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CSM
The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) course teaches the Scrum framework’s theory, roles, events, artifacts, and the ScrumMaster’s coaching techniques, enabling learners to apply Scrum principles effectively in real-world projects.
60
Minutes
50
Questions
37/50/50
Passing Score
Who Should Take This
It is ideal for emerging or current Scrum team members such as developers, product owners, and project managers who seek a solid foundation in Scrum. These professionals aim to validate their knowledge, enhance collaboration, and prepare for leadership roles that drive continuous improvement within Agile environments.
What's Covered
1
Domain 1: Scrum Theory and Empiricism
2
Domain 2: Scrum Team Accountabilities
3
Domain 3: Scrum Events
4
Domain 4: Scrum Artifacts and Commitments
5
Domain 5: ScrumMaster as Coach and Facilitator
6
Domain 6: Estimation, Planning, and Monitoring
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats
Course Outline
67 learning goals
1
Domain 1: Scrum Theory and Empiricism
3 topics
Empirical process control foundations
- Identify the three pillars of empirical process control — transparency, inspection, and adaptation — and describe how each pillar supports iterative product development within Scrum.
- Describe the relationship between complexity theory and the Scrum framework, explaining why empiricism is preferred over predictive planning for complex product development work.
- Apply the concept of transparency to evaluate whether a Scrum team's artifacts, processes, and communication practices provide sufficient visibility to stakeholders and team members.
- Apply inspection and adaptation cycles to identify when a Scrum team should adjust its approach based on emerging information during Sprint execution.
Scrum values and mindset
- Identify the five Scrum values — commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage — and describe how each value contributes to effective team collaboration and trust.
- Apply the five Scrum values to evaluate team behaviors and determine corrective actions when team interactions undermine trust, transparency, or collaboration.
- Analyze scenarios where Scrum values conflict with organizational culture and determine appropriate ScrumMaster responses to foster value alignment.
Agile Manifesto and principles
- Identify the four values of the Agile Manifesto and describe the intent behind each value statement including individuals over processes, working software over documentation, collaboration over negotiation, and responding to change.
- Describe the twelve principles behind the Agile Manifesto including early and continuous delivery, welcoming changing requirements, frequent delivery of working software, and sustainable development pace.
- Apply Agile Manifesto values and principles to evaluate project decisions and determine when to prioritize responsiveness to change over adherence to a predetermined plan.
- Analyze the differences between iterative development, incremental development, and waterfall approaches to explain why Scrum combines both iterative and incremental delivery.
2
Domain 2: Scrum Team Accountabilities
4 topics
ScrumMaster accountability
- Describe the ScrumMaster accountability as a servant-leader responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum, helping the team improve practices, and removing impediments to progress.
- Apply servant leadership principles to facilitate team self-management rather than directing the team, coaching Developers and Product Owner to fulfill their own accountabilities.
- Apply impediment removal techniques by identifying organizational, technical, and interpersonal blockers and determining appropriate escalation paths and resolution strategies.
- Analyze the boundary between the ScrumMaster's coaching responsibility and the team's self-management authority to determine when to intervene and when to let the team resolve issues independently.
Product Owner accountability
- Describe the Product Owner accountability including maximizing product value, managing the Product Backlog, and ensuring stakeholder communication while being one person rather than a committee.
- Apply techniques for supporting the Product Owner in effective Product Backlog management including ordering, refinement, and ensuring transparency of backlog items.
- Analyze scenarios where the Product Owner is not empowered by the organization and determine ScrumMaster strategies to help the organization understand and support the Product Owner accountability.
Developers accountability
- Describe the Developers accountability as the team members committed to creating a usable Increment each Sprint, including self-management of daily work and adherence to the Definition of Done.
- Apply cross-functionality principles to evaluate whether a Scrum team possesses all skills needed to create value each Sprint without depending on external teams or individuals.
- Analyze team composition scenarios to determine optimal Scrum team size and skill distribution, explaining the tradeoffs between team size and communication overhead.
Self-managing teams
- Describe self-management in Scrum teams including the team's authority to decide who does what work, how work is performed, and how the team internally structures its activities.
