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Important Interview Questions with Answers

Here is a list of top 15 scrum master interview questions with answers to help you prepare for your job interview.
Q. What are some important benefits of performing Scrum?
A. Scrum helps to continuously improve the process by repeatedly looking into the actual performance of the software. It has more transparency and visibility. It also reduces the cost of failure and boosts the ROI for the project.
Q. List the main artifacts of the scrum process.
A. Some of the main artifacts of the Scrum process include product backlog, velocity chart, sprint backlog, burndown chart, and product increment.
Q. Define a Scrum sprint.
A. A Scrum sprint can be understood as a short time-frame during which a scum team completes a work. The work here includes a potentially releasable product increment.
Q. What do you understand by product backlog in Scrum?
A. A Scrum product backlog can be explained as a list or menu that includes all the activities that need to be done in the project. The items on this list can be technical or user-centric.
Q. Explain the role of a Scrum Master in Scrum.
A. The main role of a Scrum master is to overview the project requirements and make sure that the team is meeting the project deadlines. The Scrum Master is also responsible for removing any impediments in the process and ensures that all Scrum practices are followed. They have to boost the overall productivity of the team in the process.
Q. Describe the main elements of the scrum burndown chart.
A. The scrum burndown chart has two axes; the X-axis and the Y-axis. The X-axis depicts the total working days whereas the Y-axis displays the work due in the process. Other elements include the start point, finish points, ahead of schedule, behind schedule, estimated and actual task remaining.
Q. Briefly explain the drawbacks of using scrum.
A. One of the drawbacks of using scrum is that the daily meeting and frequent reviews require substantial resources and continuous changes.
Q. Explain the concept of velocity concerning Scrum.
A. Velocity is simply the total effort a team is capable of in a sprint.
Q. What is the story point in scrum?
A. The story point can be understood as a parameter used in agile project management to assess the difficulty of executing a given user story.
Q. Explain scrum poker.
A. Scrum poker is a method to evaluate the relative size of development goals in the software development process.
Q. How is scrum different from the Iterative model?
A. Scrum is a combination of iterative and incremental model.
Q. Explain the ceremonies performed in Scrum.
A. The three major ceremonies performed in scrum are Planning meeting, review meeting and retrospective meeting.
Q. Mention any two other agile methodologies apart from the Scrum.
A. Two other agile methodologies apart from Scrum are KanBan and Lean.
Q. What should be an ideal time-frame for a sprint?
A. An ideal timeframe for a sprint can be two to four weeks.
Q. How can you track progress in the sprint?
A. Any progress in a sprint can be tracked down by the Burndown chart.

What is the Scope of Scrum master?

Posted on September 13, 2021September 13, 2021 by Imarticus Learning

Scrum
Scrum is a framework that helps different teams to work in a cohesive manner. Scrum helps teams to remain self-organized while dealing with a problem. Using the Scrum framework, teams learn from their experiences. Scrum enables effective use of all the available resources and makes the deliverables available with high efficiency.

Scrum helps in dividing the overall projects into various sub-projects referred to as sprints. The use of scrum empowers all the team members to have visibility of everything happening in the project. The use of scrum makes it possible to have a 3600 feedback system regularly. Along with the performance and efficiency of the entire team, Scrum also focuses on the individual performers in the team.

Scrum Master
The scrum team leader, also referred to as the scrum master is a person who takes care of to and for communication between the product owner and the entire team members, communication within the team, without actually being included in the strategy flow of the product. Along with smooth communication, scrum master also ensure that all the team members follow astute values.

Scrum Master Course

Who should attend the Scrum Master Course?
The Scrum Master course is meant for the professionals who use the Scrum framework to develop software and the professionals whose ultimate commitment at the workplace to maximize the Scrum

Scrum master Course-Competencies

Competency 1 – Scrum values

Clear focus, Respect, commitment, and courage are the key values possessed by a Scrum master. The ability to apply the stated values in the organizations with the different sets of values altogether defines the role of the Scrum master. Practitioners living with the scrum values help create an environment where continual improvement with self-organization continuously flourishes.

