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Certified ScrumMaster Resources
Scrum Alliance Certification and Exam
We have registered your details with the Scrum Alliance and you should receive an email from them with further instructions on how to take the online exam, if you don’t receive it please check your junk/spam folder. If you still cannot find the email please contact your trainer.
Once you have taken and passed your exam you will be able to download your certificate.
You have 90 days to take and submit your exam, however, we recommend taking the exam as soon after your training as possible. The exam is timeboxed to 1 hour, you can skip backwards and forwards through the exam as appropriate but the exam must be completed inside the 1 hour timebox. You can also request more time.
Further Information on your Examination
The exam comprises of 50 multiple-choice questions and to fulfil the Scrum Master Certification requirements you must get 37 or more correct. The exam is open book and we recommend that you have the Scrum Guide with you when you sit the exam (please see the link to the Scrum Guide further down the page). You will only be tested on core Scrum and as such the content of the Scrum Guide, although your trainer will have taught you supplementary topics these will not be tested.
Please ensure that you read the questions carefully and check your answers against the Scrum Guide.
The structure and weighting of the exam can be viewed here
If you do not pass the exam you will be shown the questions that were incorrect but not told the right answers, it is expected that you research the questions that you got wrong before sitting the exam again. If you don’t pass the exam you can take it a second time at no cost as long as you do so within 90 days of your class. The Scrum Alliance charges a small fee for each subsequent attempt.
Scrum Alliance Membership
You also have a two-year membership of the Scrum Alliance; take some time to explore the Scrum Alliance website as there are a number of resources, including presentations from past Scrum Gatherings (the annual Scrum Alliance conference). The Scrum Alliance membership expires after 2 years and will need to renew your membership to keep the benefits. To be eligible to renew your membership you must earn Scrum Education Units (SEU’s) and pay a renewal fee. Details covering how to earn SEU’s and renew your membership can be found here
Continuing your Agile Learning Journey
Following your ScrumMaster training you may be interested in continuing your learning journey in Agile. You might want to deepen your ScrumMaster knowledge with our Advanced Certified ScrumMaster course and, beyond this, you can continue your journey with the more advanced Certified Scrum Professional ScrumMaster course.
Perhaps you have a passion for Product Ownership, if so our Certified Scrum Product Owner course might appeal to you, and like the ScrumMaster track you can continue onto the Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner and Certified Scrum Professional Product Owner courses.
To widen your Agile knowledge you could consider our Certified Lean Kanban Foundation training, you might be surprised by how in-depth Kanban is and it is certainly far more than just a board.
Scaling Scrum and Agile is also a big topic these days and training in scaling will certainly give you new perspectives.
Beyond training we also provide agile consultancy and coaching for teams and organisations.
Feel free to look at our training and consulting offerings or email us at hello@beliminal.com
Scrum Background and a Little History
Suggested Reading and References
- Takeuchi, T., Nonaka, I. (1986). The New, New Product Development Game. Harvard Business Review.
- The original paper that inspired Scrum.
- Schwaber, K., Beedle, M. (2001). Agile Software Development with Scrum. Pearson.
- The original scrum book, quite old now but a good clear overview of what scrum is.