- Apply working agreement creation techniques to help a Scrum team establish shared norms for collaboration, communication, and decision-making that support self-management.
- Analyze situations where management or external stakeholders undermine team self-management and determine ScrumMaster strategies for educating the organization about Scrum team autonomy.
3
Domain 3: Scrum Events
5 topics
The Sprint
- Describe the Sprint as a fixed-length container event of one month or less during which a usable Increment is created, and explain why Sprint length should remain consistent.
- Apply Sprint cancellation criteria to determine when a Sprint Goal becomes obsolete and explain the circumstances under which only the Product Owner has authority to cancel a Sprint.
- Analyze the impact of varying Sprint lengths on team predictability, stakeholder feedback frequency, and risk reduction to recommend an appropriate Sprint duration.
Sprint Planning
- Describe the purpose and structure of Sprint Planning including the three topics addressed: why the Sprint is valuable, what can be done, and how the chosen work will get done.
- Apply Sprint Goal crafting techniques to help the team define a coherent objective that provides flexibility in the work selected while giving the Sprint a clear purpose and direction.
- Apply capacity-based forecasting during Sprint Planning to help Developers select an appropriate amount of work based on past performance, availability, and Definition of Done complexity.
- Analyze Sprint Planning anti-patterns including scope overcommitment, absent Product Owner, and vague Sprint Goals to recommend corrective facilitation approaches.
Daily Scrum
- Describe the Daily Scrum as a 15-minute timebox for Developers to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog plan for the next day of work.
- Apply facilitation techniques to keep the Daily Scrum focused on Sprint Goal progress and plan adaptation rather than status reporting to the ScrumMaster or management.
- Analyze Daily Scrum dysfunction patterns including disengagement, status-reporting-only meetings, and excessive duration to determine root causes and improvement strategies.
Sprint Review
- Describe the Sprint Review as a collaborative working session where the Scrum team presents the Increment to stakeholders and together they inspect what was accomplished and adapt the Product Backlog.
- Apply stakeholder engagement techniques during Sprint Review to elicit meaningful feedback, manage expectations, and facilitate collaborative discussion about product direction.
- Analyze the difference between a Sprint Review and a demonstration or sign-off meeting to explain why the Review is an inspection and adaptation opportunity rather than a gate approval.
Sprint Retrospective
- Describe the Sprint Retrospective as the event where the Scrum team inspects how the last Sprint went regarding individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and Definition of Done.
- Apply retrospective facilitation techniques to create a safe environment where team members openly share observations and collaboratively identify the most impactful improvements.
- Apply improvement item prioritization to help the team select actionable improvements for the next Sprint rather than attempting to address all identified issues simultaneously.
- Analyze retrospective anti-patterns including blame culture, repetitive formats, and lack of follow-through on action items to determine strategies for maintaining continuous improvement momentum.
4
Domain 4: Scrum Artifacts and Commitments
3 topics
Product Backlog and Product Goal
- Describe the Product Backlog as an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product, serving as the single source of work for the Scrum team.
- Describe the Product Goal as the commitment for the Product Backlog that describes a future state of the product and serves as a long-term objective for the Scrum team to plan against.
- Apply backlog refinement practices to help the Product Owner break down and clarify Product Backlog items so they are appropriately sized and understood before Sprint Planning.
- Analyze Product Backlog health indicators including item granularity distribution, ordering transparency, and staleness to identify backlog management improvements.
Sprint Backlog and Sprint Goal
- Describe the Sprint Backlog as the set of Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint plus the plan for delivering the Increment and realizing the Sprint Goal.
- Describe the Sprint Goal as the commitment for the Sprint Backlog that gives the Developers flexibility regarding the exact work needed while providing a single objective for the Sprint.
- Apply Sprint Backlog visibility techniques to ensure the team and stakeholders can inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal at any time during the Sprint.
Increment and Definition of Done
- Describe the Increment as a concrete stepping stone toward the Product Goal, where each Increment is additive to all prior Increments and must be usable and meet the Definition of Done.
- Describe the Definition of Done as the shared formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets quality measures required for the product, creating transparency and shared understanding.
