• Products
    • Observe

      Keep tabs on your world in real-time, reducing a cacophony of activity from massive amounts of raw content into orderly, easy to consume data

    • Orient

      Our low-code, composable, distributed, and event-driven predictive analytics workflow engine mines for actionable insights hidden in data at any scale

    • Dominate

      This insight interaction and decision support application takes you beyond self-service, visual exploration of piles of insights & provides auto-ML powered actionable, scenario-specific advice to achieve the goals you specify

  • Markets
    • Government

      At BigBear.ai, we take pride in providing mission-critical services and solutions to our government customers. This includes Data Analytics, Systems Engineering, and Cyber services.

    • Commercial Markets

      BigBear.ai provides innovative AI solutions to companies across commercial markets, ranging from Space to Media to Shipping and Transportation.

  • Company
    Just Announced
    Tony Barret
    Press Release
    BigBear.ai Names Former Intelligence Officer Tony Barrett as President of Cyber and Engineering Sector
    • Col – 1
      • About

        We help governments and businesses make the decisions that change markets and define outcomes

      • Investor Relations

        We operationalize artificial intelligence and machine learning at scale through our end-to-end platform

      • Partners

        We work with our technology partners to customize products for the private and public sectors

    • Col – 2
      • Team

        Our executive team brings decades of world-class experience

      • Newsroom

        News articles from our press room

  • Careers
    Apply Now
    AWS SME
    Location:

    Columbia, Maryland

    Description:

    We have an exciting opportunity for an AWS SME to work as part of a small team in a fast-paced, research, development, and data evaluation environment. We are seeking an AWS SME to join our AWS Cloud Center of Excellence. This position will be based out of Columbia, Maryland and is fully remote.

    Category: Engineering

    • Col – 1
      • Explore Jobs
        • Returning Applicant Login
        • Current Employee Login
      • Culture
      • Benefits
      • Military and Veterans
      • Product and Technology
      • Join Our Talent Community

        Sign up to receive personalized alerts and stay up to date on job openings right for you

  • Resources
    Featured
    Video
    Panel Discussion: AI/ML Applications to Support DHS
    • Col – 1
      • Blog

        See what’s new in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics

      • Resource Library

        Browse our resource library and discover more about our products and solutions

      • Newsroom

        News articles from our press room

  • Contact
BigBear.ai
  • Products
    • Observe

      Keep tabs on your world in real-time, reducing a cacophony of activity from massive amounts of raw content into orderly, easy to consume data

    • Orient

      Our low-code, composable, distributed, and event-driven predictive analytics workflow engine mines for actionable insights hidden in data at any scale

    • Dominate

      This insight interaction and decision support application takes you beyond self-service, visual exploration of piles of insights & provides auto-ML powered actionable, scenario-specific advice to achieve the goals you specify

  • Markets
    • Government

      At BigBear.ai, we take pride in providing mission-critical services and solutions to our government customers. This includes Data Analytics, Systems Engineering, and Cyber services.

    • Commercial Markets

      BigBear.ai provides innovative AI solutions to companies across commercial markets, ranging from Space to Media to Shipping and Transportation.

  • Company
    Just Announced
    Tony Barret
    Press Release
    BigBear.ai Names Former Intelligence Officer Tony Barrett as President of Cyber and Engineering Sector
    • Col – 1
      • About

        We help governments and businesses make the decisions that change markets and define outcomes

      • Investor Relations

        We operationalize artificial intelligence and machine learning at scale through our end-to-end platform

      • Partners

        We work with our technology partners to customize products for the private and public sectors

    • Col – 2
      • Team

        Our executive team brings decades of world-class experience

      • Newsroom

        News articles from our press room

  • Careers
    Apply Now
    AWS SME
    Location:

    Columbia, Maryland

    Description:

    We have an exciting opportunity for an AWS SME to work as part of a small team in a fast-paced, research, development, and data evaluation environment. We are seeking an AWS SME to join our AWS Cloud Center of Excellence. This position will be based out of Columbia, Maryland and is fully remote.