- Schwaber, K., Sutherland, J. The Scrum Guide
- The offical Scrum Guide that describes what Scrum is
- Sutherland, Jeff. (2012). Ten Year Agile Retrospective: How We Can Improve In The Next Ten Years
- Royce, W. (1970). Managing the Development of Large Software Projects
- The original white paper that described the process that became known as waterfall. Interestingly it actually describes an iterative style process and not at all like how waterfall was often implemented
Scrum and Agile General Knowledge
Suggested Reading and References
- Cockburn, Alistair. (2008). Iterative and Incremental Development
- Cohn, Mike. (2009). Succeeding with agile – software development using Scrum
- A very in depth book about Scrum and the whole agile mindset
- Kniberg, Henrik. (2015). Scrum & XP from the Trenches – 2nd edition
- An easy read but full of insight into the framework and how one team runs Scrum, a great place to start
- Larmen, Craig. (2003). Agile & Iterative development: A Managers Guide
- The beginners guide to agile. Good overviews of the whole paradigm and summaries of the different approaches
- Ruben, Kenny. (2012). Essential Scrum
- A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile framework
- Snowden, D. (2010). Cynefin Framework Video
- A look at different problem domains
Scrum Roles and Responsibilities
Suggested Reading and References
- Appelo, Jurgen. (2010). Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders
- Cohn, Mike. (2010). Leading a self organising team
- A good reference deck covering situational leadership and the CDE self organising model
- Crispin, Lisa, and Gregory, Janet. (2008). Agile Testing. A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams
- Everything you need to know about testing inside Agile teams
- Deemer, Pete. (2010). Manager 2.0: The Role of the Manager in Scrum
- Eoyang, G H. (2002). Conditions for Self-organizing in Human Systems
- Franz, Nancy. (2004). Self-Directed Work Teams: The Antidote for “Heroic Suicide”
- Heuer, Sean. (2012). Building Square Shaped Teams with T-Shaped People
- Kirkpatrick, Doug. (2013). Beyond Empowerment – Are we ready for the Self-Managed Organisation
- Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fabel. Jossey Bass
- Patterson, Kerry and Grenny, Joseph. (2011). Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
- Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Books
- Watts, Geoff. (2013). Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership
The Product Backlog and User Stories
Suggested Reading and References
- Adzic, Gojko. (2009). Bridging The Communication Gap
- A great book on using behaviour driven development (BDD) and specification by example for your acceptance testing
- Adzic, Gojko. (2011). Specification By Example
- A more in-depth look into this technique
- Cohn, Mike. (2004). User Stories Applied
- Covers the writing, estimating, prioritising and committing to product requirements
- Gottesdiener, Ellen and Gorman, Mary. (2010). Slicing Requirements for Agile Success
- Patton, Jeff. (2014). User Story Mapping
- A great technique for arranging your User Stories into a visual map that allows you to better define a build and delivery sequence to generate the most customer value.
- Patton, Jeff. (2015). Beyond Sprint Zero – Using Collaborative Product Discovery to Plan your Agile Project
- Wake, Bill. (2005). Twenty Ways to Split Stories
Estimation and Forward Planning
Suggested Reading and References
- Cohn, Mike. (2005). Agile Estimating and Planning
- A follow up to user stories applied with real world examples and case studies. Provides practical knowledge of estimation, planning, prioritizing, and tracking of projects. Agile Estimating & Planning
Scrum Events
Suggested Reading and References
- Derby, E., Larsen, D. (2006). Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great. The Pragmatic Programmer
- A book that covers all aspects of Sprint and project retrospectives with real life examples and exercises to use in your retrospectives to gain full insight into your team and how they can improve, also great for keeping retrospectives fresh for the team to enable you to get maximum benefit for the time spent
Lean Software Development
Suggested Reading and References
- Gothelf, Jeff. (2016). Lean UX
- Poppendieck, Mary and Poppendieck, Tom. (2003). Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit
- Poppendieck, Mary. (2006). Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash
- Ries, Eric. (2011). The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses
Agile Contracts and Budgeting
Suggested Reading and References
- Arbogast, Tom; Larman, Craig; Vodde, Bas. (2012). Agile Contracts Primer
- Kelly, Alan. Agile Contract Options.
XP and Technical Practices
Suggested Reading and References
- Beck, Kent. (2004). Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
- Feathers, Michael. (2004). Working Effectively with Legacy Code
- Freeman, Steve. (2009). Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests
- Humble, Jez. (2010). Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation
- Patangay, Girish. (2013). Move Fast and Ship Things.
- A good talk by the Engineering Manager from Facebook UK
Agile and Lean Outside of Software
Suggested Reading and References
- Marchwinski, Chet. (2013). Emergency Departments Use Lean Principles in an Effort to Perfect Patient Journeys
Agile and Lean Outside of Software
Suggested Reading and References
- Denning, Stephen. (2010). The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century
- Schaffer, Robert H. (2005). Rapid Results!: How 100-Day Projects Build the Capacity for Large-scale Change