Competency 2 – Empiricist Philosophy

Practicing Empiricist Philosophy to solve problems is the essential quality of the scrum master. The entire philosophy talks about breaking the complex problems into various incremental problems for empirical execution. The use of scientific methods to solve complex problems is the key attribute of empirical philosophy.

Competency 3- Scaling

The design of the Scrum framework helps to achieve the individual targets at the team, product, and organizational levels. The practitioner has a complete understanding of all the scales and the levels of the scrum. Different levels of scaling can be used in complex frameworks, keeping the essential qualities of scrum such as empiricism and continuous improvement intact.

Competency 4 – Events

The entire Scrum framework is defined in 5 stages. Sprint is the first stage, followed by sprint planning. The entire sprint planning defines the third, fourth, and fifth stage which is daily scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective respectively. These time-bounded stages facilitate the progress and achievement of goals through transparency. The three pillars of Scrum i.e. transparency, inspection, and adaptation uphold the entire system.

Competency 5 – Sprint-Product Backlog and Increment

Product and sprint provide the team with materials to plan, execute and review the sprint deliverables. Professionals in the same field will understand the application of these facts in real and complex situations, hence integrating the facts with the organization’s own objectives.

Competency 6 – ‘Done’
‘Done’ (DoD) is defined by the practitioner as the focus area to be applied to the particular context. The same needs to be communicated and visualized internally in the organization. The practitioner will be able to describe the trade-offs and compromises to be considered to deliver ‘done’.

Scrum master Salary in India
Average salary of Scrum Master in India is Rs.1,412,000 per annum which range between Rs.2,268,000 and Rs.7,02,000. Factors that determine the salary range for a candidate are experience in the field, region, and the company’s profile. Favorable factors decide the inclination towards the higher spectrum of the salary.

What are Roles and Responsibilities of Scrum Master

Posted on September 2, 2021September 2, 2021 by Imarticus Learning

Who is Scrum Master

Scrum master is the moderator for an Agile Development team. These people have to look for a management task like information interchange between team members. Scrum masters manage that how people can exchange their information. Also, their responsibility includes promotion and supporting scrum. These are usually done by making people understand Scrum theory, rules, and values.

Scrum Master is the leader who makes people engaged or interactive so that this interaction results in maximized values. The scrum master takes care of the scrum tasks that needed to be done during a project. They hold processes that are going on in the organization, scrum framework, and scrum team. The project can get into failure if no scrum master is present to do promotion and support the process.

Scrum Master Responsibilities

The scrum master has many different roles in a process or a project. A scrum master ensures the goal, scope, and product information that is cleared to all the team members. They take care of product planning. They are knowledgeable about how to approach a project and meetings required for those. Some of the responsibilities include:

Helping the team to achieve the desired goal in a specific time.
Helping the team for the agreement during the scrum meets.
Ensuring the team to agree upon the rules of the daily scrum.
Ensuring there is no distraction for the team during the project.
Removing the problems and obstructions faced by the team.
Developing a good environment so that team can be constructive.
Taking care of the relationship between team and product owner.

Challenges Faced By Scrum Master

A scrum master is a person that ensures that everything in the scrum process is followed by the team. It can be said that scrum master’s role is easiest but there are still a few challenges that are faced by the scrum masters that are stated below:

1. Resisting Change- It can be in different forms.
2. Misunderstanding process – There can be different confusions in the daily implementation tasks. Often, there can be confusion between old terms and methods.
3. Failure in an adaption of changing roles- Changes in the role can take place between team and department. You should be able to adapt to your role.

How To Become Scrum Master

The way to be a scrum master you need to get a certification. Scrum Alliance offers CSM that gives the person knowledge to get their teams more effective. The certification talks about the concepts of the Scrum framework and you will gain understanding about events and team roles. If you are certified you can expand your career in various industries. A scrum certification gives you in-depth knowledge about scrum.

There are very few requirements that are required for CSM. You should be aware of the scrum framework. There is a session that talks about an overview of how to support a team. CSM conducts exams and If you pass and accept their license then you would graduate with the two-year member in the Scrum Alliance. There are also other exams apart from CSM.

