A-CSM: Advanced Scrum Master Certification | 2 Days

Lean, Agile, and Scrum

Agile and Lean Values, Principles, and Worldview

• … demonstrate how the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto are present in Scrum (e.g., frequent inspection and adaptation in review, retrospective, Daily Scrum).
• … outline the historical development of Scrum and Agile (i.e., origins in Lean and OOP/OOD, first Scrum teams in 1980s, first publication from OOPSLA96, Schwaber/Beedle Book 2001).
• … describe at least two other Lean/Agile development frameworks outside of Scrum and explain their value (e.g., LSD, XP, Kanban).
• … discuss a scenario, based upon your personal experience, where there has been violation of Agile principles, and demonstrate how it may be rectified and/or addressed by the Scrum Master.
• … debate at least five personality traits of an excellent Scrum Master (e.g., proactive, curious, humble, improving, learning, responsible, committed).

Empirical Process Control

• … describe the function of the inspect-and-adapt process in the Daily Scrum, sprint planning, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
• … evaluate three situations when transparency, inspection, and adaption are not working effectively (e.g., when the Daily Scrum is just used for status reporting, when retrospectives are skipped, when the results of a sprint review do not influence the product backlog).

Agile Facilitation

Basic Facilitation

• … identify at least three indicators when a group is engaged in divergent thinking and at least three indicators when a group is engaged in convergent thinking.
• … identify at least three challenges of integrating multiple frames of reference (i.e., the “Groan Zone”).
• … describe at least three ways a group could reach their final decision (e.g., fist of five, decider protocol, majority vote, etc.).
• … describe at least five facilitative listening techniques (e.g., paraphrasing, mirroring, making space, stacking, etc.) for effective meetings/events and apply at least two of them.
• … describe, using two concrete examples, when the Scrum Master should not act as the facilitator for the Scrum Team.
• … plan the contents and an agenda for at least two collaborative meetings and demonstrate the facilitation of these meetings.

Agile Coaching

Coaching Fundamentals

• … demonstrate a coaching stance in an interaction with one or more people (i.e., neutrality, self-awareness, client agenda, etc.) and describe how that coaching stance impacted the interaction.
• … apply at least three coaching techniques (e.g., active listening, powerful questions, reflection, feedback, GROW model, etc.) with team members, Product Owners and/or stakeholders, and describe how the coaching technique impacted each interaction.

Service to the Development Team

Self-Organization

• … apply at least two coaching techniques to foster greater self-organization within teams (e.g., powerful questions, autonomy/mastery/purpose, active listening, etc.).
• … apply a countermeasure to reduce the impact of at least three different challenges facing a self-organizing team (e.g., bad forecast, technical debt, someone is leaving the team).
• … describe how a self-organizing team approaches at least three challenges that may occur during a retrospective. 

Team Dynamics

• … explain the difference between a working group and a team (e.g., teams demonstrate on-demand leadership, ability to deal with conflicts, equal voice, well-known and practiced norms, shared goals, mutual accountability, long-term composition, full dedication).
• … identify at least three key attributes of effective Agile Teams (e.g., ground rules in place, awareness of capabilities and capacities, effective and efficient collaboration).
• … apply at least two methods for improving team performance (e.g., common goals/purpose, shared accountability, working agreement, psychological safety, etc.).
• … identify at least two pitfalls of a homogenous team (i.e., lack of different perspectives, experiences, and viewpoints).
• … describe a multi-staged model for team formation and development (e.g., the Tuckman model).

Definition of Done

• … organize and facilitate the creation of a strong Definition of Done with the Product Owner and Development Team.
• … apply at least two techniques that could be employed to encourage the Scrum Team to improve how they describe “Done.”
• … describe how a Definition of Done could be formulated for a non-software product (e.g., insurance tariff, hardware, event).