How to Get Scrum Certifications?

Organizations around the globe have accepted Scrum as a primary project delivery framework for their projects, especially when they operate in a dynamic business environment. Growing popularity and acceptability of Scrum has created a great demand for Scrum and Agile certified professionals in the job market.
SCRUMstudy, the global accreditation body for Scrum and Agile certifications, offers a comprehensive certification program with several popular Scrum/Agile credentials. There are no prerequisites for most of the SCRUMstudy certifications, however, it is always helpful to understand the certification hierarchy structure. The diagram below shows you the preferred as well as optional certification to move to the next level.

You can start your certification journey, by taking the free certification on ‘Scrum Fundamentals Certified’. The online course is tailored to help anyone interested to know more about Scrum, learn about key concepts in Scrum as defined in the SBOK™ Guide, and to get a basic understanding of how Scrum framework works in delivering successful projects. Once you complete the course and pass the exam at the end of the course, you will be accredited as “Scrum Fundamentals Certified”. For more details, visit: http://www.scrumstudy.com/Scrum-Fundamentals-Certified.asp

Many delegates undergo formal training to prepare for advanced certification exams offered by SCRUMstudy to get hands-on experience of implementing Scrum in real life projects. More than 500 SCRUMstudy Authorized Training Partners conduct certification training and classes globally. All the certification exams are based on the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK Guide) which can be downloaded for free in SCRUMstudy website: http://www.scrumstudy.com/download-free-buy-SBOK.asp

Managing Technical Debt in a Scrum Project

One of the guiding principles of Scrum is to develop the functionality of the highest priority to the customer first. Less important features are developed in subsequent Sprints or can be left out altogether according to the customer’s requirements. This approach gives the Scrum Team the required time to focus on the quality of essential functionality. A key benefit of quality planning is the reduction of technical debt.
Technical debt—also referred to as design debt or code debt—refers to the work that teams prioritize lower, omit, or do not complete as they work toward creating the primary deliverables associated with the project’s product. Technical debt accrues and must be paid in the future. Quick-fix and building deliverables that do not comply with standards for quality, security, long-term architecture goals, and so forth.
Some of the reasons for technical debt could be:

• Lack of coordination among different team members, or different Scrum Teams as teams start working in isolation with less focus on final integration of components required to make a project or program successful.
• Poor sharing of business knowledge and process knowledge among the stakeholders and project teams.
• Too much focus on short-term project goals instead of the long-term objectives of the company. This oversight can result in poor-quality Working Deliverables that incur significant maintenance and upgrade costs.

In Scrum projects, any technical debt is not carried over beyond a Sprint, because there should be clearly defined Acceptance and Done Criteria. The functionality must satisfy these criteria to be considered Done. As the Prioritized Product Backlog is groomed and User Stories are prioritized, the team creates Working Deliverables regularly, preventing the accumulation of significant technical debt. The Scrum Guidance Body may also include documentation and definition of processes which help in decreasing technical debt.
To maintain a minimal amount of technical debt, it is important to define:

• The product required from a Sprint and the project along with the Acceptance Criteria,
• Any development methods to be followed,
• And the key responsibilities of Scrum Team members in regards to quality.
• Defining Acceptance Criteria is an important part of quality planning, and it allows for effective quality control to be carried out during the project.

Technical debt may be a very big challenge with some traditional project management techniques where development, testing, documentation, etc. are done sequentially and often-times by different persons, with no one person being responsible for any particular Working Deliverable. As a result, technical debt accrues, leading to significantly higher maintenance, integration, and product release costs in the final stages of a project’s release.
The cost of changes is very high in such circumstances as problems surface in later stages of the project. Scrum framework prevents the issues related to technical debt by ensuring that Done deliverables with Acceptance Criteria are defined as part of the Sprint Backlog and key tasks including development, testing, and documentation are done as part of the same Sprint and by the same Scrum Team.
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Roles of Scrum Developers in Scrum Project

Scrum developers, also referred to as the development team or Scrum team, are responsible for developing the product and they possess all the essential skills required to carry out the work of the project. They have a high level of collaboration to maximize productivity, so that minimal coordination is required to get things done. To minimize dependency, team members are experts in chosen domain, but also possess basic knowledge and skills about other domains.

Some of the key responsibilities of Scrum developers which they are required to fulfill in any Scrum project are:

1. Provides inputs for creation of the Collaboration Plan and the Team Building Plan
2. Ensures a clear understanding of Epic(s) and Personas
3. Understands the User Stories in the Prioritized Product Backlog
4. Agrees with other Scrum Core Team members on the Length of Sprint
5. Seeks clarification on new products or changes in the existing products, if any, in the refined Prioritized Product Backlog
6. Provides inputs to the Product Owner on creation of User Stories
7. Estimates User Stories approved by the Product Owner
8. Commit User Stories to be done in a Sprint
9. Develops Task List based on agreed User Stories and dependencies
10. Estimates effort for tasks identified and if necessary, updates the Task List
11. Develops the Sprint Backlog and the Sprint Burndown Chart
12. Creates Deliverables
13. Identifies risks and implements risk mitigation actions, if any
14. Updates Impediment Log and dependencies
15. Updates Burndown Chart, Scrumboard, and Impediment Log
16. Discusses issues faced by individual members and seeks solutions to motivate the team
17. Identifies risks, if any
18. Submits Change Requests, if required
19. Participates in Prioritized Product Backlog Review Meetings
20. Provides inputs to Scrum Master for Scrum of Scrums Meetings
21. Demonstrates completed deliverables to the Product Owner for approval
22. Identifies improvement opportunities, if any, from the current Sprint and agrees on any actionable improvements for the next Sprint
23. Participates in the Retrospect Project Meeting

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