Certified ScrumMaster®
Don’t Just Get Certified. Learn to Be an Effective Scrum Master.
Scrum certification is easy to get.
Helping teams actually improve is not.
Mountain Goat Software’s Certified ScrumMaster® course is designed for people who want to understand Scrum deeply and apply it effectively—in real teams, facing real constraints, inside real organizations.
If you’re looking for more than a credential, you’re in the right place.
Chosen by Scrum Masters in SaaS, Healthcare, Government, Consulting, Financial Services, Retail, Energy, Aerospace and more.
Taught by People Who Helped Shape Scrum
Mountain Goat Software was co-founded by Mike Cohn, a co-founder of both the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance, and author of some of the most influential books in Agile software development, including User Stories Applied, Agile Estimating & Planning, and Succeeding with Agile.
For more than 25 years, Mountain Goat Software has helped teams and organizations adopt Scrum in ways that actually work—across industries, team types, and organizational cultures.
When you train with Mountain Goat, you’re learning from people who have:
- Helped define modern Agile practice
- Guided thousands of teams
- Seen what works, and what doesn’t, over decades
What This Certified ScrumMaster Course Focuses On
We focus on helping you use Scrum effectively, especially when things aren’t ideal.
You’ll see how to:
- Facilitate Scrum events that lead to meaningful outcomes
- Help teams move toward real self-management
- What to do when Scrum feels mechanical or ineffective
- Tackle resistance, conflict, or disengagement
- Apply Scrum principles in imperfect environments
How We Approach Teaching Scrum (and Why)
We PrioritizeEffectiveness Over Speed
Some courses rush through the learning material. With us, you have time to ask questions and practice applying ideas.
We EmphasizeReal-World Application
We focus on helping you apply Scrum in situations that don’t fit neatly into a textbook example.
We ValueInteraction Over Lecture
While some instruction is necessary, most learning happens through discussion and guided practice.
We TeachPrinciples, Not Just Rules
Understanding why Scrum works leads to better decisions than memorizing mechanics alone.
A Unique, Interactive Learning Experience
Team Home is a collaboration platform that we designed for our courses. It is optimized for live, online training. Participants benefit by collaborating in ways beyond what is possible with generic whiteboard software such as Mural or Miro. Instructors can observe activity across all rooms, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of exercise debriefs.
Tools and Resources You’ll Continue Using
Your registration includes access to tools that support your work beyond the class:
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MGS AI Toolkit for coaching, story-splitting and backlog items
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Planning Poker® for collaborative estimation
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Elements of Agile™ assessment to help teams identify improvement opportunities
What You'll Be Able to Do
Facilitate Sprint Planning, Reviews, Retrospectives, and Daily Scrums more effectively
Help teams move toward genuine self-management
Identify and address impediments at the team and organizational levels
Support better collaboration between Product Owners, Developers, and stakeholders
Apply Scrum pragmatically in complex, real-world situations
Your Mountain Goat Instructors
Mountain Goat has handpicked instructors that share our training values. These are people with deep experience, who are leading teams with agile today and can give you real-world answers about what does and doesn’t work.
Brian Milner
Starting out as a developer, Brian worked up through management layers, then transitioned to Scrum Master, then Coach and now Certified Scrum Trainer. His practical experience in both waterfall and agile organizations helps him clarify what works and what doesn’t, plus he has many years’ experience helping teams transition to agile.
Read more...Brian also brings more than 20 years of software development experience to his classes. People remark on his ability to answer even tough questions with ease, enthusiasm, and insight.
Scrum Certifications include: CSM, CST, CSPO, CAL-Educator, CAL-1, A-CSM, A-CSPO, CSP-CM, CSP-PO, Path to CSP Educator, Scrum Foundations Educator.
Lance Dacy
As a Certified Scrum Trainer, Lance has trained and coached teams through many successful Scrum implementations since 2011, from Fortune 20 companies to small start-ups. Lance is also experienced in showing agile coaches and managers how to help cross functional, self-organizing teams deliver high value for customers as early as possible by using Scrum.
Read more...Lance is a true evangelist for Scrum, having founded the successful DFW Scrum User Group in Dallas as an outlet for professional networking and a community sounding-board for Scrum. He has a fun and generous personality, and shares his passion for Scrum in every course.
Scrum Certifications include: CSM, CST, CSPO, CAL-1, A-CSM, A-CSPO, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, Path to CSP Educator, Scrum Foundations Educator.
Ready to Learn Scrum More Deeply?
Join thousands of Scrum Masters, agile practitioners, and leaders who have learned Scrum with Mountain Goat Software—and applied it successfully in the real world.
Course Includes:
Certification Credits
Need a Flexible Training Option?
Pre-pay for 10+ passes and you can assign seats directly to team members, or let them self-select the courses that suit their training needs and schedule.
Learn about our Flex and Select Passes »
Course Outline
Scrum Overview
- Agile
- Scrum
Sprinting
- Timeboxes
- No Changes Allowed
- Reciprocal Commitments
- Defining Done
- Sprint Types
- Introducing Change into a Sprint
Developers
- Rights & Responsibilities
- Self-Organizing
- Cross-Functional
- Collaborating
- Component and Feature Teams
The Product Owner
- What is a Product Owner?
- Rights & Responsibilities
- Managing Stakeholders
The Scrum Master
- The Scrum Master
- Rights & Responsibilities
- Four Facilitation Techniques
- Coaching, Mentoring, Teaching & Facilitating
- The Scrum Master in Dual Roles
- Servant Leadership
Managers
- Project Managers
- Functional (Department) Managers
Product Backlog
- Responsibilities & Attributes
- User & Job Stories
- Two Ways of Adding Detail
- Progressive Refinement
- Organizing the Backlog
- Story Splitting
Estimating
- Relative Estimating
- Story Points
- Ideal Time
- Affinity Estimation
- Three Ways to Estimate Velocity
Planning
- Fixed-Date Plans
- Fixed-Scope Plans
- Creating the Plan
- Technical Debt
Sprint Planning
- Meeting Responsibilities
- The Sprint Goal
- The Purpose
- Capacity-Driven Sprint Planning
- Velocity-Driven Sprint Planning
- Decomposing Stories into Tasks
- Working Out of Order
- What To Do When the Product Owner Is Missing
Other Scrum Meetings
- Daily Scrum
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
- Product Backlog Refinement
Scaling Scrum
- Scaling Guidelines
- Scaling the Planning Meeting
- Scrum of Scrums
- Communities of Practice
Got a Question?
What happens when you contact us?
- We’ll get back to you within a day.
- Answer your training questions and discuss any custom needs.
- Recommend the best agile training path for your teams and goals.
- Want to talk to someone? Schedule a call.