Live Open Hour with iZenBridge: Episode 40

Project Management
Agile and Scrum

Created on :

November 5, 2022

iZenBridge

Updated on :

June 5, 2023

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At our open-hour session, you are invited to post your queries and get them answered by some of the top experts from the industry. We do these sessions to ensure you get supported after taking your certification program from us, and these sessions also help select the proper certification for your career growth.

Here are the top questions discussed in our Live Open Hour Episode#40 session, streamed live on 9 Sept 2022.

Question: Question: What is the next certification after CSM?

Question: Question: I have experience in the Scrum and Kanban framework and am looking for SAFe Certification. So, after Certification, can I consider myself experienced in SAFe and start looking for a new job?

Question: Question: When should I go for enterprise agile coach certification from ICAgile?

Question: Question: How can I switch my career from a Tester to a Scrum master?

Question: Question: Is technical knowledge required for a Scrum Master?

Question: Question: How can I acquire sufficient Jira knowledge for the Scrum Master role?

Question: Question: What steps should a PMP participant take during preparation to help make the exam easy and comfortable?

Here are the summarised answer given by Saket Bansal for questions asked by participants-

Question: What is the next certification after CSM?

Saket: In general, there are a few default programs like Leading SAFe and PMP, which people do after CSM, and then there are specific programs which depend upon your aspirations after CSM certification.

If you are working in a product-based organization where Scrum is used to build new features continuously, and there is no fixed contract, then you may need to strengthen your skills in the Scrum master space. You can work and learn more about Scrum master skills. Advanced Scrum Master (A-CSM) is a good certification choice.

If in your organization, Agile is getting used on a large scale which is usually Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), then getting ready for SAFe terminology is also a good option for you. In addition, you can choose to do Leading SAFe (with SAFe Agilist) training and certification.

Suppose you are working in a service-based organization where your role keeps switching between roles like Scrum Master and Project Manager. In that case, doing PMP certification is a good idea for you.

So, as per our observation Leading SAFe and PMP are the prominently chosen certifications after CSM.

Question: I have experience in the Scrum and Kanban framework and am looking for SAFe Certification. So, after Certification, can I consider myself experienced in SAFe and start looking for a new job?

Saket: First, you need to learn about SAFe to understand where you can position your experience in SAFe.

SAFe is an aggregation of Agile, Scrum, Lean, Kanban, and DevOps ideas, stitching them together to solve an organizational-wide agility problem.

The target audience for SAFe is the whole organization. It has a set of organizational and workflow patterns for implementing agile practices at an enterprise scale, not just a project scale.

To understand SAFe in detail, you can refer to 50+ videos on our YouTube channel , which can help you know SAFe. You don’t have to go for SAFe Certification to learn about SAFe.

If you decide to go for SAFe Certification, our recommendation would be Leading SAFe Certification and Training.

Question: When should I go for enterprise agile coach certification from ICAgile?

Saket: There are no restrictions from ICAgile concerning time. You can go for it when you feel you are prepared enough for this certification.

From the readiness perspective, you need to keep a few things in mind, like you have enough understanding of operating as an Agile coach. In addition, even if you have yet to handle Agile coaching directly, you should have experience handling various activities that fall under the Agile coaching space.

You can take ICAgile CAT program, as it will help you understand what is required to become an Enterprise Agile Coach. You will understand the competencies, roles and responsibilities of an enterprise agile coach and knowing that will help you in planning your path forward

Question: How can I switch my career from a Tester to a Scrum master?

Saket: You need to enhance your team leadership skills to switch your career from a Tester to a Scrum Master role. Your focus should be more towards learning the process of facilitating various interactions where people make decisions—learning the skills of making people agree to the process and follow it. Apart from this, learn Scrum theories to understand why we have daily Scrum, how to prepare metrics, how to put a burn-down chart etc

It will be easier for you to switch if you work as a Tester in the Scrum space. You can learn many things by following your Scrum Master or assisting the Scrum Master. But if you work in a non-Scrum space, you can assist your leader in the facilitation and process-related work. This will enhance your leadership skill; with that, you can acquire scrum knowledge based on various certifications and learning programs.

You can find many videos on our YouTube channel to help you gain scrum knowledge. We also run Industrial Enabled Scrum Master (IESM) program, where we teach about the day-to-day job done by Scrum Master, and we recommend enrolling on this program after completing CSM. CSM builds your Scrum theoretical knowledge, and following that, you can gain practical knowledge by doing the IESM program. So, after completing Certified Scrum Master (CSM), you can also plan for the IESM program.

Question: Is technical knowledge required for a Scrum Master?

Saket: A Scrum Master is expected to lead and facilitate technical people, so knowing the technical area will help them to understand the problems faced by the team, resolve impediments and so on. But deep technical expertise is not required as they are not expected to resolve those technical problems faced by the team.

Question: How can I acquire sufficient Jira knowledge for the Scrum Master role?

Saket: We run a Jira program of 8 hours, and using this program, you can gain sufficient Jira Knowledge for the Scrum Master role. Also, we have a collection of Jira videos; you can also check out that.

Question: What steps should a PMP participant take during preparation to help make the exam easy and comfortable?

Saket: PMP exam is not difficult. It just requires a little dedication and commitment. If you have a generic understanding of Project Management and are ready to invest 150 hours in this program, you are good to go.

In our PMP certification program, we provide pre-recorded videos before starting the live classes. These videos will clear your Project Management fundamentals, and after that, it will be easier for you to follow the live classes, which will be 100% aligned with the PMP exam.