Certified Scrum Master earns between $70-100K yearly which is dependent upon in the industry. Having certifications makes a scrum master a more preferable candidate for the job.

In this article, I have discussed who are scrum masters, what are their roles and responsibilities in the organization, how they help their team during projects and processes. I have discussed the challenges and problems faced by the scrum master and in the last, I have explained a few certifications that a person willing to do to become a scrum master.

How Can You Get a Certified Scrum Master Certification?

Posted on August 6, 2021October 13, 2022 by Imarticus Learning

In today’s world producing and delivering of market-ready products within short time cycles is imperative to maintain the competitive edge. Scrum practice is all about rapid feedback, continuous collaboration, communication, and team-contribution to readily adapt to change and thus include the best user-experiences. A CSM job role is not a technical role and is more about helping your team focus on Scrum values in achieving the Agile principles enshrined in the Sprints. It definitely needs great interpersonal skills, courage to give constructive feedback and commitment to the framework and its principles to continuously lead the team to success even though you are not authoritatively placed in the Manager’s role.
Most freshers, IT professionals and those who want to enter this field rely on a scrum master certification course for better job prospects, salary increases and job satisfaction. It definitely is a great career where you can showcase your skills in project management, team skills, knowledge of Scrum and the entire gamut of non-transferable skills without harping on them.

Here Are The Essential Steps to Get Scrum Master Certification

Step 1- Begin with knowledge of Scrum/Agile methods:
Though recent, Agile and Scrum are methodologies that are constantly evolving with use. Being widely applied in the changing technological scenario of today one needs to understand the fundamentals, the pitfalls, the benefits etc of other methods to really gain from the use of this methodology. The more you read, the quicker you appreciate the simplicity and pluses of this framework.

Step 2- Experience a Scrum Course:
Books on the subject by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber are highly recommended by experts to get the best insights into the subject as well as some practical applications to projects, organizations and team-work.
The CSM course is normally a 16-hour session at any reputed institute like Imarticus and others. In addition to this, you may need to put in 10-12 hours of dedicated learning to practice and imbibe the concepts, methodology and techniques.

Step 3- Get certified:
On course completion, you will be permitted to take the CSM exams online. The scrum master certification exams are generally of the objective type and test your knowledge on applying your learning to practical industry-relevant situations. You must get 24 right answers out of 35 questions. Two attempts are allowed free of cost.
It does take around 8-10 months to gain a job-ready understanding and certification that prepares you well. Prepare well and if possible volunteer for internships to help gain more practical skills and knowledge regarding the industrial scenarios and verticals, how to function in cross-functional teams and get some mentorship regarding whatever doubts you may have.

Step 4- Gain entry to the real-time industry with certification:
Real-time application of your knowledge can only start once you get an opportunity to apply your learning at a job or internship. The learning will help give you complete knowledge, while Scrum Certification will help set you apart and ready to demonstrate your skills.

Step 5- Begin your practice of leadership CSM role:
The CSM role has no managerial authority. It has to do more with helping teams achieve success without being in such authority. It is your testing grounds for roles in both technical and other role types.

Step 6- Practice being an efficient SM:
This step is all about practice and more practice until Scrum becomes second nature to you.

Step 7- Stick with Scrum framework rules to gain experience: There really should be no bending or deviations from the framework and it is your job to implement in Toto Scrum values.

