Certification Process
Certified Scrum Master® / CSM®
To earn your CSM certificate you must attend an in-person or live-online, two-day CSM course taught by a Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Trainer (14 hours online or 16 hours in presence). After successfully completing the course, you will be registered with Scrum Alliance and need to pass the online CSM exam. You can choose the exam language before getting started. The CSM test is available to be taken in English, Spanish (Castilian), Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Danish, Czech, and Russian.
Students are able to take the test online from any computer in the world from the comfort of their home, work, or other location. The test will not be proctored.
The CSM test contains 50 multiple-choice questions based on the CSM Learning Objectives, and candidates will have one hour to complete it. The passing score is 74%. You will not be able to pause the test, but questions can be bookmarked to answer later during the 60 minute time limit.
After receiving the initial welcome email from Scrum Alliance that contains the account activation link, you will have 90 days to complete the CSM test for free. Students are also given two free attempts to pass the CSM test. If you fail the test twice or complete it after 90 days, you will be prompted to pay a $25 USD test attempt fee.
After you pass the CSM exam, you will be asked to accept the License Agreement and complete your Scrum Alliance membership profile. The certification is valid for two years.
To validate your participation and continued proficiency in the fundamental principles and practices of Scrum, you are required to earn Scrum Education Units® (SEUs) by completing an educational training or learning opportunity. It’s easy to do and will help you stay relevant (and competitive) in the market. Note: All SEUs used for renewal must have been earned within the past two (2) years.
More information on how to earn SEUs:
https://www.scrumalliance.org/get-certified/scrum-education-units
For the renewal of your CSM certificate, you need 20 SEUs and pay a fee of 100 $.
You will be contacted by Scrum Alliance and reminded in due time.
Have a look at the official CSM Test Content Outline:
https://www.scrumalliance.org/ScrumRedesignDEVSite/media/pdfs/CSM-Test-Content-Outline.pdf
(Text: Scrum Alliance, slightly adapted)
Certification Process
Certified Scrum Product Owner® / CSPO®
To earn your CSPO certificate you must attend an in-person, two-day (16 hour) CSPO course taught by a Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Trainer.
This course will help you understand how Scrum works by focusing on your role as the Product Owner, or customer, for a Scrum team. Topics that are covered include managing stakeholders, ROI, backlog grooming, creating effective user stories, acceptance criteria for user stories, and defining “Done.”
After successfully completing the course, you will be registered with Scrum Alliance and will be asked to accept the License Agreement and complete your Scrum Alliance membership profile. There is no certification exam. The certification is valid for two years.
To validate your participation and continued proficiency in the fundamental principles and practices of Scrum, you are required to earn Scrum Education Units® (SEUs) by completing an educational training or learning opportunity. It’s easy to do and will help you stay relevant (and competitive) in the market. Note: All SEUs used for renewal must have been earned within the past two (2) years.
More information on how to earn SEUs:
https://www.scrumalliance.org/get-certified/scrum-education-units
For the renewal of your CSPO certificate, you need 20 SEUs and pay a fee of 100 $.
You will be contacted by Scrum Alliance and reminded in due time.
(Text: Scrum Alliance, slightly adapted)
Certification Process
Advanced Certified Scrum Master® / A-CSM®
Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner® / A-CSPO®
To earn your Advanced CSM or Advanced CSPO certificate, you must
- hold a Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM) or Certified Scrum Product Owner® (CSPO) certification, respectively, with Scrum Alliance.
- attend a certified A-CSM or A-CSPO educational class course taught by a Certified Scrum Trainer®.
- successfully complete all educator-designed components of the course.
This may include pre- or post-course work as deemed necessary by your trainer to complete the learning objectives. - complete your Scrum Alliance membership profile, making sure to add your specific work experience. This can be done before or after attending the course. Please note: it is not necessary to set your profile to ‘public’ if you prefer to keep those data private or if the information is confidential.
- in so doing, validate at least 12 months of work experience specific to the accountability of the role (Scrum Master or Product Owner, respectively) within the past five years. You will receive a notification email from Scrum Alliance once it has been validated. Please note: the validation process might take a workday or two.
- accept the A-CSM or A-CSPO License Agreement.
NOTE: You may take the A-CSM or A-CSPO course at any time after completing your CSM / CSPO certification. You must have, however, at least 12 months of experience in the respective role logged into your Scrum Alliance profile before you are eligible to receive your advanced certification.
Maintain your A-CSM / A-CSPO by earning Scrum Education Units® (SEUs) and renewing your certification every two years.
More information on how to earn SEUs:
https://www.scrumalliance.org/get-certified/scrum-education-units
For the renewal of your CSPO certificate, you need 30 SEUs and pay a fee of 175 $.
You will be contacted by Scrum Alliance and reminded in due time.
(Text: Scrum Alliance, slightly adapted)