About The Course

In this two-day course you'll dive deep into the advanced skills you need to be a valuable Scrum Master including coaching, facilitation, and the day-to-day techniques that build strong teams. This goes beyond foundational learning and gives you much more nuanced skills that you’ll come to rely on in real life.

It includes pre-workshop video lessons to complete before the live class. You'll then have two days of live, online lessons and group discussions as well as breakout group exercises and individual exercises. You will be expected to participate in all exercises, as well as be prepared to do research and present your thoughts and findings to the class.

With this course you can

Use advanced facilitation skills to improve communication between the team, product owner, and stakeholders
Overcome resistance and skepticism with practical coaching techniques
Motivate a team so that members actually want to achieve goals together
Stand out from other Scrum Masters and showcase your value as a specialist.

Course Prerequisites

Hold a CSM designation with the Scrum Alliance (your certification does not need to be active at the time you take the A-CSM course)
Demonstrate 12 months of work experience as a Scrum Master within the last five years

See What It's Like to Train Live, Online With Us

Why Train with Mountain Goat Software?

Mountain Goat Software has trained more than 9,000 agile professionals in Live Online certified classes and over 25,000 agile professionals in person certified classes, trained 100s of teams in private training, and issued more than 12,000 licenses for on-demand video training.

We go beyond theory to provide real-world advice. Our trainers share up-to-date guidance about what is and isn’t working, and our video courses include techniques you can apply immediately.

You get the best learning experience. You get access to unique interactive software for all our live, online classes, and all our courses are delivered in succinct lessons that are designed to make the learning stick.

These are the only courses designed by Mike Cohn, co-founder of the Scrum Alliance, and author of Succeeding with Agile, User Stories Applied, and Agile Estimating and Planning.

You can expect the best customer service. Whether you have questions, or need help, our exceptional team is there to support you, and treat you like a member of the Mountain Goat family!

Plus...

This course includes 12 months of access to the Agile Mentors Community.

The Agile Mentors Community is a place for agile practitioners around the world to collaborate in a safe, experiential learning space. In this private community, you will find lively discussions on a variety of agile topics such as agile leadership, user stories and the product backlog, transitioning to agile, and more.

Learn more about Agile Mentors

PDUs, SEUs, & Certification

On completion of the prerecorded videos, live sessions, and proof of a CSM certification and 12 months relevant experience, you will be registered with the Scrum Alliance as an Advanced-Certified ScrumMaster

16 PDUs

This course earns you 16 PDUs within the PMI.

16 SEUs

This course earns you 16 SEUs towards your CSP designation within the Scrum Alliance.

Additionally, if you currently hold a certification with the Scrum Alliance, attending this course will automatically advance your previous certification expiration date to the new certification expiration date.

About the Instructor

Brian Milner

Brian is the Senior Vice President of Training and Coaching with Mountain Goat Software and is a Certified Scrum Trainer.
Starting out as a developer, Brian worked up through management layers, then transitioned to Scrum Master and then Coach. 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.

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.

Who Should Take This Course?

This is an Advanced level course.

This is a core course for the following roles:

ScrumMaster
Coach

This is a recommended course for the following roles:

Course Outline

Agile and Scrum	A deep dive into understanding the development of agile, different agile frameworks, and recognizing violations.
The Scrum Master Role	Know what traits are essential to be a truly great Scrum Master
Facilitation	This key module walks you through many advanced facilitation techniques that you can apply whenever you’re working with a team—from understanding what it means to facilitate and how to guide a team through successful discussions to knowing when not to facilitate. This module alone can help transform the communication of any agile team.
Coaching	You’ll understand the difference between being a consultant and a coach, plus learn how to intervene as a coach, and deal effectively with conflict.
High-Performing Teams	This module shows you how to implement practices that take a team from good to great. This includes how to form an effective team, development practices, how to serve product owners, Story Mapping & Impact Mapping as well as backlog refinement.
Agile Organization	Know how to serve the organization with your team, how to execute root cause analysis, how to scale scrum and understand complex systems.
Scrum Mastery	In this final module, you’ll have a chance to do some private, individual evaluation on how you are currently performing as a Scrum Master, including your strengths and the areas you’d like to continue developing.

Got a Question?

General What payment methods do you accept?

You can register on our site and pay with a Visa, MasterCard or American Express card. For a group of 10 or more, contact Laura Cohn if you wish to be invoiced.

General How do I pay for a course for someone else?

During the checkout process, use your own payment details, your name and your email address to make the purchase. On completion of the purchase, you can then assign the course to your chosen recipient.

General Are your courses only for software developers?

Not necessarily. Each course has attendees from a variety of backgrounds, including from non-software fields. Mike’s passion is product development of all sorts, so many examples are software related, but no software development experience is required.

Live Online What is your refund policy for Live Online courses?

If you cancel or reschedule a Live Online course more than 7 days before the first day of the class you will receive a full refund. If you cancel or reschedule within 7 days of the first day of class, a 50% fee will be charged, and the remaining 50% can be used as a credit toward a class to be taken within 6 months from the date of the canceled class. All cancellation requests must be made via email. Refunds or credits will not be issued for no shows, partial attendance or cancellations within 24 business hours.

We want you to feel confident about enrolling in our live, online courses. If after watching the pre-course videos and participating in the live sessions you don’t find the course valuable, email us within 7 days for a full refund.

Note that this refund policy applies only to Live Online courses.

Live Online Will my certificate say virtual if I take the certification online?

No, your certificate will not mention the course was held virtually. It will look the same as the in person certificates.

Live Online Do you offer Live Online course discounts?

Our certified Live Online classes include volume discounts:

Save $100 per person when you register 10 or more people for a certified course.

Live Online Do I get a Scrum Alliance membership with my course?

All CSM, CSPO, A-CSM, and A-CSPO classes include a 2-year Scrum Alliance membership

Live Online Are there any exam fees to pay?

The only course that includes an exam is the Certified ScrumMaster class. There is no additional fee to pay in order to take the exam. The course registration fee is the full and final price.

Live Online If I have an expired certification, can I still take an advanced class?

Your CSM or CSPO certificate doesn't need to be current to be eligible for the advanced courses. Once you complete your Advanced course, you will need to add 1 year of relevant work experience to your profiles to receive your certification.

If your certificate is expired, there is no cut-off date that requires you to take that certification course again. (You may want to retake it if a lot of time has passed, or if you want to renew it by re-taking the class rather than going through the renewal process of submitting enough SEUs and paying the renewal fee.)

When it comes to taking an advanced class, if your foundational (CSM / CSPO) certification has expired you can still take the course. Assuming you meet the experience requirement on completion of the advanced class, your foundational certification will be renewed, and include new renewal deadlines.

Live Online How do I claim my SEUs and PDUs once my course is completed?

After completing your course, you'll receive an email with instructions for claiming continuing education units from Scrum Alliance and Project Management Institute.