Advantages of Doing a Scrum Master Certification Course

1. Your interest is a prerequisite qualification: There are no pre-requisite qualifications for the course. Your interest should lie in learning and equipping yourself in Scrum values.
2. The curriculum is global: Through Instructor-delivered16-hours of classes in the classroom, in a virtual online mode where one-to-one interaction flourishes you learn all about the Scrum framework. The CSM Course has lots of hands-on and complete learning of concepts and practical use of information.
3. Certification helps transform your resume and career: A well-accepted certification means bettering your employability. Certifications are widely accepted in the industry because it is a benchmark and establishes the fact that you have practical implementation skills of your learning. Your portfolio is enhanced by real-time industry-relevant project work.
4. Convenient time and cost factors: With a choice of modes like virtual 1-on-1 online classes, interactive classroom sessions and both weekday 3 hrs/day or weekends 2hrs/day batches even the employed can upgrade their skills. Of course, you will need to study a total of 10 to 12 hours per week. But, you can use your smartphone/ Windows computer (Dual core, 4 GB RAM, Linux/ Mac OS X/ Windows) and a good internet connection to access the vast online libraries and classes even on the go.
5. Gain experience from the aces: Your tutors, mentors and trainers are industry-experts, certified and able to teach you the best tricks, techniques and practices. Gain from their experience.
6. The comprehensive course learning: In this workshop, you imbibe information about Scrum values, roles, fundamentals and more.
7. Key takeaways and freebies: Most institutes offer you get the best value for your money. This includes
• Downloadable course materials.
• Free access to libraries.
• Boot-camps to quick-learn the fundamentals if required.
• Online support and mentoring in future projects.
• Invaluable peer interaction, hands-on practice, monitoring of progress, mentoring and real-time relevant knowledge to holistically enhance your skills.
• Scrum Certification preparation, many practice assignments and mandatory project-work.
9. Evolve job-ready from day one! If you are a fresher there is no better way to be job-prepared by doing a course. It is also the easiest way for professionals to add-on capabilities and hones practical skills in futuristic technologies.
In Conclusion
Doing your Scrum Certification through a reputed institute like Imarticus helps get you a foothold in the industry. A scrum master certification course helps in augmenting your knowledge, managing projects, delivering products on time, and improving team performances in a fast-paced business world, where the significance of your certification provides you with the right tools to excel in performing and getting others to perform as well.

What Makes a Great Scrum Master?

Posted on July 22, 2021October 12, 2022 by Imarticus Learning

Scrum Masters are the leaders of modern workplaces. As more and more companies adopt the Agile methodology, Scrum Masters gain importance. They help companies adopt the Scrum values and build a working environment for everyone. Below are some of the must-have qualities a good Scrum Master should have:

An Excellent Scrum Master…

Involves the team in the decision-making processes

A great Scrum Master recognizes the importance of collective decision-making. He/she knows that every team member is unique and brings something to the table. Hence, he/she involves his/her team in his/her decision-making processes.

It allows him/her to see an issue from different viewpoints and consider different opinions and solutions. Involving the team in the decision-making process helps the Scrum Master make better-informed decisions and reduce the chances of error.

Resolves team conflicts

A Scrum Master must have strong interpersonal skills. He/she should know how to gauge situations and react accordingly. Scrum Masters are responsible for their team and if a conflict arises, they must use their management and interpersonal skills to resolve the same.

A Scrum Master must understand the reason behind the conflict, analyze it, and resolve it amicably. Such expertise helps him/her manage his/her team effectively and keep it on track.

Is courageous

A skilled Scrum Master knows the importance of difficult decisions. Some changes are necessary no matter how risky they seem. So, a Scrum Master knows how to analyze situations and make courageous decisions. He/she makes disruptive changes that drive growth without causing irreparable damage.

Is expandable and necessary

A Scrum Master with a strong grasp over Agile principles knows that he/she must be expendable. He/she shouldn’t be required in every process and the team should be able to function without him/her. However, his/her expertise and experience make him/her indispensable. Without the Scrum Master, the team would not be able to come together and function effectively. His/her guidance and knowledge are vital to helping the team achieve its goals.

Believes in self-organization

A skilled Scrum Master knows the power of teams that can organize themselves. They believe in making their team independent. An independent team can handle its issues and takes ownership of its work. It would not rely on the management to perform most of its tasks and make decisions on different topics by itself.

An independent team’s members take responsibility for their actions and understand that their work should come together to achieve a common goal.

How to become a Scrum Master?

To become a skilled Scrum Master, you will need to have a keen understanding of the Agile methodology and its various principles. You must also know how to apply it in the workplace and lead your team effectively.

