Seven Reasons Why You Should Become a Certified Scrum Master
By Space Coast Daily // December 9, 2019
There’s little doubt that the Scrum framework makes sense for the majority of businesses, projects, and teams. It provides a flexible means of managing, segmenting and delivering projects consistently.
For teams who regularly work with projects that are subject to a wide range of changing requirements, Scrum can be especially helpful.
But while the merits of Scrum are apparent, it’s not always apparent what would be the best path to follow toward mastery. Is a broad understanding of Scrum adequate, could you execute projects on-the-go with only occasional online research as needed, or should you go formal and get trained and certified?
The suitability of the different paths will certainly vary from situation to situation but it’s hard to go wrong with a Scrum Master certification if you want to become a true Scrum expert. Here’s why.
1. Scrum Demands Attention
Like all successful philosophies, the Agile project management approach is quite simple. In case you aren’t familiar with the relationship between Agile and Scrum, Agile is the overarching philosophy, while Scrum is an implementation framework, albeit the most popular.
Whereas the principles of Agile and Scrum are straightforward, it can be difficult to understand how the principles and processes can be applied to your project in a way that consistently delivers success. Certification ensures you realize an end-to-end mastery of the process.
2. Understand Roles
The key to running a Scrum project effectively is a clear understanding and definition of the various roles and responsibilities. Within a Scrum team, the responsibility for ensuring this clarity rests on the Scrum Master. They support the team in the execution of their functions and create a conducive environment for scrum processes.
A certification will equip you with the knowledge necessary to grasp the role each person plays in the organization.
3. Builds Confidence
Confidence is contagious, reassuring, admirable and self-evident. To get Scrum right and ensure all project team members are on board, a Scrum Master must exude a certain degree of confidence.
It’s difficult to portray such confidence if you don’t have extensive knowledge of the full Scrum project life cycle.
Of course, you can always build your confidence by reading plenty of Scrum articles. Nevertheless, it’s not quite the same as attending a training workshop and certification course where you receive guidance and feedback from seasoned Scrum trainers.
4. Enhance Traditional Project Management
If you are already conversant with the principles and techniques of traditional project management, Simplilearn’s CSM Certification is a great way to enhance your knowledge and practice.
Depending on the project requirements and the unique dynamics of the organization, the Scrum framework can be combined with some elements of traditional project management for optimal results.
You can select the Scrum processes, ideas, and aspects that will best strengthen your existing project management methods.
5. Credibility
It’s one thing to claim mastery of Scrum—it’s entirely another to produce documentation that proves your knowledge has been tried, tested and verified. Attaining a recognized certification gives you credibility in the eyes of employers, clients, teammates and vendors.
It gives your contributions authority, shows you understand Scrum methods and demonstrates your capacity to correctly execute implementation.
But beyond the papers, certification equips you with the broad skills necessary to work on a wide range of project types, sizes, and environments.
6. Scrum and Agile Will Be Around for a While
Every so often, there comes a concept that takes the world by storm but eventually proves to be a passing fad that doesn’t have much longevity.
The Scrum framework and the Agile methodology as a whole have shown they are not just buzzwords that will fizzle out in a few years.
Scrum has proliferated across the globe and its undeniable success in project management has seen its popularity only continue to grow in strength, speed, and momentum. If you want to be prepared for and relevant in the project management world well into the future, getting onto the Scrum Master certification ladder is fundamental.
7. Takes Relatively Little Time
A Scrum Master certification won’t require that you attend classes for years. Rather, in just a couple of days or weeks, you can complete either an instructor-led classroom training or a self-directed learning program.
No matter how busy your work schedule is, you can always find time to obtain the qualification.
Over a fairly short period, Scrum has revolutionized the practice of project management. Obtaining a Scrum Master certification can only be a good thing for anyone with some responsibility for the successful execution of a project.
