Millennial developers can no longer rely on the traditional development method. It is high time to migrate to an Agile way of development. The need for people with knowledge in the Scrum framework is increasing day by day. At the same time, there are several certification courses offered by different accreditation bodies. Now, comes the confusion to choose the best among them.

Agile Certification Course
Need For a Certification
When you want to learn a course, then it is good to think about getting certified. It is because a professional certification course will be designed in such a way that exhaustively covers all topic in-depth. At the same time, it will be a time-boxed course which will let you understand concepts and apply them in projects.
The course pattern will be designed in such a way that they will not overdo with unwanted topics but will make sure to go detailed on areas that are mandatory in your project life cycle. Finally, there will be a test conducted that will assess your skills and will not only issue a certificate but also boost your self-confidence.
Without wasting time, let’s deep dive to know the 2 Agile courses that will make your life progress fast not only in the year 2019 but will keep the ball in motion forever. From this post, you will be able to know the course prerequisites, fees, content, certifying body, examination details, renewal process, and the need for the particular course. Last but the most important detail which you know is your earning potential by learning these courses.
Top 2 Certification for your understanding
Looking at the image below, your eyebrows will certainly rise. It is because you’re wondering to see a credit card. What is the connection between a credit card and an Agile course? Do you agree that you require the card number from the front side of the card and the CVV number at the backside of the card to make a transaction using a card? Likewise, you need both CSM certification and SAFe certification to become a pro in Agile development.
But, getting both certifications at the same time may be difficult for various reasons including cost, project requirement, and your skills. Therefore, you can get at least one certification in 2019 based on your project need and your basic understanding about Scrum framework.
However, you can find all the details about both courses in this post to help to decide which one will suit your need at the moment.
CSM Certification
Who are you? Certified Scrum Master Course will help you understand your role in the Scrum projects and help you work with the team accordingly. Daily stand up, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives will be the main focus of the course at a team level. The basic agile and scrum principles will be explained and will also teach you the right way to use planning poker and burn down charts. This overview of the course makes you realize that every individual is eligible to take part in CSM training.
Who gives the certificate? Scrum Alliance is the certifying body for CSM certification that has defined a set of rules to be followed to get certified. The course module is designed based on their guidelines and hence every participant will gain a detailed insight into the agile development process.
What will you learn? You will get role-based training about scrum framework, principles, roles, artefacts, values, iteration, planning, and executing. Above all, your mindset will get tuned to work in an Agile way.
How much you need to spend? You need to spend a maximum of INR 25000 and 2 days to get CSM certification. The training is a must per Scrum Alliance mandates and it must be 2-day classroom training. So you can register with a reputed training institute, get trained, give the test and take home the certificate.
But before that, you need to spend one good hour to complete the objective type online test with 50 questions. Give 37 correct answers and you’re done.
Can I renew the certification? The certificate you obtained after clearing the test will be valid for 2 years and then renew them paying USD 100 for another 2 years.
SAFe Certification
SAFe for whom – In Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) apart from learning Scrum at a team level, you can also get a larger picture of the Release Train. Not just sprint planning but you can master the art of iteration planning, review, and retrospectives. You can move up the ladder by learning the right way to transform with the Lean principles. Yes, Lean-Agile transformation at an enterprise level happens with your SAFe certification course.
Certifying body – Scaled Agile offers SAFe certification for successful participants.
How you can benefit – You can learn all the nine principles of Lean-Agile and get certified. The training content includes lean thinking, embracing agility, implementing Agile Release Train, constructing an Agile portfolio, building a SAFe enterprise, creating lean UX, and lean startup cycle. Also, you can understand the concept of scalability in DevOps delivery and how to make a continuous delivery pipeline. In short, you can lead to a change in the development life cycle after attending and getting certified.
How much you need to invest – All you need to invest is INR 50000 and 2 days to get SAFe Certification. During these 2 days, you get trained from the training institute and also they will help you take the test. The test will contain 45 questions. All will have multiple options to choose the right answer and you need to spend 90 minutes to complete the online test. If you can give 34 right answers, then you’re done. You will be eligible to collect the certificate. The certificate is valid for 1 year and pay USD 50 to renew it for another year.
Final thoughts CSM Vs SAFe
By this time, you must have understood that even though both courses are mandatory, you can attend any one and get benefitted. Both are independent of each other and anyone can take up both or either one of the certifications. Ideally, if you are naïve to the Agile process, then go for CSM certification and once you gain experience you can opt for SAFe certification.
Increase your confidence, skills, and earning potential by getting certified.
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