If you are a developer or work in technology industry, you probably familiar with Agile methodology and heard of Scrum. Over the years, Scrum prove itself as an influential, effective framework that expanding Agile.
Why you need certifications ?
Well, not really, no one actually need any certificates to work and research effectively, but according to Scrum Alliance, 81% of developers actually believe certifications improve Scrum in practice
Why is that ? In my opinion, certifications don’t mean that you are good at Scrum or anything, but It actually proves that you have a fundamental understanding of the Scrum and know how to use it in practice.
Why PSM I ?
PSM I, or Professional Scrum Master I is the standard certification to prove your knowledge and understand of Scrum and the role of the Scrum Master.
Although most of the people are developers according to Scrum. But Scrum allows 1 person to take on multiple roles, and in my opinion, Scrum Master is the best role to help you understand Scrum and Agile, that will improve you numerous skills.
PSM I also has a lot of questions for Product Owner and Developers so don’t worry if you won’t be a Scrum Master in the future, this certification still help you learn a lot.
Preparation
Prepare for PSM I is fairly easy if you know what you are doing, I will go through every step :
The Scrum Guide
You can find the Scrum Guide every where, but I recommend to find it at scrum.org for the 2020 ( latest ) version. The Scrum Guide is about 15–20 pages long and very easy to understand, make sure to read it at least 5 times from start to finish, understand every word before go to the next step.
The Open Assessments
The scrum.org website has some open assessments, make sure to take the Scrum Open and the Scrum Product Owner Open assessments until you get 95–100% scores 10 times in a row, believe men, it isn’t that hard to get. You can take other assessments to have more in-depth knowledge, but it won’t help much in the real assessment.
The Mock-up Tests
There are multiple mock-up tests in the internet, but I recommend the Mikhail Lapshin. It has real-mode test which has 80 questions in 60 minutes, if you get 90% scores in this test, you are good to go.
Reminder: the test is programmed with 2017 version of the Scrum Guide, so please double check when you finished.
Tips and Tricks
- Mark the questions that you want to review, but please careful to not mark over 10 of them, you only have 60 minutes
- Open the Scrum Guide beside you so you can check it out again when taking the test.
- Keep an eye on the clock, the time passes very quick
- Google the questions if you are unsure, but do not rely on this, like I said, you only have 60 mins, and there are 80 questions
- You have to make 68 questions right, seems a lot, but many of them are one-liners, go pass these questions fast to spend time on situational questions
Conclusion
The PSM I is not difficult, but it isn’t a piece of cake, so be humble, read Scrum Guide many times, take a lot of open assessments and mock-up tests in 10 days a least, follow my tips and tricks and you are good to go :)
Last Words
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