From 28 to 30 Aug 2019, I attended the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) course with two of my colleagues. We have decided to attend this course as we have been trying to implement Agile at work, and wanted to make sure we are doing it the right way to maximize our effectiveness.
We took the course under NUS Institute of Systems Science, and it was actually claimable under SkillsFuture credit. Unfortunately as I have almost depleted mine, I had to pay the full amount of S$354.53 (after SkillsFuture Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy), plus another $77.58 for the exam fee. The exam fee are not claimable under skillsfuture, so this is the only amount you have to pay if you have sufficient credits left in your skillsfuture account. The full unsubsidised cost of the course is S$3135.10. Thanks garment!
The course is conducted by Pete Deemer from GoodAgile.
How to be a ScrumMaster Tip #1 – Fold paper air planes…
It’s a worthy course to attend, especially at such a low subsidised rate. Pete runs the course like clockwork. Really impressive. I won’t go into the course details, but would like to share some fun activities that we did.
On day 1, we spent some time folding paper aeroplanes. See, the Certified ScrumMaster® course isn’t that hard 🙂
How to be a CSM Tip 2 – Play with toy cars…
On day 2, after being expert Scrum-paper-plane-folder-Masters, we decided to do something simple – building cars instead.
My proud team #9 with our car. It can move, but far from completion.
How to be a CSM Tip 3 – Gamble
After days of building planes and cars, we relaxed on day 3 by playing poker. It looks like Uno, but it’s poker. Believe me.
Anyway, we finished the course in 3 days, and took the online exam the next day, after our scrumalliance.org account was created. Passed the exam, and here is my certification profile for the next 2 years.
We will see how we can apply Agile/Scrum to marketing.
Here are some reference books that our trainer Pete recommended:
- The Pomodoro Technique: The Acclaimed Time-Management System That Has Transformed How We Work
- Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum
- User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development
- Agile Retrospective: Making Good Teams Great
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates us
- Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency
- Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths & Total Nonsense
Find out more about what I do here. If you have any comment, please drop me a note below.