Scrum Master and Product Owner Exam, Cost and Requirements

Agile scrum and its certifications are getting buzz words these days. There are few options to gain the title of Certified Scrum Master and Certified Product Owner. Those choices based on the time and money you need to spend and the career path you want to follow.

Getting certification in any field is both rewarding and felt a sense of achievement in your career. These days majority of software projects are using agile scrum in some of its forms , there is also a trend for non-IT project to adopting toward agile methodology.

According to Gartner 48% of project managers are using agile project management for non-IT projects, with marketing advertising projects accounting for 11% of all the projects in the survey.

Both IT and none-IT organisations are on the lookout for the people trained in agile project management, having been certified as Product owner or SM, may increase your chances to fit for the wider scope of projects as 70% of the SW development project asking for the agile skills.
But when comes to certification for the agile scrum, it’s just a validation of your expertise and experience, what really count is the experience of working in project that is implementing agile scrum.

What scrum certification you should choose ?

What certification you should choose, is depend on what your carrier plans are, if you are planning to move toward coaching, training or consulting then “ScrumAlliance” is a better choice, though its more costly, price range is from $ 1000-$2500 to be a certified scrum master or certified product owner, but ScrumAlliance has more active community.

If you are only interested in having certified as Scrum Master or Product Owner to validate your knowledge of the Scrum framework and its application, then “Scrum.org” is a better choice. As you only pay for the exam, no costly training is needed.

The other option is PMI ACP, it is a more detailed certification, covering the broad spectrum of areas.

There are other accredit bodies which offer certification like ScrumStudy.org and Agilecertifications.org, these are fairly new, community is very small and not too active. There are lots of other criticism about those, but that’s not the point of this blog to into those details.

The scope here, is to show the options available to get the title, in the end it’s a personal choice.

Certification Organizations in the Agile Scrum Community

Famous Accredited Bodies For Agile Scrum

Other accredited Bodies for Agile Scrum

Scrum Master Certifications

1. SCRUM.ORG

1.2 Name of Certification

The Professional Scrum Master level I (PSM I)/level I (PSM II)

1.1 Cost of Certification for Scrum Master

$ 150 (PSM I)
$ 500 (PSM II)

1.3 Required course:

None

1.4 Exam Details

Passing score: 85%
Time limit: 60 minutes
Number of Questions: 80
Format: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer and True/False
Language: English only

best_mobile_mac_and_web_productivity_apps_focus

2. ScrumAlliance

2.1 Name of Certification

Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM)

2.2 Cost of certification for Scrum Master

Exam fees included in the CSM Course fees (Course cost around $1000-$2500)

2.3 Required Course:

Yes (Must take CSM 2 days course from a Scrum Alliance Authorized Trainer)

2.4 Exam Details

Multiple choice
Answer 24 of the 35 questions

3. Scrumstudy.com

3.1 Name of Certification

Scrum Master Certified (SMC™)

3.2 Cost of certification for scrum master

$450 per attempt

3.3 Required course:

None

3.4 Exam Details

100 questions per exam
Multiple choice
120 minutes duration
Current pass rate: 95%

4. PMI

4.1 Name of Certification

PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®

It’s the only agile certification that requires a combination of training, experience and an exam. It also bridges agile approaches such as SCRUM, XP, LEAN and Kanban.

4.2 Cost of certification for scrum master

Member US$435
Non-member US$495

4.3 Required course:

None

4.4 Exam Details

Total questions: 120
Exam focusing on 7 different domains

4.5 Prerequisite

2,000 hours of general project experience working on teams.
1,500 hours working on agile project teams or with agile methodologies.
21 contact hours of training in agile practices

5. Agilecertifications.ORG

5.1 Name of Certification

Accredited Scrum Master (ASM)

5.1 Cost of certification for scrum master

US$ 199

5.2 Required course:

Mandatory training, 1 Year of work Experience

5.4 Exam Details

Exam Time: 90 min
Exam Questions: 75
Exam Pass Rate:85%

Comparision summery of Scrum.org Vs ScrumAlliance.org Vs PMI.org Vs ScrumStudy.org Vs Agilecertifications.org

	Scrum.org	ScrumAlliance.org	PMI	ScrumStudy	Agilecertifications.org
Certification Names	The Professional Scrum Master level I The Professional Scrum Master level II	Certified ScrumMaster®	PMI Agile Certified Practitioner	Scrum Master Certified	Accredited Agile Practitioner
Cost of Certificatoin	$150 per attempt	Exam fees included in training course which cost $1000-$2500	$495	$ 450	$ 199
Mandatory Pre-requisites	None	Training Course	2,000 hours of general project experience working on teams. 1,500 hours working on agile project teams or with agile methodologies. 21 contact hours of training in agile practices	None	None
Course Required	None	Yes cost $1000-$2500		None	None
Number of questions(Passing score)	85%	Correctly answer 24 of the 35 questions	answer 120 questions	100 questions	65% (75 Multiple Choice Questions; 90 Minutes).

Product Owner Certifications