The Scrum Alliance offers the SAFe® 5.1 Scrum Master Certification (SSM) to provide candidates with the resources to become competent in the fundamentals of Scrum as defined by the Agile Manifesto and in bringing greater agility to their organizations. The ssm training online will be available from 2022, and we are excited to announce that this new certification will replace the current Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) and Advanced Certified Practitioner (ACP) certifications offered by the Scrum Alliance today.
The Scrum Master Role
According to Jeff Sutherland, inventor of Scrum, The primary role of a ScrumMaster is to remove impediments to maximize team performance. The ScrumMaster acts as an enabler, focusing on helping everyone understand and follow best practices.
They serve as an advisor and facilitator in helping teams deliver high-quality work at regular intervals (the timeboxed events known as sprints). They also help resolve day-to-day issues that come up with clients or other stakeholders.
What is Scrum?
Scrum is an agile methodology that helps teams deliver high-quality products in short periods. These periods are called sprints and are usually two weeks long. In each sprint, development is broken down into tasks (called story points) that can be completed in no more than eight hours of work. Within these tasks, team members collaborate and help each other get work done faster.
Understanding the Benefits of SCRUM
Understanding and appreciating what Scrum can do for your organization is crucial to successful adoption. You must understand its limits as well because even though it represents an enormous improvement over a waterfall in many ways, it’s still not a panacea.
Even in highly disciplined organizations, teams have limitations that need to be understood. Recognizing these boundaries will help you avoid disappointment as you begin using SCRUM and work with your team(s).
Getting Familiar with Lean Principles
For those of you who are more familiar with project management methodologies, have no fear. The concepts taught in an Agile training class will probably sound very similar to your existing practices. For example, at its core, Agile is focused on delivering working software in increments that meet stakeholder needs. That’s similar to what we do today with our production schedules and Gantt charts, right?
Overview of SAFe Framework
The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is an initiative focused on aligning agile values and principles with organizational requirements. It was developed by practitioners for practitioners, to meet these specific needs.
The goal of the SAFe scrum master course is to help large enterprises move from command-and-control environments toward adaptive organizations that can quickly adapt to changing business conditions. How? By bringing agility on three levels: the agility of teams, individuals, and larger enterprises (or organizations). While more and better technology may be part of a solution, it cannot solve all problems. Agility will only thrive if people are also agile – i.e. if they become aware of their role in helping an organization succeed with agility.
Key Roles, Artifacts, and Processes in SAFe Framework
The Lean Enterprise and Agile approaches have transformed not only how software is developed, but also how companies are managed. Therefore, organizations must understand what practices they need to adopt to develop and run their business.
The guide will discuss two complementary frameworks – Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Lean Software Development Methodology – that define key roles, artifacts, and processes that are necessary for any enterprise. It will give an overview of three different levels of the SAFe framework i.e., Enterprise Transformation Program Level, Initial Program Level & Iteration level along with their defined values at each level.
The bottom line
The Scrum Masters (SM) is responsible for providing leadership that helps their organization scale through Agile. The SM has an essential role in ensuring that teams deliver value and make good decisions as they transition into more efficient ways of working. An SSM should be an experienced, senior team member who understands how his or her teams work and knows how to coach them when needed.