The best way to learn these skills and concepts is by getting a business analyst certification. Earning a business analyst certification will help you learn about the various skills required to become a Scrum Master. It will also help you become a sought-after candidate among recruiters as they are constantly on the lookout for certified professionals.

If you want to start your career quickly, then it would be best to join a business analyst course with placement. A business analyst course with placement will make it easier for you to get a job after completing your business analytics training.

Certainly, a career as a Scrum Master can be highly lucrative. These professionals lead teams in Agile processes. And, as the Agile methodology becomes more popular, the demand for skilled Scrum Masters will increase accordingly. If you want to get Agile business analytics training, then you can check out this course: Post Graduate Program for Agile Business Analyst

What is the Difference Between SAFe and Scrum Master Certification

Posted on April 13, 2021October 15, 2021 by Imarticus Learning

What Exactly is Scrum and What is Scrum Master?

Scrum is a structure that helps build team working habits. It encourages teams to use past experiences to learn from them, self organise when working on an issue and analyse both their losses and wins in order to improve. This agile management device defines a set of meetings, instruments and roles which work together in order to help teams in structuring and managing their work.

Scrum masters help in facilitating scrum and is an agile framework that is lightweight. It focuses on time sensitive iterations called sprints and as a facilitator it acts as almost a coach to the team called servant leader. Scrum leaders must consider opportunities that will help the team improve its quality of work while remaining committed to the scrum’s foundation values.

What is Scrum Master Certification and What Does it Entail?

Scrum master certification helps people understand what good scrum is as per official scrum guides. The basis of the certification is the scrum guide. The certified exam for this is lightweight with 100 multiple choice questions drawn over a span of 2 hours and is taken after scrum master training.

What is SAFe?

SAFe happens to be a globally leading framework used to scale Agile across enterprises. It is designed to increase efficiency by driving a faster time to market ratio thus increasing productivity. Lean-Agile transformation is a combination of leadership engagement and education as well as training. Its role-based curriculum assists enterprises in bettering results.

What is SAFe certification and what does it entail?

This certification assists in resolving coordination issues in three stages:

1. Introducing management at an executive level thus passing on available budgets onto different value streams.
2. Organising the value stream within the company in order to generate various products and distinct services.
3. Encouraging more roles and practices at different stream levels.
Its basis is the website and training material provided by them in order to cover a larger span of content than just plain scrum.

The SAFe examination is a lot harder to clear considering its huge course content and highly advanced level of certification. There are 70 questions with a requirement of at least 75% to clear the exam. The exam like the scrum master examination requires training and preparation.

The differences in scrum master certification and SAFe certification are as follows:

Scrum master certification:

It is structured and curated for a single team.
It has three primary operational roles – Scrum Master, it’s development teams and the owner of the product.
Usually four ceremonies are part of this. They are, daily scrum, stand-up meeting, deciding plan and review. This helps in reflecting on issues and rectifying them.
The scrum master course for certification usually fits into one framework.
It is mostly self-organised with cross-functional teams being co-located.
It is more of a foundation level certificate. It can be used as a stepping stone to be able to proceed to more complicated certifications like SAFe.

SAFe certification:

This could entail a team of a hundred to even a thousand members for turnkey projects.
It is used majorly in scaled project environment groups.
The roles covered here, under SAFe, are beyond scrum master certification. Its roles may even go as high as portfolio and program management levels.
It is not just restricted to team level but can cover ceremonies beyond that as well.
Covering a combination of multiple frameworks, it proves to be advanced and versatile.
It can be located in a multitude of sites due to its time flexibility allowing it to be found in different time zones as well. They can thus be called a centralised and decentralised decision making environment.

Guide On How to Become Scrum Master

Posted on September 2, 2020December 5, 2023 by Imarticus Learning

In an Agile organization, Scrum master is the one who holds together the process of product delivery while maintaining an easy to approach way to solve problems and facilitating for the organization, scrum team and product itself. In this process, most agile teams have a scrum master to lead the process of daily scrum meetings, in theory, practice and values. The scrum master not only leads the team but also helps out the team members in practice and manages the sprint board, retrospective meetings and the overall functioning of the team by acting like a “servant leader”.

