I’ll start my post by butting the bottom line up-front: the vast majority of certifications related to Agile software development are useless and, as a general trend, might be harmful.
Before explaining my point, I should admit, that I uphold 20+ different certificates in this field. You can read more about those on a separate page. Therefore, it is not a case that I’m taking completely not knowing what I’m talking about … So now let me explain my point.
As I see it, a lot of organizations that look to introduce new management approaches often look for help with it. For that matter, they may be looking to hire a person inside. Considering an organization does not have this expertise, they may some external help to select such a person. And yes, in theory, certifications could solve that. ONLY when they prove (with high probability) that the upholder of the certificate has needed (listed) skills. The main challenge with certifications is that they do not do it.
Here are a few main issues with most certifications:
- issued after a quick introductory class (1-2, up to 5 days in the majority of cases). Even when it is done with an exam afterward – there is no way it could prove any new skill or ability of the person. What that certification means in reality – the fact that the person attended a 2-day (or whatever) class. That’s it.
- most of the exams (that I’ve seen) are structured in a way that exam questions are useless. It checks what the thing is about, so your knowledge of the subject instead of your ability to apply that knowledge. I can illustrate this: I could be very well aware of what Scrum is, however, not be able to apply it in a helpful way.
- the fact that it is easy or hard to pass an exam has nothing to do with the usefulness of certification because questions in the first place were not helpful/indicative, then the fact that you need to make the right answer for a high percentage of those won’t help. Quick example, I’ve passed PSM1 (Professional Scrum Master) from Scrum.org with a 100% result (with a passing rate of 85%). While the passing rate is reasonable, the exam itself is not really indicative of whether one could be a Scrum Master or not…
All this madness in Agile “education” is fostered by demand on certification (rather than quality education). Basically, what would stop it – not requiring this useless certification in job descriptions. It is not helping anyway anyhow, as I’ve explained above. Now, if it is not required for a lot of jobs – people would stop getting there for the sake of certification. It would fix the snowball of madness and increase the quality of education.
With that said, does it mean that having a certification is bad..? Should you discount such applicants..? Of course, not! A lot of such classes are useful and helpful. Some are even transformative – it could change your working life forever (that is close to what happened to me many years back). A certificate could show that the person is potentially interested in new stuff and learning new things… Which is, obviously, a good thing. It just cannot prove you are qualified for a role…
Therefore, I would agree with this quite popular cartoon (credit goes to @agile_memes):
With all that’s said, I should admit there are few worthwhile certifications, that could actually prove something. A bit of the challenge is that all of them are not entry-level or even middle-level. All of them are guide-level certifications showing real leadership/expertise. Few examples, I should mention:
- Flight Level Coach (FLC) and Flight Level Guide (FLG) from Flight Levels Academy;
- Accredited Kanban Consultant (AKC) from Kanban University;
- Certified Enterprise Coach (CEC) from Scrum Alliance;
- LeSS Trainer;
- expert levels for all tracks in the ICAgile umbrella of education. For example, ICAgile Certified Expert in Agile Coaching (ICE-AC).
All of the above would mean that a person has skills and experience related to certification (depending on certification) with a very high probability.
However, mentioning those in job descriptions doesn’t make sense… There are very few upholders of certificates above (hundreds of people). Those lists are public – so one could easily contact holders instead of requiring such a certificate.
So, please, check your company’s job descriptions and remove all mentioned entry-level Agile certifications. That would make the world a little better place…
Now, while most certificates are worthless, certification classes could be actually useful and important when choosing a class to visit. I’ve decided to explain that in a separate article.