How to pass the Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master PSM I assessment

The Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master assessment consists of:

• 80 questions

• 60 minutes

• Online Multiple Choice

Subject Areas

• Scrum Theory and Principles

• Scrum Framework

• Coaching & Facilitation

• Cross functional self-organizing teams

Preparation

Read the scrum guide http://www.scrumguides.org/ line by line and number of times. 5 would be good. This text has been refined over many years and every word has value. Understand each sentence in depth in terms of events, roles, artefacts and rules that bind them together. Understand inspection, adaptation and transparency and the Scrum values that create the foundation of Scrum.

The PSM 1 assessment will look at questions wider than the Scrum Guide. You will need to be familiar with topics such impact of technical debt, scaling Scrum, complimentary practices like velocity, user stories, burn charts and many others. Understand the difference between what is Scrum as define by the Scrum Guide and what is not Scrum but often associated with it.

Open Assessments

Scrum.org have created open assessment practice tests for different subject areas. Our advice is to take them all to experience a wider selection of questions to enrich your overall understanding of Scrum. When you get a question wrong, note the correct answer and assess why you answered it differently.

Our advice is to be passing the Scrum Open at 100% repetitively before taking the PSM I.

You will need to create an account with Scrum.org before you can take the free open assessment for practice

Take the free open assessments:

• Scrum Open assessment

• Developer Open assessment

• Product Owner Open assessment

• Nexus Open assessment

More information available at Scrum.org Scrum Master Learning Path and Scrum.org Professional Scrum Competencies

Possible Reading List

• Scrum - A Pocket Guide' by Gunther Verheyen

• Scrum Mastery' by Geoff Watts

• Servant Leadership' by Robert K. Greenleaf

• Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins

• Software in 30 Days by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland

Further reading:

• Lean Change Management' by Jason Little

• Reinventing Organizations' by Frederic Laloux & Ken Wilber

• The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum' by Kurt Bittner, Patricia Kong & Dave West

• The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures' by Henri Leipmanowicz & Keith McCandless

• The DevOps Handbook' by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois & John Willis

• The Professional Product Owner' by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham

• Product Mastery by Geoff Watts

• The Product Samurai by Chris Lukassen

• Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux & Ken Wilber

Couple of useful blogs

• http://www.barryovereem.com/the-8-stances-of-a-scrum-master

• https://medium.com/the-liberators/scrum-mythbusters/home

Are you ready

If you already have some experience in Scrum you may feel comfortable to take this challenging and rewarding certification. If you don't feel quite ready and feel you want to learn in a team based, collaborative, and transformational learning environment then see our class listings here www.bagile.co.uk/psm.

We've a very high success rate record in our course attendees leaving either our PSM or PSF courses with a deep understanding and knowledge of Scrum, and we also offer free after course support, to enable them to pass the PSM I assessment.

Taking the test

• Have a good stable internet connection

• A place where you won't be disturbed for 90 minutes

• Recommend completing an Scrum Open Assessment before taking to help get focused

• Take at a more energetic time of day

• Recommend not taking late at night, or after a busy day or after a glass of wine!

• If you get stuck on a question give it your best guess, bookmark it and move on. You can go back to the bookmarked questions later.

Hope this post aids you in your preparation for the Scrum.org PSM I assessment. Good luck from the BAgile team.