Skip to content

How well recognised and respected is the CSM course?

There are about 1 million Certified Scrum Masters in the world today. It is by far the biggest, most widely recognized Scrum Master credential in the world today.

The credential is awarded by the Scrum Alliance and is internationally recognised to be a valuable, entry-level certification for Scrum Masters.

The Scrum Alliance insist on each CSM course being led by a Certified Scrum Trainer. A CST is an individual who has proven experience and expertise within Scrum and must follow a rigorous path of validation and peer approval to become recognised as a Scrum trainer.

The Scrum Alliance encourage each Certified Scrum Trainer to develop their own unique CSM course experience, in alignment with specific learning and competence objectives, which affords CSM delegates the benefit of a personalised, custom-designed experience by a Scrum professional.

At the end of the course, delegates write an online international examination to become a Certified Scrum Master officially recognised by the Scrum Alliance.

The process is vetted, proven, and demonstrated to provide a rock-solid foundation for aspiring Scrum Masters and Scrum professionals.

How well respected is the CSM credential?

The CSM credential is internationally respected as a great entry-level certification for Scrum Masters.

Recruiters understand that a 2-day course cannot provide a delegate with Mastery level expertise and respect the course, as well as the certification, for providing a solid foundation in Scrum and a great benchmark for an entry-level Scrum Master.

There are a few critics of the course, but they tend to be critics that object to the long-term, tough process of becoming a Certified Scrum Trainer.

Other frameworks, such as SAFe (Scaled Agile Frameworks) approve people to teach a SAFe Scrum Master course after a relatively easy process of approximately a week’s worth of training.

They do not need to have previous Scrum experience, nor do they need to have demonstrated teaching experience. They simply need to do the short course, pay the fees, and are ready to set up shop as an approved SAFe instructor within a couple of weeks.

The Scrum Allliance insist that an individual have proven and demonstrated field experience as a Scrum practitioner followed by a 12-to-24-month process of co-training and apprenticeship under other Certified Scrum Trainers to apply to become a Certified Scrum Trainer.

For this reason, many Scrum Alliance CSTs demonstrate great respect for one another and for the CSM Course as a whole. They know how tough it is to earn the CST credential and they respect how much work goes into getting their CSM course approved by the Scrum Alliance.

So, in summary, the CSM course and credential are internationally recognised and respected within and without the Agile industry and technology sectors.

If you would like to become a Scrum Master, visit our Certified Scrum Master course page. Also, see the Advanced Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course pages too.

Frequently Asked Scrum Master Questions

Frequently asked Training and Certification questions