Certified ScrumMaster
Give Scrum Masters A Certified Foundation For Helping Teams Use Scrum Well
Certified ScrumMaster is a private two-day Scrum Alliance certification course for organizations that want employees to build a shared Scrum foundation and become eligible to take the CSM test.
Chosen by companies in SaaS, Healthcare, Government, Consulting, Financial Services, Retail, Energy, and more.
Scrum That Is Hard To Use Consistently
- People use Scrum terms but mean different things by them
- Events happen, but their purpose is unclear or mechanical
- Roles and decision boundaries stay fuzzy
- The Scrum Master becomes a meeting coordinator
- Teams struggle to connect Scrum to real improvement
Scrum Masters With A Practical Foundation
- Explain Scrum with shared language and confidence
- Use Scrum events for better inspection and adaptation
- Serve the team, product owner, and organization more effectively
- Know when to facilitate, coach, teach, or remove impediments
- Complete the required course step for CSM certification
When Is Certification The Best Choice?
Choose the Right Workshop
| Choose Certified ScrumMaster if… | Choose Effective Scrum Master if… |
|---|---|
| Your organization requires Scrum Alliance certification. | Your Scrum Masters already know Scrum and need stronger facilitation, coaching, and influence skills. |
| Participants need an industry-recognized Scrum credential. | You want the workshop tailored to your teams, challenges, and organizational context. |
| You want everyone to build a shared Scrum foundation using the Scrum Alliance curriculum. | Your goal is improving Scrum Master capability rather than earning a certification. |
Compare Both Workshops
See a more detailed side-by-side comparison of the two workshops to decide whether certification or deeper, configurable Scrum Master development is the better fit for your teams.
What Participants Will Be Able To Do
Pursue CSM Certification - Complete the required course and become eligible to take the Scrum Alliance CSM test.
Explain The Scrum Framework - Understand Scrum roles, events, artifacts, commitments, values, and the empirical foundation behind them.
Serve As A Scrum Master - Help the team, product owner, and organization understand Scrum, improve effectiveness, and remove barriers to progress.
Make Scrum Events Useful - Help sprint planning, daily Scrums, sprint reviews, and retrospectives serve their intended purpose.
Support Better Collaboration - Help product owners, developers, managers, and stakeholders understand how their responsibilities fit together.
How The Course Works
Certified ScrumMaster is a practical two-day certification course. Participants work through the required Scrum Alliance learning objectives while discussing how Scrum applies in real organizations.
Because this is a certification course, the curriculum is less customizable than Effective Scrum Master. We can connect examples and discussion to participants’ context, but the course must cover the CSM learning objectives and prepare participants for the Scrum Alliance test.
- Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster course
- Delivered in two days
- Delivered live online or in person
- Private course for your organization
- Covers required CSM learning objectives
- Participants become eligible to take the CSM test
Course Outline
- Agile and Scrum foundations
- Scrum values, theory, roles, events, and artifacts
- Sprinting, Definition of Done, and sprint goals
- Developer, product owner, and Scrum Master responsibilities
- Facilitation, coaching, mentoring, and teaching
- Product backlog refinement, user stories, and estimating
- Sprint planning, daily Scrum, review, and retrospective
- Managers, impediments, organizational support, and scaling basics
Resources Participants Can Keep Using
Participants receive resources that support their Scrum learning beyond the course, including:
- MGS AI Toolkit for Scrum questions, coaching prompts, story splitting, and backlog ideas
- Practical prompts for Scrum events and Scrum Master conversations
- Reference materials for Scrum roles, events, artifacts, and responsibilities
- Guidance participants can revisit while preparing for the CSM test
Taught By Certified Scrum Trainers With Practical Scrum Experience
Certified ScrumMaster at Mountain Goat Software was designed by Mike Cohn, a co-founder of both the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance and the author of three bestselling agile books: User Stories Applied, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile.
For more than 25 years, Mountain Goat Software has helped teams and organizations adopt Scrum in ways that actually work across industries, team types, and organizational cultures.
Certified ScrumMaster courses are taught by Mountain Goat Software Certified Scrum Trainers. Participants learn the required CSM material from trainers using a course designed around Mike’s practical approach to helping people understand and apply Scrum.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Should Attend?
This course is useful for Scrum Masters, prospective Scrum Masters, agile coaches, project managers, team members, and others who want a Scrum Alliance-certified foundation in Scrum.
Does This Course Include Certification?
This course satisfies the required training step for Certified ScrumMaster. After completing the course, participants become eligible to take the Scrum Alliance CSM test. Passing the test earns the certification.
How does this differ from the Effective Scrum Master course?
Certified ScrumMaster is a certification course. It must cover Scrum Alliance learning objectives, so the curriculum is fixed and less customizable.
Effective Scrum Master was built from the strongest parts of Mountain Goat’s CSM and Advanced CSM material. It is more customizable and goes deeper into facilitation, coaching, impediments, influence, and the difficult situations Scrum Masters face in organizations.
Can This Course Be Customized?
Only lightly. We can use examples and discussion that connect to your organization, but the course must satisfy Scrum Alliance learning objectives. If you want a more customizable Scrum Master workshop, Effective Scrum Master is usually the better fit.
Do We Sell Individual Seats?
No. Mountain Goat Software focuses on private training for organizations. We can discuss a private Certified ScrumMaster course for your company.