Prep for the Professional Scrum Master I
Tags: agile, scrum, certification, peopleskills
Published: 2021-01-02 17:42:33

Short celebratory post this week. I just got the certification as a professional Scrum Master I (from scrum.org). Yeah me!

![Dancing](https://media.giphy.com/media/l0amJzVHIAfl7jMDos/giphy.gif)

While taking the test is certainly not rocket science, it would have been nice to know some things before. So i wanted to write down what i did to prepare. 

Disclaimer:
1. I did the test about the 2017 version of the scrum guide. There is a new version out (2020) and the tests will change to the new version on january, 9th 2021. But I think the stuff I'm going to tell you still applies.

2. I don't know no much about the differences between the scrum alliance and scrum.org. As I was doing the certification on my own I chose the scrum.org certification because the barrier of entry was lower than with the scrum alliance. The certification did cost 150$ and that was it. No necessary workshops or stuff like this. I'm not affiliated with scrum.org in any way.

**1. Print the scrum guide and work with it**

Print out the scrum guide, staple it together and read it completely. Mark the parts that stand out to you with a highlighter. You can have the guide handy while taking the exam and look things up quickly.

Some things i noticed are important know:
-What are the different roles within scrum? And what things are they responsible for?
-What are the different meetings within scrum and how long is the timebox of the meeting?
-What are the fundamental principles for scrum and what values should a scrum team be living? What are the three scrum pillars?

Thats how my scrum guide looked after certification prep: 

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/qr8zc8hjg1q5gtow9sai.png)


**2. Do the open assessment on scrum.org**
https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/scrum-open The suggestion from the scrum master growth group on facebook is to be able to finish the assessment multiple times with 100% in about 10 Minutes. I agree and think that this is a good benchmark.

Also this other assessment is also worth a look: https://mlapshin.com/index.php/scrum-quizzes/

Optimize your printed scrum guide, when you notice any problems during the test assessment write notes down on the scrum guide. There is some withspace on there. Use it. :relaxed:

**3. Read some additional books on the subject**
Some books i found helpful:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18165261-scrum-mastery
**Why:** Gives you a good breakdown about how a scrum master should act, behave and work. Good insight, gave me a deeper understanding about the job as scrum master.

https://medium.com/agile-adapt/fixing-your-scrum-book-review-ab5484f4ad8f
**Why:** The core discussion in the book is why so many scrum implementations fail. The book encourages the reader to really get the scrum guide and read it, understand it and talk with your team about it. Before i just had read some summaries of scrum. Reading the original guide was eye opening.    

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/721338.Agile_Retrospectives
**Why:** Facilitation is one of the biggest parts of the job as Scrum Master and the retrospective is one of your greatest tools. And it is so easy to hold a bad retrospective. This book gives you a framework for your retrospectives. The framework consists of multiple phases and the book provides you with multiple methods to work with the Team during each phase. Also you will slowly get what coaching really is about. 

German book:
https://www.judithandresen.com/2017/02/18/retrospektiven-in-agilen-projekten/
**Why:** The book basically serves the same purpose as the book above. But gives you a take from a slightly different angle on the some subject and some more methods

**4. Read through the learning path on scrum.org**

see: https://www.scrum.org/resources/suggested-reading-professional-scrum-master and https://www.scrum.org/pathway/scrum-master. Although the information there can also be found in the books mentioned before.

Good Luck with your certification!

Feel free to ask any questions.

![good luck](https://media.giphy.com/media/l49JHz7kJvl6MCj3G/giphy.gif)

##Bonus
A good booklist i discovered shortly after starting in my scrum master role:

https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/30-books-scrum-masters