- Apply Definition of Done creation and evolution practices to help the team establish quality standards that are appropriately rigorous while remaining achievable within a Sprint.
- Analyze the consequences of undone work and technical debt accumulation when the team does not adhere to the Definition of Done, and determine ScrumMaster strategies for reinforcing quality standards.
5
Domain 5: ScrumMaster as Coach and Facilitator
3 topics
Coaching the Scrum team
- Apply coaching stances to help team members discover solutions to their own challenges rather than providing direct answers, fostering learning and self-management capability.
- Apply powerful questioning techniques to guide team members toward deeper understanding of impediments, process inefficiencies, and collaboration opportunities.
- Analyze the maturity level of a Scrum team to determine the appropriate coaching stance ranging from teaching and mentoring for new teams to facilitation and coaching for experienced teams.
Facilitation fundamentals
- Apply basic facilitation skills to structure Scrum events with clear purpose, timeboxes, and outcomes while encouraging balanced participation from all team members.
- Apply conflict resolution techniques to address disagreements within the Scrum team constructively, distinguishing between healthy debate and destructive conflict.
- Analyze group dynamics during Scrum events to identify dominant voices, silent members, and groupthink patterns, and determine facilitation interventions to improve team collaboration.
Serving the organization
- Describe the ScrumMaster's service to the organization including leading and coaching Scrum adoption, planning and advising on Scrum implementations, and helping stakeholders understand empirical product development.
- Apply education techniques to help stakeholders and managers understand Scrum roles, events, and artifacts so they can interact effectively with the Scrum team.
- Analyze organizational impediments that span beyond the Scrum team's control including policies, processes, and structures that hinder agile adoption, and determine escalation and influence strategies.
6
Domain 6: Estimation, Planning, and Monitoring
2 topics
Estimation techniques
- Describe relative estimation techniques including story points, T-shirt sizing, and Planning Poker, explaining why relative estimation is preferred over absolute time-based estimation in Scrum.
- Apply user story writing practices using the INVEST criteria to help teams create well-formed backlog items that are independently estimable and testable.
- Analyze the accuracy and reliability of team estimation over multiple Sprints using velocity data to identify estimation maturity and forecast improvement opportunities.
Progress monitoring and forecasting
- Describe common Scrum monitoring tools including burndown charts, burnup charts, and cumulative flow diagrams, explaining what each tool reveals about Sprint and release progress.
- Apply velocity-based forecasting to help stakeholders understand likely release dates and scope delivery ranges while communicating the inherent uncertainty in predictions.
- Analyze Sprint metrics trends including velocity variance, scope change frequency, and carry-over rates to identify systemic process issues requiring team attention.
Scope
Included Topics
- All topics in the Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) learning objectives aligned to the Scrum Guide (2020 edition): Scrum theory and empiricism, Scrum values, Scrum team accountabilities, Scrum events, and Scrum artifacts with commitments.
- Foundational knowledge of the Scrum framework including the three pillars of empirical process control (transparency, inspection, adaptation), the five Scrum values (commitment, focus, openness, respect, courage), and the distinctions between iterative and incremental development.
- Scrum team accountabilities including ScrumMaster, Product Owner, and Developers; team self-management; cross-functional collaboration; and the ScrumMaster's responsibilities as servant-leader, coach, facilitator, and impediment remover.
- Scrum events including Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, and the Sprint itself; their purposes, timeboxes, participants, and expected outcomes.
- Scrum artifacts including Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment; their associated commitments (Product Goal, Sprint Goal, Definition of Done); and backlog refinement practices.
- Agile Manifesto values and principles as foundational context for Scrum adoption and practice.
Not Covered
- Advanced facilitation techniques, organizational change management, and coaching methodologies covered by A-CSM and CSP-SM certifications.
- Scaling frameworks such as SAFe, LeSS, Nexus, and Scrum@Scale beyond basic awareness.
- Technical engineering practices including Test-Driven Development, Continuous Integration, and refactoring covered by the CSD track.
- Product management strategy, product vision creation, and advanced backlog prioritization techniques covered by the CSPO track.
- Specific tooling configurations for Jira, Azure DevOps, Rally, or other agile project management platforms.
Official Exam Page
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