When I first started my agile journey, there was a small set of certifications. The Scrum Alliance was the “only real dog” in the race. Around 2003-2004, there was only the CSM, CSPO, and CST certifications. Life was quite simple then.
Over the years, I believe folks started to get the sense that there was “money to be made” in this area. Lots of money. So certifications began to “pop up” more and more.
Much of this certification frenzy bothers me because it flies in the face of most of the agile principles. In fact, I’ve found that the money can corrupt even the best of agile trainers and coaches. But that’s not the point of this post.
My curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see just how many certifications I could find. So here goes...
Scrum Alliance; 8 levels
- CSM
- CSP
- CSD
- CSPO
- CTC
- CEC
- CST
- CAL
Scrum.org; 7 levels
- PSM I
- PSM II
- PSD I
- PSPO I
- PSPO II
- SPS
- PSP
Simplilearn; 1 level
- ASM
Scrum Consortium; 1 level
- CSMP
EuropeanScrum.org; 5 levels
- ESF
- ESM
- ESC
- ESPO
- EST
Scrum Agile Institute; 7 levels
- Scrum Mentor
- SMI
- POI
- SDI
- SM
- SPO
- SD
Scrum-Institute.org; 9 levels
- SMAC
- SPOAC
- STMAC
- SCAC
- STAC
- SSEAC
- SC4JD
- SC4WD
- SC4MD
ScrumStudy; 8 levels
- SFC
- SDC
- SMC
- SPOC
- SAMC
- ESMC
- SCT
- CIE
PMI; 1 level
- PMI-ACP
Scaled Agile – SAFe; 6 levels
- SA
- SP
- SPC-3
- SPC-4
- SASM
- SPMPO
Disciplined Agile Delivery – DAD; 5 levels
- DA
- CDA
- CDAP
- CDAC
- CDAI
Large Scale Scrum – LeSS; 3 levels
- LeSS – Practitioner
- LeSS – Executives
- LeSS - Trainer
iCAgile; 23 levels
- ICP; Fundamentals
- ICP-APM; Agile Management
- ICP-ADM
- ICE-AM
- ICP-TST; Agile Testing
- ICP-ATA
- ICE-AT
- ICP-BAF; Business Agility
- ICP-ENT; Enterprise Coaching
- ICP-CAT
- ICE-EC
- ICP-ATF; Coaching
- ICP-ACC
- ICE-AC
- ICP-BVA; Value Management
- ICP-BFM
- ICE-VM
- ICP-PRG; Development
- ICP-ASD
- ICE-DV
- ICP-FDO; DevOps
- ICP-IDO
- ICE-DO
AgileCertifications.org – ACI; 8 levels
- CAA
- CSA
- AAP
- ASM
- APO
- ASAP
- AKP
- ALSP
iSQI Agile Teaming; 4 levels
- CAE
- CAT – Tester
- CAT - TDD
- CAB
ISTQB – Agile Tester; 3 levels
- FOUND – Agile Tester
- ADV – Technical
- ADV - Organizational
AgilityHealth; 3 levels
- AHF
- AHC
- AHP
LeanKanban University; 5 levels
- KMP-1
- KMP-2
- TKP
- KCP
- AKT
Certified Kanban ACE – Agile Lion; 2 levels
- CKA
- CKAC
Center for Agile Leadership; 1 level
- CAL
Agile Leadership Academy; ??? levels
- At least 1 certification, hard to know exactly...
BCS – 2 levels
- Foundation
- Practitioner
The Grand Total is: 113 different Agile Certifications…
WooHoo!!!
And the sad part is that I’m positive I’ve missed some. Probably a scaling framework or two. And I’m lite on the Business Analysis and Kanban side of things. Also, on coaching.
IF you see anything I’ve missed, please add as a comment and I’ll update my list.
Full Disclosure
As I said earlier, I was an early member of the Scrum Alliance. I believe I joined in 2003 and received my CSM in 2004. Since then I’ve achieved CSPO, CSP, and CEC certifications.
So my “heart”, if you will, is aligned with the first of the organizations who were aligned with Schwaber & Sutherland, the creators of Scrum.
I do find iCAgile to be an “interesting” variant, in that they don’t make money teaching classes. So their curricula and focus is probably less subject to negative influence.
Why?
You may be asking; why did I publish this? I might be asking myself the same question.
Perhaps it was simply morbid curiosity.
I also wanted to illustrate just how CRAZY the agile certifications have become. Can you imagine being an entry-level agile enthusiast trying to navigate through the above certifications? How exhausting and how challenging it must be.
Did you also notice that there is not one Extreme Programming certification on the list? Even though XP is the “underpinnings” of all of the agile development practices we leverage today.
So in close and dare I say it…
Stay agile my friends (and be the first to garner all 113 certifications ;-)
Bob.