A scrum master might have to use several tools to keep track of progress as well as the backlogs of the team from the previous sprint and priority of each of these items in the next one. There are several tools available in the market for the same, as well as scrum master certifications to help one be more confident in the role, and appear more suited for the same role in an agile organization’s scrum team.

Steps to take if you want to facilitate your scrum team’s progress by removing roadblocks

Have basic knowledge of Scrum and the agile framework: As a scrum master, it is important to know the basic terminology of a scrum as well as the agile framework and the various tools that could help track the daily progress of the team smoothly. Besides the scrum master, the technical lead, consultant or product manager are some of the other functions who need to be fluent in the workings of a scrum team, ensuring that there is no communication gap within the team. Also, the knowledge of stakeholders, mediating conflicts and adaptability to change according to requirements are very big assets in positions such as these. A scrum master certification will be of a great use to you.
Choose a recognized scrum certification program: While there are a plethora of resources online to get a certification done on scrum or on how to become a scrum master, you must choose one which is valuable to the organization you are planning to join. The syllabus covered for the certification and training provided, if any, are the primary things that you should check while signing up for certification in this domain. Starter certifications mostly comprise MCQ questions and cover all the basics that a scrum master would need to know for handling the responsibility of an Agile team well. Also, this becomes a third-party verification that an individual possesses the requisite skills to be a scrum master, so it is easier for organizations to judge the same while hiring.
Attending a course for knowhow of the course content: Most certifications for scrum master require you to go through a training which prepares you for the examination. This requires around two days of effort along with extra reading if anyone is interested in the same. Some of the important topics are the history of a scrum, building a successful scrum team, managing backlog for your team, scrum scalability, how to build and manage teams etc. This helps scrum master tackle the challenges of implementing scrum methodology, preparing reports and to overcome any hurdles that they face as a team. Following this, you appear for the examination and get certified for securing a minimum score overall of sixty to eighty-five per cent and receive a certificate stating you are a scrum-master.
Certificate renewal every two years: Since scrum is a part of agile which is an ever-evolving process, the scrum master certification expires every two years and renewal is necessary by citing your education hours and a minimal fee.

Also Read: Role & Responsibilities of Scrum Master

How Much do Scrum Masters make?

Posted on June 16, 2020July 7, 2020 by Imarticus Learning

With the influx of business and artificial intelligence, the world around us has changed. Due to this change, a lot of new roles have come up in the job market. People are coming up with a simpler solution to complex problems using technologies like data analysis and machine learning. However, these technologies are implemented with a proper framework and the companies are advised to adhere to these standards so that a professional atmosphere is maintained.

What is Scrum?

A scrum is a framework with the help of which solutions are developed for complicated and complex problems. These solutions are brought up by a lot of creativity. A Scrum Master ensures that the product delivered through the process serves the purpose and is of the topmost quality. Scrum also ensures effective utilisation of teamwork in coming up with innovative automated solutions. With a scrum master certification, you can understand the technicalities of the field and seek a career in the same. Being a relatively new field, scrum has found its place and a lot of companies are now looking for a scrum master. With proper training, you can easily understand the subject and with a lot of practice, you will be able to master it.

Who is a Scrum Master?

A person who generally develops an algorithm to come up with solutions to complex problems is called a scrum master. They know the implementation of agile methodologies to come with solutions from which a company can benefit. With a scrum master certification, you will understand the roles and responsibilities in a better way. These people are also called the drivers of change as they help the companies in upgrading their solutions concerning the change in the market scenario. These scrum masters are experts in their fields and they have the technical know-how to implement these agile scrum methodologies to bring out a successful solution.
A scrum master has to be good with the work he does. He needs to be aware of different processes and he must know how to work them out. A scrum master takes up the back seat and acts as a backbone in any project implementation. They bridge the gap between the business owners and the product managers and build comprehensive solutions to address different problems. They must have a proper experience of dealing with the tools and technologies as the work involves a lot of technical brainstorming.
He helps businesses in understanding the technical dependency of a particular project and tasks. A good scrum master must be a persuader and should influence people. With a scrum master certification, you can be market-ready for taking up scrum master roles.

