ince we are all career driven professionals, you probably either have atleast one certification or have thought about obtaining a certification to prove you know your stuff. It is even likely that you have obtained a Scrum related certification from a certified trainer or through a variety of recognition institutes.
As someone that has been through the hoops, I still question sometimes question ‘Are certifications really necessary to succeed in practice of agile/scrum/kanban?’
WHEN CERTIFICATIONS MATTER
A certification confirms you have met a minimum standard. But if the bar is low then certifications fail to provide any value to you or to your next employer. In other cases, when you are technically capable, you may not bother with the time and expense to get a certification and would rather let your experience speak.
However, there are two instances when certifications make a real difference:
- When you’re trying to prove yourself – eg. while not having much real experience)
- To set yourself apart – eg. when there are multiple people with same technical skills such as programming.
PROVING YOURSELF
If you’re a recent college graduate or a seasoned professional wanting to change your area of expertise, certifications may help you land a job. In the absence of experience, a certification can be a starting point. Certifications will show that you’re serious about your career choice – after all credentials are typically expensive and time consuming. When the certification carries a rigorous assessment, it provides some external, objective measure of your abilities.
When hunting for that first or next job, having a certification can help you get to the interview stage. This is especially true if you are working with agency recruiters. Most recruiters are not technical. They rely on your honesty and credentials when deciding whether or not to present you to their client. A certification may just tip the scales in your favor.
SET YOURS SELF APART
Even if you’re not a recent college graduate or changing your career , certifications can become necessary as a result of market conditions. Market conditions manifest in two different ways: the overall employment market and what the market requires of a particular type of professional.
Overall employment market – When the employment market is candidate driven, experienced candidates with good interpersonal skills can write their own ticket in many instances. In this type of market, certifications are less important.
The market for particular professionals – Specific skill sets or particular job titles can demand specific certifications. Often when specialties are emerging and it is difficult to identify appropriate experience, hiring managers will require a certification as the minimum standard.
SO ARE SCRUM CERTIFICATION NECESSARY?
Most certifications offered are really designed for career Scrum Masters, Product Owner or Development Manager (yes, keyword being career…) when you are starting out as a programmer or QA tester, you DON’T need to be a Certified Scrum Master – nor do you need to be a Professional Scrum Product Owner either.
What you need is practical knowledge of Agile thinking, how to put it into practice. Scrum and Kanban theory and practice are more useful to you than a title. Yet the industry promotes recognition of ‘knowing Scrum’ equates to having a CSM or PSM certification – this is wrong.
You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars attending a certification course, the knowledge are quickly forgotten as you don’t practice it as a Product Owner or Scrum Master would every single day – so instead i recommend pay a fraction of that cost for a practical course.
Only you can decide whether a certification is right for you. They may be useful, but in some situations, they may be unnecessary. Either way, to have the knowledge is more important than that piece of paper.