Certified
Scrum Master

You will receive the CSM training in the scope of 4x 4 hours live online incl.

• Preparatory online training (Scrum Foundations, Agile Foundations)
• The accompanying CSM online training for the preparation of individual modules as well as a reference for “review” and thus access to our electronic training materials (handouts, slides, reading material)
• Three months Pro membership in the Mixed Agile Arts® Community with all comprehensive online learning content and benefits.
• One session of professional coaching
• Two-year membership of the Scrum Alliance incl. Certification fees
• The current edition of the book “Scrum Quick Start” by Andreas Wintersteiger
• One poster each “Scrum Framework and “Agile Manifesto” (A0)
• Printed documents, writing materials and other goodies arrive by post

We have designed this training for (prospective) Scrum Masters. In addition to the tasks & responsibilities of the Scrum Master, this training also highlights how you can create an environment in which your colleagues can be successful. The training is also suitable for people who lead or support agile teams and organizations. These include, for example, managers, agile coaches and consultants, but also team members who want to understand the details of the Scrum Master’s tasks.

No. You can book our training without any prior knowledge.

Our CSM training itself builds on sound basic Scrum knowledge and deepens the aspects of Scrum from the perspective of the Scrum Master and therefore requires knowledge of the learning content of the Scrum Foundations training.

You can acquire this knowledge in the course of preparing for the training with our Scrum Foundations online training in self-study on our community learning platform. You should allow at least 4-6 hours for this.

It is expected that you either have sufficient knowledge or have completed the Scrum Foundations in advance.

Some of the CSM learning objectives are taught in the course of preparation through online content, so that during the four half days of the live online training, the essential learning content can be developed and discussed in a focused manner and there is time for questions. You should allow around 2-3 hours to prepare for the training, but you can divide this up as you wish.

After your confirmed registration (online registration) for the training, you will receive an email from our workflow with access to the Community Platform and detailed instructions on what to prepare.

We will also activate the “Certified Scrum Master” course for you, where you will find the preparation and content for each module.

Yes. Once you have completed the training (and actively participated), we will register you for certification with the Scrum Alliance. You then have 90 days to take an online exam. This involves answering 50 multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes. The passing score is 37 questions. You can find out more details in the training.

Most people, especially the graduates of our trainings, say that the exam for the Certified Scrum Master certificate was not particularly difficult for them (which of course is always in the eye of the beholder).

However, you need to prepare yourself, because there is not much time per question, so the material should “sit”. If you have gone through both the preparations for the CSM training and the training itself intensively, you have everything you need. If worst comes to worst, you can read up on some of the content or repeat it in the online courses (including videos).

Your best preparation for the test is understanding (and not memorizing). Our training, preparation and support in the community after training will help you get there. You will learn more valuable tips for the exam during the training.

Yes, there are different funding options depending on the country, federal state and your personal circumstances. Please understand that we cannot provide comprehensive information about the funding landscape in the various countries.

It depends on what role or responsibility you have been working in until now or will be in the future. Both trainings specifically address the needs of the respective role/responsibility (see above). For a general basic knowledge of Scrum, you don’t need either of these, just the (free) Scrum Foundations training.

If you already know shortly before the training that you cannot participate, please contact our office. We will look for a solution where you can either postpone your participation or send a substitute participant.

If you are unable to attend a follow-up appointment, you have the opportunity to make up for this in one of the next training sessions. In this case, please also contact our office.

We use the“Zoom” tool for video conferencing in our CSM training. Other tools are “Welo” and “Miro”. Please understand that we cannot accommodate individual tool requests for public training courses with up to 16 participants. It may be that your company has restrictive guidelines regarding authorized tools or websites, incl. Protocols exist. Please check in advance whether the above-mentioned tools are approved in your professional infrastructure and function adequately. If necessary, please check alternative options for participation (e.g. without VPN, private PC or via mobile phone/tablet). You can check here whether Zoom works for you.

As soon as you have registered as a training participant, you will receive all the information you need to participate and familiarize yourself with the tools in good time before the training.

In this form, small learning groups of approx. 4-6 people (“cohort”) embark on a learning journey together lasting from a week to a few months (“collaborative learning”).

The content prepared and structured by us is worked through in the group, with each person having prepared themselves beforehand.

In the so-called “Facilitated Peer Group Session” (approx. 90 min.), the respective module content is summarized and discussed with the trainers and the learning objectives are reviewed together. Depending on the training, we have either one or two such sessions per module.

Live online means that the training is “live”, but using teleconferencing and teleworking tools. We make sure that the interaction between you and our trainers, as well as with the other participants, is as close as possible to face-to-face training (i.e. “live” or on-site). This means you can take part from anywhere with a modern Internet connection.

Differentiation from (purely) “online”:

Fully online training courses, such as our Scrum Foundations training, can be completed at your own pace and at your own pace on our learning platform. There are no dates.

Yes, because you are important to us! To guarantee your learning success, there are no mass events with us!

We limit our training courses to 16 participants. This guarantees us and you that we can maintain our quality standards. We take the time to answer questions and create sufficient space for discussion and reflection.

No! Your CSM certificate itself never expires – nor can it. After successful certification, you will receive your certificate in the form of a PDF document and this is your proof that you have achieved the learning objectives once – but forever. You will also receive an “electronic badge”, the CSM certificate logo with electronic verifiability.

The Scrum Alliance (like many other certification programs) also offers the option of demonstrating one’s own investment in continuous and advanced learning by “renewing” the certificate. Unfortunately, the term is somewhat misleading.

The certificate (PDF) contains the note “Certification active through <date>”. Initially, your certificate will remain “active” for two years. The Scrum Alliance distinguishes between active and inactive certificates:

• “Active” means that the holder invests in continuous further training and continues to learn even after graduation and provides evidence of this.
• “inactive” simply means that the owner is not developing further via the offerings by the Scrum Alliance. Nothing more! The certificate does not lose its validity through this.

Before this two-year period expires, you will be reminded that the Scrum Alliance would like you to “renew” your certificate. You can provide evidence of your education training after your CSM training in the form of SEUs (Scrum Educational Units) and maintain your “active” status for another two years by paying a membership fee. This not only makes sense, but actually has value! To renew your CSM, you need 20 SEUs every two years (equivalent to 20 hours of ongoing training, webinars, online-training, etc.). These cost for two additional years of membership in the Scrum Alliance is USD 100.

The certificate remains valid in any case, whether active or inactive.

Even if competing providers of Scrum certificates claim it, a renewal is therefore not necessary. not necessary. If you also use your certificate to provide proof of your knowledge for tenders, applications or customers, it is up to you to decide how important it is for your counterpart whether you also prove that you are constantly “keeping up to date”. In many cases, proof of being a certified ScrumMaster (without renewal) is certainly sufficient.

Look at it this way, compared to other certificates, this option also offers the opportunity to prove that you are investing in yourself not just once but on an ongoing basis. Does this perhaps remind you of an agile principle?

When you decide for maintaining your active CSM certificate in the long term, which is a good idea, as it shows that you will not stop learning once you have reached a certification level.

You have several options. One variant is a “higher-value certificate”, such as the “Advanced Certified Scrum Master”, which automatically renews the “underlying” certificate, in this case the CSM (even if it is already inactive).

The other option is to attend further content, such as other training courses, specialized training or even webinars and online courses.

You can find a complete overview on the Scrum Alliance website.