Too many folks – and I was guilty of this initially – take the [insert agile certification course here], pass the exam, and then wonder why they can’t land a job with their shiny, new [expensive!] badge. 

Agile Certifications Don’t Matter –

– unless you apply them! 

Even better if you can analyze, evaluate, or create something out of your training/certification course. 

While business employers might not be as familiar with Bloom’s Taxonomy, they are looking for folks who can operate in the top half of that triangle. They’re looking for folks who can join teams, assess the situation, and then provide an appropriate course of action. While they might not use the exact same language, hiring managers are looking for knowledge workers that can leverage all parts of Bloom’s Taxonomy, especially higher order thinking skills, to bring out the best of the brilliant creators they paid top dollar for on their teams. Being able to repeat the definition of agile terms or calculate sprint velocity isn’t enough to get hired or succeed in a professional agile role. 

Don't get me wrong – certifications are valuable starting points to learning. Everyone needs to start somewhere, but certifications aren’t the end goal. 

You’re probably wondering “Well, how am I supposed to get the experience and opportunity to apply my newfound agile knowledge if I can’t get hired in an entry level role?”

I know this is an especially hard pill to swallow if you’re really unhappy in your current role – but – your current place of employment is one tremendously valuable avenue on which to gain agile experience. It’s also a great way to live through an authentic, hard test for agile; if an agile transformation can positively impact your current organization, imagine the impact it could have on others!  

Consider the following four questions and your answers as preparation for scoring an entry-level agile role.

1. Scrum, one of many agile frameworks, offers to “Transform the World of Work®” (Scrum Alliance). Although it may sound and feel too grandiose starting out, who's to say that you can’t be a part of that process – how can you transform your world of work?

2. How can you lead agile where you are?

3. How might you experiment with increasing the agility of your current team – or even just yourself – how can you exemplify an agile mindset?

4. How can you influence others to join you on the journey of agile transformation?

With each certification course, I added more tools to my toolbox for better supporting a variety of teams and growing them to high performance. After each certification, I went on to apply what I learned in the role I had at the time. Today, I continue to synthesize [another higher order thinking skill!] what I learned in each certification with my experiences to create, modify, and share agile practices that work well on my teams. 

If you’re a teacher and wondering how to apply your agile certification(s), here are a few ideas that I implemented in the beginning of my agile journey. Even if you’re not a teacher, think about how you might do something similar in your particular context. 

1. Using personal kanban to visualize all of my own work – personal and professional; I started with a notebook and small sticky notes and evolved to Trello for ease.

2. Sharing how personal kanban improved my focus and well being with colleagues and friends

3. Applying timeboxes for time management in the classroom, as well as expanding my usage of kanban to better manage my daily objectives and agenda in each class

4. Playing agile games with students, demonstrating the value of agile practices. I still have bags of multicolored dice I bought for this purpose :D The games I played with students are the exact same games I learned in my Certified Scrum Master (CSM) course.

5. Retrofitting existing reflective practices with an agile lens. As high quality educators, we already do exit passes, regular course surveys, and build in moments of reflection. I took some time to change the names (sprint reviews and retrospectives) and most crucially, explain the “why” behind each particular cadence and ceremony for reflection – both how it’s done in the business world [good career preparation] and how we’re adjusting it for our purposes. Over the course of four years, I ended up fully transforming my classroom into an agile operation– project-based learning complete with all scrum values, ceremonies, artifacts, and roles. [and yes, I did this at public schools with run of the mill, end of course standardized testing in place! It can be done!]

6. Coaching and training colleagues through department meetings, workshops, and conferences; this takes a little more buy-in and convincing department and school administrators, but if you’re applying agile processes in your classroom with success, most school leaders will want to know more and will likely want you to share with colleagues. Rising tide floats all boats!

7. Regularly reflecting on your agile transformation and sharing out with the agile in education community through blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Meetup groups. There are lots of active, receptive educators and agilists in each of those spaces, from my experience. Sharing and conversing with these groups will make you a better educator and agilist. Chances are, you’ll also meet business folks that will help you understand agile in those spaces. Collectively, we stand to gain lots of insights from each others’ perspectives. From this, we can grow our understanding of agility and how to continuously improve in our respective workplaces, but perhaps also the world of agile generally. 

Here I am in the carousel of images below doing #2, 6, and 7: sharing my learning and agile practices with ScrumRVA- a local scrum user group/Meetup, CodeRVA Regional High School with my colleagues at the time, and Henrico County Public School’s TeacherFest. [all pre-pandemic obviously. I have been engaging and facilitating quite a bit over Zoom, but the screenshots admittedly aren’t as cool.]

In the Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Leader (CAL K-12 Educator) course I took this past February, a quote from Krissyn Sumare, one of the trainers and someone I consider a real leader in both agile and education, resonated with me.

Krissyn said, in reference to educational agility, 

“Don’t talk about it. Be about it!”

So when you’re thinking about which agile certification to earn next or how you might better make use of the last one, make that quote your motto. 

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In case you’re curious, here are the agile certifications I have earned so far. Feel free to reach out if you want to discuss pros/cons and value added from each. 

• Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Scrum Alliance

• Certified Agile Leader - Organizations (CAL-O), Scrum Alliance

• Certified Agile Leader - K-12 (CAL K-12), Scrum Alliance

• SAFe Scrum Master (SSM), Scaled Agile, Inc.

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An oldie but goodie, if you need some inspiration on the notion of transforming the world of work with scrum. “Transforming the World of Work Through Leadership Development” by Peter Green (2017)