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Why Should I Attend a Scrum.org Professional Scrum Foundations Course?

August 6, 2020

Why PSF?

Since writing this post, Scrum.org has renamed Professional Scrum Foundations (PSF) to Applying Professional Scrum (APS). Yet the information on this below still stands, as the name change is to better communicate the intention and positioning of the course. They are now better aligned.

Note Scrum.org also renamed the Professional Scrum Developer (PSD) course to Applying Professional Scrum For Software Development (APS-SD). The course content & learning remain unchanged. And the related assessment and certification are also unchanged for both courses. You still get 2 attempts at the PSM I assessment for the APS. 

Some may confuse the word “Foundation” in the name of the Professional Scrum Foundation course to mean simple or basic. But in truth this means it is a course for everybody to build a solid base of knowledge, understanding and practical application of Professional Scrum.

Everyone in your Scrum team and the managers/leaders who interacting with your team should be able to answer

  • What is complexity? How does Scrum framework help us develop and sustainable deliver complex products?

  • What is empiricism? How do the Scrum Roles, Events, Artifacts enable and ensure this empirical process works?

  • What is self-organisation? How does the Scrum framework help an organisation and its reams become self-organising?

Who should attend?

  • Are you curious about what Scrum can bring to your products and organisation?

  • Are you supporting Scrum Teams in a leadership role, stakeholder, or other capacity and want to understand how Scrum works and how to collaborate together?

  • Are you interested in a career change and have no experience in Scrum?

  • Are you doing Scrum in name only and nothing has changed? No mindset, culture, or increased agility change?

  • Are you NOT delivering a “Done” Releasable Increment at least once per sprint, therefore enabling transparency, trust, and greater business agility?

  • Are you NOT gaining better customer outcomes and business benefits?

  • Is Scrum NOT helping you manage risk and complexity?

The Professional Scrum Foundations course is the perfect introduction, reboot or refresher to Scrum. This course is for organisations, teams or anyone wanting to experience the Scrum way of working. PSF provides the base knowledge needed for anyone interested in taking role-focused training's.

How?

Over the 2 days, students experience Professional Scrum with the practical application of Scrum. Students work together as a team in a series of Sprints to build a product, thereby facing real-life problems. The rules, roles, and principles of Scrum are leveraged during the exercises. From its emphasis on the practical application of Scrum, the course exposes common missteps and misunderstandings so students grow a higher awareness of the associated symptoms. The course provides prescriptive guidance to avoid going off track and keep Scrum healthy.

What previous students have said?

We ran a small experiment with students who attended a PSM course and had little or no knowledge or experience of Scrum beforehand. We offer them to attend a PSF the following week, if they could gives us feedback on - "Which would you recommend to someone, PSF or PSM, who has the current experience & knowledge you had before taking either course?"

"I enjoyed both courses honestly but if I had the opportunity to choose which to take first I would take the PSF first. My reason is that the PSF is broad and covers all areas of scrum, and obviously has a lot of fun exercises. It's fun to work as a Scrum Team in Sprints to deliver a product & the exercises to learn Scrum. The PSF is also more laid back on the second day which relaxes everyone. The PSM on the other hand is more specific and detailed compared to the PSF. It would greatly benefit someone who has some knowledge on what scrum is.  My recommendation is the PSF first." Fortunate Ngwang - Changing career

"As with the PSM course, the PSF was fantastic! I will be suggesting that people take this one before they decide to take on either PSM or PSPO. Despite being a virtual class, the level of interaction was amazing and your teaching style speaks volumes in terms of the number of people, including myself, who crack the not-so-easy assessments with flying colours. Thank you! " Abhijeet Basu - Project Manager

What you get for taking the course

  • Facilitation and coaching from highly experienced Scrum.org Professional Scrum Trainers

  • Debunk myths, dispel misconceptions, and gain a true understanding of Scrum

  • Gives students the knowledge and direction to start using Scrum and cutting practices immediately after the class

  • Create a transformation plan for the adoption of Scrum within your organization/team in the class with the support of the trainers’ transformation experience

  • 2 attempts at the Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master I certification and a 40% discount from Professional Scrum Master II certification

If your ready to take the next step you can find BAgile’s Professional Scrum Foundation course schedule at www.bagile.co.uk/psf


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