What is the Scrum Alliance?
The Scrum Alliance is the world's largest organization dedicated to spreading, promoting and developing the agile way of working.
Among its most important tasks are:
- offering training via Certified Scrum Trainers,
- imparting knowledge about Scrum and Agile
- Agile certifications in roles such as Scrum Master and Product Owner.
Furthermore, the organization provides research results and learning and training resources and offers space for networking and community worldwide. The Scrum Alliance is headquartered in the state of Colorado, USA.
Founded in 2001, the Scrum Alliance is run exclusively by members as a non-profit organization. They are guided by the agile principles and the following values:
- Courage
- Focus
- Openness
- Respect
- Commitment
What certifications does the Scrum Alliance perform?
You and your team members can get certified for the following roles through the Scrum Alliance. For the Certified Scrum Master (CSM), the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), the Scrum Developer and the Agile Leader several certificates build on each other. These describe the so-called Learning Path in the respective roles.
Scrum Master
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
- Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM)
- Certified Scrum Professional ScrumMaster (PSM)
Product Owner
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
- Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO)
- Certified Scrum Professional Product Owner (CSP-PO)
Scrum Developer
- Certified Scrum Developer
- Advanced Certified Scrum Developer
- Certified Scrum Professional for Developers
Agile Leadership
- Certified Agile Leadership
- Certified Agile Leadership II
Subsequent certifications such as
- Certified Team Coach
- Certified Enterprise Coach
- Certified Scrum Trainer
How does the certification by Scrum Alliance work?
Certification for one of the above Scrum Roles proceeds in a maximum of 3 steps:
1. training:
After you have decided on your Scrum role or guide level, you take a Scrum Alliance accredited course on your topic and the corresponding learning objective, e.g. a CSM training or an A-CSM training. The goal of the training is to learn the principles and background of the respective role so that you can later apply the knowledge in your team.
Tip:
You can sign up individually to attend on-site or online training. However, if your company wants to train several team members at once, onsite group training can also be booked at your company.
2. exam (not for all certifications):
The Scrum Alliance tests whether you have actually acquired the knowledge and can apply it in practice, for example with the Certified Scrum Master in an assessment. You usually take this exam at the end of your training.
Certificate:
If you have passed your exam or successfully participated in the training, you receive the Scrum Alliance certification and may use the title you have acquired. For passing the training, you will receive both a certificate and a badge that you can use for your online presence, for example.
Tip:
You can renew your certification as Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developer, Agile Coach and Leader regularly, because after the training you receive an active membership in the Scrum Alliance, which expires automatically after 2 years. Then your active certification changes to an inactive one. The reason: In order to continue using an active certificate, you should keep your knowledge of the Scrum Framework up to date and continue your learning journey by actively engaging with [agile principles](/en/basics/agile-principles/"Agile Principles").
To renew your certificate, you can earn credits in different areas, called SEUs (Scrum Education Units). You can get these, for example by:
- Reading articles on the topic,
- taking courses and trainings
- participating in Agile events.
After you have entered your receipts for the required SEUs in your personal Scrum Alliance Dashboard and paid the renewal fee, your certificate will be renewed.
