An Agile Certified Practitioner certification is one of the best certifications in project management, being offered by the PMI or the Project Management Institute. Furthermore, it demonstrates skills and knowledge of the candidate regarding different agile subdomains, such as Scrum, Lean, Kanban, and more. Practitioners who want to validate their skills and to level up their careers in the field, it is imperative to get one of the top agile certifications. An agile certification gives global recognition and makes one stand out among the rest.<\/p>\n
These days, agile has been matured and the same as other domains, such as service management and project management. Companies look for agile experience as well as certification from prospective applicants. That is why agile pros aspire to get certifications to gain all the benefits when they contemplate switching jobs or even when they aspire to a career in the agile environment.<\/p>\n
When Scrum Master, Agile coach, and product owner Gilbert Pazos sends members of his teams to have their entry-level certifications, two things occurred. When the day of the training arrived, there was plenty of pushback from the members. At the end of the second day of training, members were brainstorming how as a team they could accomplish tasks. The classroom dynamic, it turned out sparks collaborative thinking, which is central to the agile methodologies.<\/p>\n
Not everyone, however, realizes the value with certifications. There are several well-known veterans in the field who once upon a time were involved in agile certifications that today are against them and training in general. Those who are against stated that the certification programs have lax training, vetting, and exam requirements. Beyond that, they said that certification just proves that the graduate is book smart, but it doesn\u2019t say anything about experience or expertise.<\/p>\n
So, are the certifications worthless? The State of Scrum Report in 2015<\/a> by Scrum Alliance reported that out of the 4,452 respondents, 81 percent declared that the certifications mean something to them. They said that the certifications helped boost the scrum practice. It\u2019s presumed that the same thing goes for those who hold a foundational Certified ScrumMaster or CSM certification that earned a spot on the list of the 15 top-paying certifications of Global Knowledge in 2015, with a salary averaging to $101,729.<\/p>\n Of course, an agile certification does not reflect soft skills, experience, or real-world technical acumen. In the same manner, it does not predict the effects on the job. Ideally, an agile professional have years of experience and expertise and across an array of methodologies and frameworks, capped with the respected stamp of approval of the certification program.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the fast pace of agile adoption is pressuring business organizations<\/a> to compete for talent. In the 2014 Version-one State of Agile Survey, over 94 percent of organizations that responded said they utilized agile methods in some capacity. Managers are pressured to get more evaluating and creative candidates who are meant to excel in the agile team models. They evaluate candidates not only based on their experience and expertise, but also on their potential.<\/p>\n With the growth in the demand and increase in salaries, the number of certified workers in the different agile frameworks, including Kanban, Scrum, Extreme Programming, or XP and lean is growing. It\u2019s estimated that there are twenty to thirty certifications in different levels on the market, focused mainly on Scrum.<\/p>\n Requirements become tougher at the practitioner level. Applicants will have a team-based project experience of 2,000 hours and another 1,500 hours working with agile methods or teams to acquire a PMI-ACP certification that covers XP, Kanban, Lean, Scrum, and other frameworks. A PMI or Project Management Professional or a Project Management Professional certification could fulfill the requirement for project experience. Afterward, they must complete classroom training of 21 hours in order to sit for an examination.<\/p>\n There are different ways to earn expert-level agile certifications. Generally, the pre-requisites include demonstrated experience and expertise in real-world, current practitioner-level certifications, and recommendations from certified experts as well. Applicants must be able to accomplish the coursework and meet the exam-score benchmarks as well. In some cases, they have to undertake peer review.<\/p>\n Expert certifications include Scrum CSC and CST, PST or Professional Scrum Trainer, ICE, or ICAgile\u2019s Certified Expert and SPCT or Scaled Agile\u2019s SAFe Program Consultant Trainer. Certified experts work in various capacities. They could operate outside the structure of the team to train members in different roles<\/a>, consult with teams and stakeholders, and coach sub-teams that are working within the \u2018team of teams\u2019 for scaling agile programs to enterprise level.<\/p>\n The following is a list of professionals who could take up agile certifications:<\/b><\/p>\nMove up the Ladder<\/b><\/h3>\n
Who can take Training<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Benefits of Agile Certifications<\/b><\/h3>\n
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