Part 6 in our #scrummaster #interviewquestions series where John McFadyen answers some of the more common questions asked of #scrummasters and #agilecoaches in interviews and engagements.  

In this scenario, a product owner has pushed to include a user story in the upcoming sprint but the design has not yet been finalized. How do you respond as a scrum master?  

If you know your #agile values and principles, this becomes a very simple question to answer because one of the principles is to 'welcome change, even late in development' because we are always trying to delight our customer and satisfy our #productowner and product #stakeholders.  

It is sometimes easier said than done, but living by this principle is going to win you heaps of friends in the product stakeholder and customer space.  

In this short video, John McFadyen walks us through how to deal with a user story being pushed into the #sprint even if the final design has not yet been committed or agreed.  

If you are interested in becoming an agile coach and value mentored, coach-driven skills development in your journey to mastery, visit our Growing Agile Coaches page on https://www.johnmcfadyen.com/growing-agile-coaches/.  

If you like the idea of becoming a scrum master and want to achieve internationally recognised and certified accreditation as a scrum master, visit our Certified Scrum Master (CSM) course page on https://www.johnmcfadyen.com/training/certified-scrummaster/.   

If you are already a scrum master and want to upskill to a more advanced level of knowledge and agile coaching capability, visit our Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM) course page on https://www.johnmcfadyen.com/training/advanced-certified-scrummaster/.   

If you have several years’ experience as a scrum master and want to validate and certify your professional skills, visit our Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master (CSP-SM) course page on https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/certified-scrum-professional-scrum-master/.  

For more information on John McFadyen, visit https://www.johnmcfadyen.com or connect with John on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmcfadyen/.   

#agile #agilecoach #agilecoaching #agileprojectmanagement #agileproductdevelopment #agility #businessagility #scrum #scrummaster #scrumtraining #scrumcertification #scrumalliance #agilecentre #johnmcfadyen #coach #coaching #certifiedscrummaster

Part 10 in our #agilecoach #interviewquestions series where John McFadyen answers some of the most common questions asked of #agile coaches during interviews.  

This one drew a laugh from John because each #agiletransformation is pretty unique and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to #agile, especially in large organisations.  

Nevertheless, you're in an interview and you have to answer the question to the best of your ability so here is John's take on how to answer the question of which strategies have worked well for agile transformation.  

If you like the idea of becoming an #agilecoach and value mentored, coach-driven skills development, visit our Growing Agile Coaches section on https://www.johnmcfadyen.com  

If you like the idea of becoming a #scrummaster, visit our Certified Scrum Master course page on https://www.johnmcfadyen.com/training/certified-scrummaster/  

If you are already a scrum master and want to upskill, validate and certify your professional skills, visit our Advanced Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course pages on https://www.johnmcfadyen.com/training/certified-scrummaster/  

#agile #agilecoach #agilecoaching #scrummaster #scrum #agileprojectmanagement #agileproductdevelopment #coaching #johnmcfadyen #agilecentre

The Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM) course differs a great deal from the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) course.  

The Certified Scrum Master course presumes that you have no knowledge of Scrum and that you have no experience working as a Scrum Master.  

It is an entry-level certification program that is designed to introduce you to the world of Agile and Scrum, and specifically, prepare you for the role of a Scrum Master within team environments.  

There are a lot of simulations to help embed the knowledge and skills of a Scrum Master and there is a lot of theoretical instruction to help you grasp the basics as well as the nuances of the Scrum Master role.  

Over the 2-day period, you are primarily learning from the Certified Scrum Trainer and as a cohort, you are learning how to work together using Scrum as a methodology for creating products and services.  

The Advanced Certified Scrum Master course presumes that you have a Certified Scrum Master certification and that you have at least one years' worth of experience working as a Scrum Master in the field.  

It presumes that you have a fairly good idea of what Scrum is, how it works and why it is such a powerful framework for product development.  

The Advanced Certified Scrum Master course is designed to help grow your knowledge of Agile as well as it's applications, and help you become a more effective Scrum Master.  

It also introduces you to coaching and facilitation so that you can start to straddle the roles of Scrum Master and Agile coach within your organisation.  

In this short video, John McFadyen explains the difference between the CSM and the A-CSM course.  Visit https://www.agilecentre.com/ for more on Agile Centre and visit https://www.johnmcfadyen.com for more on John McFadyen.  

If you want to advanced your career as a Scrum Master, visit the https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/advanced-certified-scrummaster/ course page as well as the https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/certified-scrum-professional-scrum-master/ course page.  

If you like the idea of being coached and mentored as part of your career progression, visit our https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/agile-coach/agile-coach-academy/ for more on our Agile Coach Academy.  

If you like the idea of becoming an Agile coach, we have just launched an on-demand Introduction to Agile Coaching course that you may find useful. Visit https://agile-centre.thinkific.com/courses/introduction-to-coaching for more information.

The Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM) course is a blend of the two. Whilst you will definitely learn new theories, tools and techniques as part of your learning and personal development, you will also have your skills as a Scrum Master validated throughout the experience.  

The Scrum Alliance have set learning objectives for each module of the course but they are also looking for students to validate their skills and demonstrate competence as an Advanced Scrum Master.  

In many ways, this is why there is a requirement for at least one years' experience as a Certified Scrum Master in order to achieve certification.  

The Scrum Alliance have designed the Advanced Certified Scrum Master course as a stepping stone between the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master (CSP-SM) certifications.  