    Category: Engineering

    • Col – 1
      • Explore Jobs
        • Returning Applicant Login
        • Current Employee Login
      • Culture
      • Benefits
      • Military and Veterans
      • Product and Technology
      • Join Our Talent Community

        Sign up to receive personalized alerts and stay up to date on job openings right for you

  • Resources
    Featured
    Video
    Panel Discussion: AI/ML Applications to Support DHS
    • Col – 1
      • Blog

        See what’s new in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics

      • Resource Library

        Browse our resource library and discover more about our products and solutions

      • Newsroom

        News articles from our press room

  • Contact
Home Blog Becoming a Certified ScrumMaster
Blog

Becoming a Certified ScrumMaster

Samantha Hamilton
July 14, 2020
  • Share
  • Share

I recently hit my fourth year working for my current company, and when evaluating my goals for the upcoming year, my advisor suggested I look into a non-technical certification – something to help me build my leadership, project management, or people skills. I recently started leading a team of 25+ people, so I figured solidifying some of my soft skills would be beneficial. I took a look at Scrum Alliance’s Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), the Project Management Institute’s Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), and the Project Management Institute’s Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP).

After some research (and deciding I wanted to stay in the technical realm and stay away from the project management path), I settled on the Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster. One of the driving decisions behind choosing this certification was the number of times it was mentioned on job listings and proposal requirements.

CSM_Certifications

And so began my CSM journey. So how does one earn this certification? According to the Scrum Alliance website (https://www.scrumalliance.org/get-certified/scrum-master-track/certified-scrummaster), a candidate is required to take an in-person (or live online, thanks COVID) course taught by a Certified Scrum Trainer, and then take the 50 question exam. On the exam, you need 37 out of 50 to pass, so roughly a 74%.

I signed up for a course, got dressed in my business clothes for the first time in a few weeks, turned on the dreaded front-facing camera, and participated in the training. Two days later, I passed the very easy exam and am now a Certified ScrumMaster.

So, is this worth it? Absolutely.

As someone who spent the past two-plus years on a team that practiced agile and scrum, I thought I had a clear cut understanding of what the framework was and how to best practice it. Boy, was I wrong. I feel as if one of the largest misconceptions about the scrum framework is that a team can (and should) modify the events or artifacts of the framework without actually attempting to leverage the scrum framework in full, first. Often times, as I learned in the course and was able to retrospect on my previous project, key steps are left out of the process because the Scrum Team does not fully understand the reason behind (or the benefits of) a given step. My previous team held sporadic monthly retrospectives, and never held a spring review meeting. We also never leveraged burndown charts to track the team’s work. After the training, it is clear to me how these elements would have benefitted my old development team, increasing productivity and transparency.

scrum_image

As someone who is gearing up to lead a team through a new data architecting development project, I found extreme value in the knowledge I gained from the ScrumMaster training course. Many of my course mates had similar questions as I, and we were able to build off of each other’s experiences to gain a deeper understanding of the framework. Other key things covered in the course that wouldn’t be easy to read from a blog post were how to adopt the framework and how to navigate common pitfalls or impediments.

Anyone can tell you the basic pillars of scrum, but I find myself frequently thinking back to the course and reflecting on the little nuggets of information I got from it. While at first, it may seem like you’re paying for a certification (not paying to take an exam), it is becoming clear to me why the certification is structured in this way.

I would recommend this certification route to anyone who is playing an active role in leading a team through an agile development lifecycle. You will learn how to increase the efficacy and morale of your team, enabling you to become a better leader.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

BigBear.ai

2022 BigBear.ai • All Rights Reserved.

  • Privacy Policy
Corporate Headquarters

6811 Benjamin Franklin Drive, Suite 200
Columbia, MD 21046
Tel: 410.312.0885 • Email: [email protected]

CareersContact