the traders are better then the whole story is better and I think that’s really important.

So it’s that sense of community that I like and I’ve been a PST for let’s have a look 13 years 13 years now I was back in early in 2010 that I started this journey.

Thanks for watching the video. If you enjoyed it please like follow and subscribe. I always reply to comments and if you want to have a chat about this or anything else agile scrum or devops then please book a coffee with me through naked agility.

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