How much do scrum masters make?

With automation, the demand for scrum masters has increased but only a few professionals are employable in this field. This factor makes it a very high paying job. In America, a scrum master earns about $100,000-$125,000. This pay is very high as compared to the average pay of the people working in different companies. In India, these scrum masters earn around Rs14,00,000 and can also be paid as high as Rs. 25,00,000. A master’s degree is not mandatory to become a scrum master.
Also, this pay increases with the level of training a person takes. A person with multiple certifications is more likely to earn a higher amount as compared to the base salaries. Companies like IBM pay Rs.16,00,000 per year which makes it a high-end product. Scrum masters are paid quite high and are considered to be one of the highest paying roles of all times. Companies are now moving towards Agile systems and they need someone to drive this change.

Certified Scrum Product Owner: What to Know and Who Can Become?

Posted on March 21, 2020July 14, 2020 by Imarticus Learning

Businesses are finding new ways to increase the productivity and quality of their services or commodities offered to the customers. The product offered by the firm/company should meet all the necessary regulations and guidelines. There must be room for development. In this article, we will see what a certified scrum product owner is and how to become one.

Basic Terminologies

Scrum

Scrum is a framework on which people can collaborate among themselves and find solutions to problems. Scrum focuses on increasing the quality of services and teamwork. It is a simple platform with less complexity. Simple and basic solutions that are visible in the current scenario are taken into consideration in the scrum and then iterative work for increasing quality is done until the end goal is reached. People can complete a project more quickly and effectively using scrum. Jeff Sutherland made the first scrum project in 1993.

Product Owner

A product owner is responsible for increasing the value and quality of the product made by the scrum development team to the fullest extent. Market analysis, product designing, business strategy formation, etc. are some of the major roles of a product owner. A product owner is responsible for increasing the Return on Investment (ROI).

The Certified Scrum Product Owner

It is a certification course offered by the scrum alliance which helps us in becoming a product owner. You can find suitable courses from the scrum alliance website and then you have to attend a 16-hour course in which you will be taught about your roles and responsibilities in detail. There is an online exam after the training which is not famous for its toughness. The passing percentage for certification is 65%. If all goes well, you will acquire your CSPO certification. The license offered has a limited warranty. After the time duration expires, one has to renew his/her CSPO certification. Currently, the CSPO certification is valid for two years.

Prerequisites needed

There are no such mandatory skills or prerequisite which you will require for acquiring CSPO certification. But then again, if you know nothing about business analysis and strategies, then you can still acquire CSPO certification but in this era of competition, where will you stand? Also, anyone who is interested in taking the course can go for it irrespective of age, gender, and educational qualifications.

CSPO & PSPO

Both are certification courses offered specifically for product owner but there is a slight difference. CSPO is offered by the Scrum alliance whereas PSPO (Profession Scrum Product Owner) certification course is offered by scrum.org. The PSPO certification does not expire and the exam has a passing percentage of 80%. Often people confuse among these two. It is better to evaluate yourself first and be aware, and then choose the right certification for you.

Importance Of CSPO Certification In Personal Growth

The certification is a proof that you have attended the classroom session and have also cleared the exam. If you have decided to become a product leader, then this certification course will add value to your resume. The companies will see to it and you may get an edge over other candidates. This is a basic course which boosts your skills as a product owner, once you have taken it you can also take advance certification courses to grow further.

Conclusion

There are a plethora of online courses available on the internet. CSPO certification is one of them which can enhance your way of working as many new things are taught during this certification course. Your ideas will have more weight when a professional course is added to it. This article was all about certified scrum product owner and how to become one. I hope it helps!

Is it Time to Do Away with Scrum’s Product Owner Role?