The idea being that you can invest in your skills development and acquiring important knowledge and toolsets to help you in your journey as a Scrum Master.  So, to summarise. 

The Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM) course is designed to both teach you new skills as well as validate your current skills as a Scrum Master.  

If you are interested in the A-CSM, visit https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/advanced-certified-scrummaster/  

To get a feel for the Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course, visit https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/certified-scrum-professional-scrum-master/  

If you are interested in becoming an Agile Coach, visit our Agile Coaching Academy course page on https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/agile-coach/agile-coach-academy/  

If you would like an Introduction to Coaching opportunity, visit https://agile-centre.thinkific.com/courses/introduction-to-coaching

The Advanced Certified Scrum Master (ACSM) course was designed to be a natural evolution for Certified Scrum Masters (CSM) in their quest to become a Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master.  

The Certified Scrum Master course is an entry level certification that teaches you how to become a Scrum Master and understand the scrum environment. It's meant to be the first step in your apprenticeship as a Scrum Master that will give you a strong enough foundation from which you can learn.  

The Advanced Certified Scrum Master course is designed for scrum masters with approximately a year's experience working in a Scrum Team. It builds on the foundation of the #CSM course and is designed to meet the scrum master at the next level of their evolution as a scrum professional.  

What do you need to know before signing up to the ACSM course? You need to know the role of a scrum master and have about 1 year's worth of experience in the role.  

You need that context in order to grasp the course material and derive value from the interactions and simulations that are found throughout the course.  Technically, you could attend the ACSM course directly after finishing your CSM course, you simply wouldn't be able to be certified as an Advanced Certified Scrum Master without the CSM and a year's experience in the role so we wouldn't advise it.  

John McFadyen walks us through what you need to know before signing up for the ACSM course in this short video.  

Visit https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/advanced-certified-scrummaster/ for more information on the ACSM course and visit https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/certified-scrum-professional-scrum-master/ for more information on the Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course.  

If you would like the idea of a mentored and coaching focused learning experience, visit https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/agile-coach/agile-coach-academy/ for more about our Agile Coaching Academy.  

Also see https://www.johnmcfadyen.com for more information on John McFadyen.

The Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM) course is a blend of both theoretical as well as practical instruction.  

It isn't as theory heavy as the Certified Scrum Master course but it does dig much deeper into the concepts of Agile and how to be of service to both the product owner as well as the development team.  

Much of the learning in the environment is based on practical, real-world examples and stories. Conversations with people on the course as to what their experience is in being a scrum master and how they have overcome challenges in their environment really provide you with great insights into how to practically adapt specific tools and techniques to help you become a better Scrum Master in your own environment.  

That said, there is also a lot of implementation practice, especially with concepts like coaching and facilitation.  

The #ACSM course is designed to bridge the gap between being a scrum master and #agile coach. You will learn how to facilitate powerful events like retrospectives and sprint reviews.  

If you are interested in becoming an Advanced Certified Scrum Master visit our course page on https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/advanced-certified-scrummaster/ 

A great follow up to this course is the Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course and you can view that on https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/certified-scrum-professional-scrum-master/

Many people find that their journey to mastery as a scrum master lacks a critical step between the Certified Scrum Master course and the Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course.  

For this reason, the Scrum Alliance created the Advanced Certified Scrum Master course. An advanced course that helps bridge the gap between Scrum Master and Agile coach within the organisation.  

John McFadyen walks us through how the Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM) course helps you become a better Scrum Master and prepares you for the more advanced Scrum Master courses.  

Visit https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/certified-scrummaster/ for more information on our Certified Scrum Master course.  

Visit https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/advanced-certified-scrummaster/ for more information on our Advanced Certified Scrum Master course  

Visit https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/certified-scrum-professional-scrum-master/ for more on our Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course.  #agile #scrum #scrummaster #a-csm #acsm #advancedscrum #scrumalliance

The Scrum Alliance have a pre-requisite 1 year of experience as a Certified Scrum Master before they will certify you as an Advanced Certified Scrum Master after attending the A-CSM course. John McFadyen explains why.  

Visit https://www.agilecentre.com for more information on Agile Centre and visit https://www.johnmcfadyen.com for more information on John McFadyen.

Agile coaching is often a journey of progression. From scrum master and agile practitioner through to master practitioner and Agile coach. John McFadyen explains how the Advanced Certified Scrum Master course helps you progress along that journey.  

Visit https://www.agilecentre.com for more information on Agile Centre and visit https://www.johnmcfadyen.com for more information on John McFadyen.

Curious about what the Advanced Certified Scrum Master course offers? Scrum expert and Certified Scrum Trainer, John McFadyen, walks us through what you can anticipate in the ACSM course delivered by Agile Centre.  

If you're interested in becoming an Advanced Certified Scrum Master, visit our course page on https://www.agilecentre.com/courses/scrum-master/advanced-certified-scrummaster/  

To read more about the Advanced Certified Scrum Master course, visit https://johnmcfadyen.com/scrum-training/what-will-i-learn-on-the-acsm-course/  

#agile #scrum #scrumtraining #certifiedscrummaster #advancedcertifiedscrummaster #csm #acsm #a-csm #scrumalliance #scrumcourses #scrummastercourses #scrummastertraining #scrumcertification #agilescrumtraining   

Visit https://www.agilecentre.com for more information on Agile Centre and the ACSM course, visit https://www.johnmcfadyen.com for more information on John McFadyen.