Certified Scrum Practitioner

I'm a software development manager, which means I run software development projects. Software projects are different from other projects because it is relatively new (compared to say... construction projects) and technology changes so rapidly. There are lots of different ideas for the best way to develop software. I've run projects using different methodologies and each one has it's own strengths and weaknesses and some work better than others depending on the culture of the company.

A methodology has evolved called Scrum. From the ScrumAlliance.org website, Scrm is described as:

Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for developing any product or managing any work. It allows teams to deliver a potentially shippable set of functionality every iteration, providing the agility needed to respond to rapidly changing requirements. The Scrum framework constantly challenges its users to focus on improvement, and its Sprints provide the stability to address the ever-changing needs that occur in any project. These characteristics have led to Scrum becoming the most popular method in the world of agile software development.

I had the the opportunity to run a project using Scrum in 2004. The project was very successful and everyone involved agreed it was run very well. I have became a strong advocate for Scrum and in September of 2007, I obtained my Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification.

I have been using Scrum on my current project since I started 18 months ago and it is wildly successful. My team and I have taken a failing product offering and transformed it to the fastest growing, most profitable product offering the company has. When I arrived the product had 10 customers, it now has over 550 customers. To date we've spent $1.2M on hardware and software development, but the product brings in $14M annually and all of the customers are on 5 year contracts. I attribute a large portion of the success of this project to the Scrum software development methodology.

The next level of certification after CSM, is the Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP). To become a CSP you have to be a CSM, and have run a project using Scrum for at least a year, and complete an application of 20 essay questions. I submited my application earlier this month and just received word that I was approved to become a CSP. I'm very proud of this because there are only 420 CSPs in the world.

Eventually I'd like to become a Certified Scrum Coach. With this, I can go from company to company and charge boocoo bucks to teach them how to use Scrum on their projects. This is at least 5 years away. But that is my long term goal.