Posted on October 15, 2019May 19, 2021 by Imarticus Learning

Understanding the Scrum framework

At the very core of the scrum framework processing lies the notion of teamwork which inculcates efficiency maximization. The Scrum process in the technical developments is based on the agile methodology which allows delivering the business requirements in the shortest possible span of time. It is continuous and iterative development to achieve the required objective taking into account the changes factored in from different variables.

The scrum process is open to changes, to say the least. The idea that every variable can be accounted for at the beginning of the development process is very absurd when we think about the frequency of changes taking place in the contemporary scenario.

Technology is ever-evolving and the software based on that technology changes as well. If you come to think of a product development that is technical in nature, from the time you conceptualized to the time you started building it there will be numerous upgrades already. The point is there are always iterations that need to be facilitated based on the technological evolution and also the preferences of different stakeholders.

To better understand the scrum framework we need to dive deep into the basics of the agile methodology. The agile method is a broader concept that encompasses the scrum framework, technically agile is a practice wherein continuous iteration of development and testing is the norm.

The agile methodology breaks down the product development process into smaller chunks, unlike other software development techniques. It takes into account the feedbacks of all the stakeholders of the product development process and helps to build on that, advocating teamwork as one of the essentials to the process of this technological development.

Role of a product owner?

Product Owner, you can define the responsibilities by the name of it. The values of ownership and accountability are intrinsically embedded in the title. The product owner in the Scrum framework is the person responsible for the output value of the scrum development training in terms of efficiency and holistic development of the product.

The product owner in an agile methodology holds an array of responsibilities that include responsibilities like defining the vision for the product, managing product backlogs, overseeing the product development at various stages, anticipating client needs and acting as the primary mediator between the client and the product development team. If you have to summaries it briefly the product owner is responsible for the holistic development of the product. If you dig deeper there is no direct association with the creation of the particular product but more of a supervisory and management role.

Defining the vision is one of the crucial roles of the product owner, being the mediators between the various stakeholders to this development process the product owner has a lot of information to process and then come to a conclusion about the concrete plan for the development of the product.

Managing the product backlog is another important responsibility that the product owner holds and is accountable for. A product backlog includes a list of things that needs to be done in the whole process of product development. Creating the sequence of the ‘to-do list’ and prioritizing it on the basis of the stakeholder’s requirement is done very strategically by the product owner.

The Team-Oriented approach

The roles in a scrum framework can be broadly divided into two categories, the specialists and the team members. The specialist roles are further divided into two as Scrum Master and Product Owner. If we peep into the job roles of the specialist in the scrum framework, neither of the roles is directly associated with the creation or formation of the products. It is a holistic approach towards the organization of deliverables and supervision of the entire product development process in general.

In recent developments, there are various instances of teams that have started experimenting with assigning and rotating the scrum master responsibilities among team members. However, the experiment with rotating specialist roles is limited to the scrum master responsibilities only.

If you think logically the product owner roles and responsibilities can also be shared among the team members and in the near future, this idea could be commonplace given the nature of the duties performed and the involvement of the team members in the core creation of the products. The testing responsibilities in an agile team is shared among all the team members, similarly, the responsibilities of the product owner can be shared going forward.

There is a possibility that the future might not hold specific job titles for the product owner role. Since all the team members have their specific services to provide and role to play in the creation of the product what matters to the ultimate consumer is the utility of the product. The collaborative decision making will replace the present product owner duties that include taking decisive action in the product development process.

What’s at the center of the idea of a future without product owner job title in the scrum framework is the diversity in the team and developers equipped with more than their conventional coding skill sets.

What’s the way forward?/ Conclusion

The future might not hold specific job titles for product owners but will include team members having diverse skillsets and collaborative decision-making abilities to facilitate the much needed final output of the product development process.

Digging a little deeper into the role of the product owner we can easily establish that there is no direct association with the creation of the particular product but more of a supervisory and management role in the development process.

The role and responsibilities associated with the job of product owner can easily be shared and divide between the developing team members, it might need some people with additional experience and expertise in the field but not a person with an exclusive job title.

In recent developments, there are various instances of teams that have started experimenting with assigning and rotating the scrum master responsibilities among team members the same concept can be easily applied to the product owner’s role.

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