Certified Scrum Trainer® Mentorship

I commend you. I remember when my journey began for that quest and how I thought I was ready to pursue it. In fact, based on my relationships, experience, and training...I was really ready.

Then 2 years later I achieved the certification. My point? Even if you think you are ready, you likely might not be ready. I was enlightened to a psychological / philosophical idea of cognitive bias called the Dunning–Kruger effect. The idea is that the more you know, the more you now you don't know. And...I was guilty.

I am grateful to all the other CST®'s that helped me on my journey. At the time, I must admit; I was truly frustrated by the process and the TAC (Trainer Approval Committee). There appeared to be a shifting sand approach to how to demonstrate my readiness to this group. Many people are frustrated with the process and rightfully so...but it did make me better.

As I reflect and retrospect, that process turned me into a much better trainer by making me more humble, seeking relationships, learning, and being exposed to true mentoring. My point here is that no matter how great you think you are, how ready you think you are; listen to your mentors and submit to the process of achieving your certification.

The Scrum Alliance is putting a ton of trust in the CST® community, so rightfully they want an equally judicial process of peer review to ensure we put the best in the market. At any given time, there are only about 200 of us in the world. Are you ready?

• Certified Scrum Professional®
• Public speaking and facilitation experience (this journey should not be your first step to get experience speaking and facilitating workshops)
• Preliminary construction of your training materials (can be a work in process)
• Training materials should follow the learning objectives set forth by the Scrum Alliance
• Significant community involvement in agile/Scrum community (demonstrate this in your second step)
• Create a GitHub or DropBox like repository for all the documentation so we can collaborate easily.

Tell me in your words what agile is, what Scrum is, and write me a user story with acceptance criteria outlining your plan.

Example:

As a ______, I want to become a Certified Scrum Trainer® so that __________.

Acceptance Criteria:

Tell me your plan as it relates to the current outlined CST journey

Tell me why you are qualified to begin this journey and what you have done to get to this point. Outline your speaking/facilitation journey.

Provide your own training materials that you have actually used (doesn't necessarily have to be a 2 day class) and provide the mapping of your training materials to the learning objectives of the Scrum Alliance.

What do you want me from and why? (i.e. why me?)

It is expected that you will drive the efforts( i.e. look at the CST’s schedule, find classes in the CST's schedule, and ask the CST about each class)

You will agree to brand your materials with my company's branding and not your own if teaching a course for a provider. You retain your IP / copyright to the materials but your materials in class may not include your own branding.

• Candidate understands that co-training does not automatically result in a recommendation letter
• Co-training is a mentoring relationship. It goes well beyond just pairing on the delivery of courses (aka "Co-training"). There is a deeper time commitment than just the 2-5 sessions required. The baseline is 3 sessions.
• The 3 session baseline follows the medical school model of "SEE one, DO one, TEACH one" which most CSTs advocate

• I am only mentoring a few candidates at a time. I have a backlog of others who are interested. If you’d like, I can add you to the list. However, no guarantees of how long it will take to get to you accepted.

• Part of our mentoring Working Agreements will include your permission to list you publicly as someone with whom I am currently working. This will help with transparencyfor both of us and for the community at large.

• The CST reserves the right to not mentor / co-train with anyone; whether it's because the mentoring is not going well or because they are simply overwhelmed or need a break, etc. This is a voluntary service that the CST is providing to the community and not an obligation.

Current Candidates

• None

Completed Candidates

• Brian Milner
• Raj Kasturi
• Stuart Young
• Ben Floyd