CSM - Certified Scrum Master

Exam Code: CSM-001

Cost of Certification - $128

What is Scrum?
Scrum is an iterative and incremental agile software development method for managing software projects and product or application development.

Software Professionals all over the world are passionate about Scrum. However, Scrum is not hype in IT industry. Scrum is an Agile Project Management Framework to develop great products that customers love.

Scrum’s powerful and astonishing influence on people and projects take its roots from the Manifesto of Agile Software Development (Agile Manifesto) which values:

Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools,
Working Software over comprehensive documentation,
Customer Collaboration over contract negotiation,
Responding to Change over following a plan…

Who is a Certified Scrum Master (CSM)®?

Scrum is facilitated by a Scrum Master, sometimes written as ScrumMaster, who is accountable for removing impediments to the ability of the team to deliver the sprint goal/deliverables. The Scrum Master is not the team leader, but acts as a buffer between the team and any distracting influences. The Scrum Master ensures that the Scrum process is used as intended. The Scrum Master is the enforcer of rules. A key part of the Scrum Master’s role is to protect the Development Team and keep it focused on the tasks at hand. The role has also been referred to as a servant-leader to reinforce these dual perspectives.

Many a time, a Scrum Master is mistaken for a Project Manager. The difference is that, while the Project Manager may also have people management responsibilities in addition to the role of a Scrum Master, a Scrum Master shall not hold any such additional people responsibilities.

Why Certified Scrum Master (CSM)®?

According to the latest data, the annual salary of a ScrumMaster now surpasses that of a Project Manager.
Even more surprising, is just how quickly the ScrumMaster salaries have increased in such a short amount of time. As you may remember, I performed similar job research in Oct 2009 when the ScrumMaster role pulled in around $88,000 a year.

ScrumMasters now make on average $95,000 a year, which is a $7,000 increase.



On the other hand, Project Manager Salaries seem to have become stagnant, showing no visible signs of improvement. Even the ambiguous Agile Project Manager salary seems to have hit a glass ceiling. With the Scrum Master in such high demand, can we expect these salaries to sustain this sort of growth in an economy that may be dipping into yet another recession?