The certification process for becoming a Certified Scrum Trainer was a terrificly difficult and motivating experience. As of November 15, 2006, I am now a Certified Scrum Trainer which allows me to work with those people getting introduced, updating their understanding, or advancing their application of Scrum. What a wonderful thought! Although this is about Scrum (it is in the title after all…), there is more to it than that. As some of you may know, the real work in implementing Scrum is not the basic framework (Vision, Product Backlog, Sprint, and Potentially Shippable Product Increment), the three roles (Delivery Team, ScrumMaster, and Product Owner), or the three ceremonies involved (Sprint Planning Meeting, Daily Scrum, and Sprint Review and Retrospective). The real work comes when people start using these.

The process for this certification started about 6 months ago when I started working on the application form which may be found at the CST FAQ on the Scrum Alliance web site. The application form asked for information about why the committee would want to assess my ability to train others on Scrum. The essays were difficult since I had to not only remember the teams and organizations I had worked with in the past with more detail than is usually within my ability but also how that history could make me somebody that can effectively train somebody else on Scrum.

After weeks of working on my essays and finally sending in the CST application form, my CSM-Practicing application, and signed letter of recommendation from a mentor and current CST, I had to wait a week to see whether I would be invited to the first ever assessment event at the Scrum Gathering during the week of November 13-17, 2006. Fortunately, I was invited to be assessed which came with even more ceremony. I would have to develop my own materials for a 45-minute session with an exercise on an aspect of Scrum which would allow the CST certification committee to assess my training skills. I started with a simple story board of post-its on the wall. My wife supported me by listening to some initial deliveries of this material from the post-its. She already understands a little bit about Scrum because we use it for our home improvement work and she is currently the Product Owner. Upon delivering it 4-5 times with my wife, I conducted a dry run of the session with some colleagues at SolutionsIQ in our open space area. The session seemed to go well and I got some great feedback from the group. In a couple of days I was off to Minneapolis, MN for the Scrum Gathering.

Although the help of my wife and fellow colleagues was very helpful, I also had a sargeant at arms for the CST certification event. Their job was to make sure that anything that I made it to my interview and presentation session on time along with assuring that all materials were present in the event room for the presentation session. This was incredibly helpful and allowed me to focus on the presentation session itself. For some reason I was having a hard time sleeping, 1-2 hours, the 3 nights leading up to Wednesday which was the day of the CST certification event. I had one more dry run the night before which gave me some more helpful feedback that I could use on the next day.

Suffice it to say that after going through the interview and then delivering material with current CSTs I was feeling a little bit relieved that it was over. I felt quite satisfied about going through the process and becoming a CST. Along with myself there were 4 other new CSTs:

• Pete Behrens
• Pete Deemer
• Michele Sliger
• Tamara Sulaiman

I will now get some sleep…zzzzzzzzz

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