Mid-2013, I am targeting for a PMP certification. I already took online basic project management courses and collected books regarding PMP certifications. Last November 2013, our company have knowledge sharing session regarding Scrum and by that time, I never know anything about scrum although I am a little bit familiar with Agile. After the presentation, I was impressed by Scrum framework.
As we have Pluralsight subscription from our company, I watched Pluralsight's Scrum Fundamentals by David Starr. On the first video, I was inspired by how Scrum Framework saved FBI's Sentinel project. I highly recommend to those who are interested in Scrum to watch this as this gives very good, very simple and practical insights regarding the real-world use of Scrum.
After watching Pluralsight's Scrum Fundamental's, I am more eager to get a Scrum Master Certification rather than a PMP certification. Although I know that PMP's are more respected and more recognized but based from my experience as a developer in companies whose processes and guidelines are based from PMBOK, projects do not always go as planned. Here is a good article regarding this. Also, one can clearly see the difference by just reading the Agile Manifesto.
December 2013, I tried scouting for Scrum Certification and I saw the International Scrum Institute. The exam and certification is not that expensive. All the learning materials is free and can be viewed by anyone. I studied all the materials and took the exam in January 2014 and I passed it. I was able to secure a Scrum Master certificate and this is one of the best New Year gift I could give to myself.
Certifications doesn't need to be expensive and I would like to say thanks to International Scrum Institute for making this possible. As the materials can be learned online, I personally don't agree on the way where certifying bodies requires classroom training before taking exams. This isn't a bad thing actually, but I hope that they would realize that there are some people who have the ability to self-study and are more eager to explore things by themselves. I hope this will change in the future.
Good luck to all who wishes to take the exam.
