Certified Scrum Alliance Trainer

Well, this is a post that I never thought I would find myself writing. When I look back to when I obtained my CSM back in 2008 the first thing that I did was enquire about becoming a trainer, I wanted to share my knowledge with people but back then the problem was that I didn’t have enough knowledge or skills to really make this work. I had been working in the same role for a couple of years and the advice I was given was to “go and learn my trade, build up your stories, your skills and examples as you will need them for when you do become a trainer”. I put this into the back of my mind for a long time (nearly 20 years) but today the situation finally changed. I do have these skills, experiences and stories and I passed my Certified Scrum Alliance Trainer certification.

When Scrum Alliance announced that they were having a pilot process to bring Certified Team Coaches into the CSAT program I was very interested in taking part. There was an application process where there was a certain amount of places on a first come first serve basis and I will admit I had the application filled out ready for when the clock struck on the opening for the pilot. I was over the moon to get accepted and was given the relevant documents to prepare for my practical Trainer Skills Assessment (TSA).

The skills assessment is facilitated by the Trainer Approval Committee (TAC) and on the day there were 4 members of the TAC who joined the Skills Assessment. They would not only be participating as interviewers but also as students in the simulation that is part of the TSA so as you can tell it is pretty involved.

The basis of the TSA was a training pack that had 13 Learning Outcomes (LO) with an accompanying online learning Microcredential. I had to prepare 13 approaches to physically complete a learning outcome within the 20 minutes. The outcome of the LO must have been carried out and the students should leave being able to do the action that you have taught them. The TAC could ask for any one of these LO’s to be performed so studying and learning each approach is a must but the TAC want to see how you react in the moment so your approach needs to be fluid and non scripted as they want to see how you perform at the task, not how good you are at following a script.

Preparing for the TSA was tough. There were different outcomes like Identify, Coach, Mentor and Teach which all needed their own approach and different practical exercises and they needed to be achievable in 20 mins which was tough, one tip here that I would give is to try and nail your content in 10 minutes to allow questions and interjections, don’t take your exercise or content up to the 20 minutes as you will need to allow for interaction to show your training style. The format of the TSA is all manual tools too so no Miro / Mural, breakout rooms, etc so make sure to leave time for you to write out any post it notes if these are needed for your exercise. I used the old traditional flip chart, post its and pens. Be mindful to schedule an equipment test with Scrum Alliance to check that your set up is correct, the users can read your flip chart if using one and make sure that you flip the camera on Zoom so that people can read without it being mirrored.

The TSA started off with a 20 minute interview about my Agile Journey, my teaching style and who I am as a person. There were a couple of really good questions in there that made me have to stop and think about how I would approach them. I really appreciated these questions as I felt a sense of achievement that I had answered them really well. The whole TSA was a nerve wrecking experience for me coupled with the uncharacteristically great weather here in Glasgow as well as having my office in the attic and a neighbour who took the opportune moment to mow their garden which meant I had to have the windows shut! I looked on in the zoom window and could see my face get deeper shades of red as we went on but thankfully this didn’t slow me down any.

The practical exercise was a good test of my preparation and although there were a couple of things that I could have done better, I got to a good outcome in the 20 minutes allowing for interaction and Q&A. Taking the time to test positioning of the flip chart, the camera, the post-its etc really paid off as if anything didn’t go to plan here I would have become flustered and would have likely not met the outcome. Also, you are in charge of your own timer so test this too, I used the Apple Watch for this but I had to create my own 20 minute timer as there wasn’t a preset for 20 minutes frustratingly. I managed to finish within the 20 minutes and admittedly the LO I was given was one that I hadn’t prepared a lot for as I thought to myself, “they won’t ask me for this one” but turns out they did.

The TAC were very friendly and pout me at ease and gave me some great, useful feedback after telling me that I had passed. I will begin to put this into practice in time for me being assigned the learning that I am able to provide so I am looking forward to that!

Currently there are 32 CSAT’s in the world and none in Scotland so I feel that little bit special at this moment in time. I have a couple of days holiday to allow me to spend some time with my wife and daughter who I have neglected whilst preparing for this so I am looking forward to some time to chill and plan my next steps.