Introduction

Agile methodologies have gained significant traction since the 2000s. Scrum is an Agile methodology that promotes bottom-up leadership by utilizing self-organizing teams, not top-down direction.

Most beginner Scrum Masters or Product Owners typically find themselves asking: “Which organization should I use to get certified? Scrum.org or ScrumAlliance.org?”

A Brief History

During the early 1990’s Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland jointly presented a paper at the Business Object Design and Implementation Workshop in Austin, Texas. This gained more publicity in the 2000s and led to the birth of SCRUM. Schwaber and Sutherland started the Scrum Alliance and the CSM (Certified Scrum Master) certification.

In 2009 Schwaber left and created his own Scrum organization, offering certifications such as the PSM (Professional Scrum Master), at Scrum.org.

Scrum Alliance

The Scrum Alliance alliance offers certification to become proficient in Scrum, whether as a Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Product Owner (Certified Product owner) or even Developer (Certified Scrum Developer).

The test’s only requirement is a two day Scrum course (approximately $1,295, depending on the instructor). Once you have completed your training, you can take your test online. The pass acceptance score is 24/35 questions (65%).

It is not hard to pass, and it’s not meant to be. You’ve paid and taken the class and you have some basic experience under your belt.

For training courses to receive certification via the Scrum Alliance, you can find a searchable list of available trainers/ courses on their site.

Scrum.org

For those who do not have the flexibility for a 2-day course, are too far away from a seminar, already have a solid understanding of Scrum already, or simply wish to spend less, Scrum.org is a viable solution.

Scrum.org offers certification with no required courses beforehand. The exam is harder than the CSM and the score required to pass is 85%.

Additionally, the courses are named differently than those of the Scrum Alliance (e.g. CSM is PSM (Professional Scrum Master)). Scrum.org is a little less known than the ScrumAlliance so this may lead to some confusion with employers.

Scrum.org has a tiered certification system. A PSM is $150 for tier 1, $250 for 2 and $500 for number 3. A Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) has 2 tiers ($200 and $500).
The plus side is that for all of the certifications, you can take higher tiers without any prerequisites if you feel you’re already capable of passing.

While a training course isn’t a prerequisite, Scrum.org can put you in touch with a tutor here: https://www.scrum.org/find-trainers.

Summary

Personally, I trained up for the Scrum.org certification because of the great price point and because I had some existing knowledge and experience. I would state here that it is really a matter of preference.

• Scrum.org is best for those who prefer to study up themselves.
• The Scrum Alliance provides you with a workshop which is great for accumulating hands-on experience.

Additional Resources

The internet provides many free resources for Scrum training. My favorite is the Scrum Training Series by Michael James (shout out to Michael, thank you for your impressive training via your site!!)

Regarding books, if you want a quick introduction, you should try ‘Scrum: A Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction‘ by Chris Sims and Hillary Louise Johnson.
For a more in depth look into Scrum ‘The Elements of Scrum’ by the same authors will provide you with all you need to know.