What is the Scrum Alliance?
The Scrum Alliance is the only member-driven, nonprofit certifying body in the agile space. Their mission is to transform the world of work through guiding and inspiring “individuals, leaders and organizations with values, principles, and practices that create workplaces that are joyful, prosperous, and sustainable.” Scrum Alliance accomplishes its mission by adhering to three primary principles:
- Inspire: Support leaders, organizations, and individuals on their transformation journey to Agile adoption through sharing stories, innovations, and providing training.
- Enable: Enable success through developing learning and support systems (webinars, communities and user groups, and events), along with a global network of practitioners, coaches, and trainers.
- Guide: Provide certification programs to meet the career needs of Agile practitioners that promote Agile values, principles, and practices and provide ongoing support for Agile transformation.
Boasting more than 725,000 certified practitioners, Scrum Alliance, Inc. is currently the largest Agile membership organization worldwide.
How does Braintrust work with the Scrum Alliance?
There are several ways that we work within the guidelines provided by the Scrum Alliance.
First and foremost, every trainer who teaches a Braintrust Certified Class (CSM or CSPO for example) is a Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Trainer (CST). Becoming a Certified Scrum Trainer is a long and demanding process that includes training and education, student feedback, community involvement, mentorship with a current CST and formal interviews with the Scrum Alliance. There are less than 300 CSTs in the entire world, and we’re proud that more than 10 of those Certified Trainers work with us at Braintrust.
Secondly, The Braintrust Consulting Group is a Registered Education Provider (REP). That means that we are approved to provide continued education credits for those who are already certified and seeking to maintain their credentials. As a Scrum Alliance REP, all of our non-certified classes, continued education classes, and workshops can all be submitted for Scrum Education Units (SEUs). This is becoming more and more important as the Scrum Alliance changed their renewal policies and requires continued education to maintain your certification.
Third, every Certification Class that Braintrust teaches gets submitted to Scrum Alliance for approval before we are authorized to teach that class. They also regularly audit classes and trainers to ensure quality experiences for every student.
Do I get my Certification from Braintrust or from Scrum Alliance?
Both, actually. When you take a class from Braintrust, you will receive a certificate of completion from Braintrust at the end of your class. That certificate shows that you completed the class and any course work that accompanied that class. Then, after your class is complete and we verify that you have completed all the prerequisites required for Scrum Alliance Certification, we will submit your official Scrum Alliance Certification for you. After our Certified Scrum Trainers verify your qualifications, the Scrum Alliance will officially certify you as a Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Product Owner, etc.
Why does Braintrust choose to align with the Scrum Alliance?
It’s true that there are other certifications in the world of Agile and Scrum. However, The Braintrust Consulting Group has been a Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Trainer and Registered Education Provider for almost 10 years now. Our founder and CEO, Brian Rabon, was one of the first 100 CSTs in the world. We feel very strongly that the Scrum Alliance is the best and most thorough certifying body in the world of Agile. In our opinion, Scrum Alliance also stays the truest to the original principles of Scrum and promotes complete Agile adoptions through their mission to create workplaces that are joyful, prosperous, and sustainable. Finally, unlike other certification options, Scrum Alliance is a nonprofit organization so they remain neutral and focused on promoting the benefits of Agile and Scrum to all. They have no agenda to sell their own training offerings because they don’t have training offerings.
Why should I choose Braintrust if there are other CSTs offering the same Scrum Alliance Certifications.
Again, it’s true that there are other CSTs who offer Scrum Alliance Certifications. However, Braintrust offers a number of unique benefits that set us apart.
- Experience: We’ve trained and certified over 15,000 Scrum Professionals over the last 11 years.
- Trainers: Our trainers are the best in the world. We seek CSTs who have worked in real Agile environments and can offer real-world guidance, not just theoretical scenarios.
- Comprehensiveness: We are the only training provider currently approved in the United States to teach every Certified class in the entire Scrum Alliance catalog.
- Consistency: We strive to provide consistent class experiences for every student. All our CSTs teach from the same class materials and assign the same homework.
- Class Experience: We pride ourselves in offering fun, hands-on classes. From dance breaks to team-building activities, our number one feedback from students is how their class experience was great. We utilize the latest in brain science to ensure retention and we never subject our students to “death-by-powerpoint”.
- Virtual Classes: Being Agile, we quickly pivoted to 100% virtual classes early in the pandemic without losing the quality of our in-person classes.
