I think the universe may be conspiring against (or with) me around this topic. In the past, I saw two posts on LinkedIn with interesting perspectives on agile certifications.

The first one was this from Erin Parsons—

Breaking News: My #CSM badge has officially expired.

And I'm not paying $100+ to renew it, because:

  1. That's not the path I'm on anymore, and

  2. I held a Scrum Master position as a certified practitioner for ~5yr, and that experience holds exponentially more value than a piece of paper I received after 2 days of training

I say it with an appreciation for the hard work I and others in the #Agile community have put into our various certifications and credentials, but please remember:
Your #value as an Agilist is not dependent on or limited to the number of acronyms following your name.
#scrummasters #agility #knowyourwhy

And the next was this from Sally Sloley—

Certs are not all bad. Yes, there are disreputable companies selling garbage. Whatever! Going for a cert can also mean a person is prioritizing expanding their knowledge and living by their belief in continuous improvement.

Do I think the certs I liked made me who I am? No? Did they give me a platform to show others in my field that I am willing to invest in making myself the best I can be? YES! Did they give me insight into how others in my field think and act in my chosen field? YES!

Collecting certs for the wrong reasons is bad, but wanting to learn new things, learn about opposing views, and investing in improvement will never be shunned by me. #choosewisely #neverstoplearning

I would first encourage everyone to read the posts in their natural environments and read the comments.

My Thoughts

These are not direct reactions to Erin or Sally. More so, their thoughts simply inspired my own reflections leading to these reactions—

  1. I do think folks who have greater than 20 or so letters after their names might be “missing the point” in some way. Just maybe?

  2. Certifications are for you. For your learning, growth, and confidence. They should serve you. If they do that, then I think they’re a good thing. A corollary here is that I believe it’s healthy to change your mind and drop a certification. I did that with my SPC and it felt great.

  3. It is always possible to take a certification class for the learning and not claim the certification/letters ;-). I’ve done this many times in my journey and have found that the learning is just as resilient.

  4. I’ve always felt that all certification classes are not equal. That the teacher/instructor makes a humongous difference in the value of the experience and learning. So, when you’re selecting a certification, consider the who as much as the what.

  5. Do you really need to list all of them? I’d say demonstrating the skills trumps showing the emblems.

Wrapping Up

Certification discussions have been going on in the agile community for, what seems like, forever. I do think they are neither good nor bad. It’s up to how the individual handles them.

As an aside, you might want to review Anthony Mersino’s, The Circus of Agile Certifications, article here. It weighs in from another angle entirely, that is the sheer number of agile certifications.

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

 

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