Scrum Master & Product Owner in English

The ICO – International Certification Organization – is the certification authority for personal certification through mITSM in the area of agile project management according to Scrum.

For our Scrum courses, you take the online-exam by the ICO. You can chosse freely when and where you want to take the exam.

For our Scrum trainings, Scrum Foundation, Scrum Master and Scrum Product Owner, you can obtain PDUs (Professional Development Units) for PMP^® and PgMP^® certifications from the Project Management Institute through „Category B: Continuing Education“. You can determine the exact number of PDUs through the CCRS. Verification of participation and training duration, which can be found in your registration confirmation and on our website, are sufficient for this. We also would be happy to provide you with confirmation of the training hours if needed.

No. Even though Scrum has its origins in software engineering, it is now considered a process model for project and product management in general.

Of course. However, we do recommend a maximum number of 12 participants per Scrum training session.

Unfortunately not. Whether or not other equivalent certifications can be recognized as prerequisites is currently being clarified.

Yes, definitely! Although the roots of Scrum lie in software development, Scrum offers many methods that are very useful for other disciplines as well. The Scrum Foundation training addresses this in more detail.

In order to do this, you must complete the two-day Scrum Foundation and two-day Scrum Master trainings with their corresponding exams. You could then also obtain the Scrum Product Owner certificate by completing the one-day Product Owner Add-on, as the general component of the Scrum training and exam is identical for the Master and Product Owner.

In order to do this, you must complete the two-day Scrum Foundation and two-day Scrum Product Owner trainings with their corresponding exams. You could then also obtain the Scrum Master certificate by completing the one-day Master Add-on, as the general component of the Scrum training and exam is identical for the Master and Product Owner.

As a member of a development team, our opinion is that you only need the Scrum Foundation training.
However, you should definitely complete this seminar with an exam, as you may take on other roles in the organization. Subsequently, you can become a Scrum Master or Product Owner within two days – building on the Scrum Foundation certificate – or you can attend a three-day course with a dual certification option.

This question is not so easy to answer.
For consultants, the Scrum Master training is clearly the most relevant. On the other hand, it is much more important for companies that proceed according to Scrum to have good product owners on board. This is because this role is ultimately responsible for generating the maximum added value from the agile approach. In contrast, the success of a Scrum Master can be seen by the fact that this role becomes unnecessary over time.

ITEMO (IT Education Management Organization) has made IT management education its mission. In addition to specialists for niche topics such as Scrum, they also have experts for training and continuing education. Therefore, training and exams are not a „by-product“ at ITEMO, but rather the main focus of the organization and its partners.
Unlike certificates from many other providers, the ICO certificate is valid for life and does not need to be renewed.

Scrum is a project management method that helps teams deliver higher quality products in less time.

Some of the most important reasons are:

• Scrum can be implemented quickly. It is simple, with only three roles and clear specifications.
• There are very many successful reference projects for Scrum.
• Scrum is widely used and there are many providers for courses and practical support.

For most projects, the requirements (customer needs, market requirements, regulations, etc.) change over the course of the project.
Agile methods are specifically designed to deal with these changes and to be transparent about development with the customer.

• More accurate and realistic information about project status, as a testable result becomes available after each (max. 30-day) iteration.
• This also results in higher transparency and the possibility for earlier intervention in case of emerging problems.
• Through close collaboration with and feedback from the customer, a higher value of the final product can be achieved.
• Faster time to market through customer feedback, increased team motivation, and less idle time.

In the beginning – and when the whole team is in the same place – a whiteboard is often sufficient.
With complex or distributed teams, a tool is essential. The tool should be flexible enough to be adapted to the specific requirements of the team/organization.

There are three roles with different responsibilities in Scrum: Product Owner, Developers, and Scrum Master.

There are five recurring processes in Scrum:
Sprint, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Daily Scrum and Sprint Retrospective.

There are three outputs in Scrum: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Product Increment.

Scrum is a framework for developing and sustaining complex tasks that enables users to creatively deliver products with the highest possible value.

Scrum is straightforward to understand and implement yet challenging to master.

Yes. The rules in Scrum define the interactions between events, roles and artifacts. They are outlined in the Scrum Guide.

Those responsible for the result must be able to understand the project.
It is therefore necessary to determine aspects according to a common standard in order to enable those involved to have a mutual understanding of the transparent (comprehensible) procedure.

In Scrum, progress is constantly monitored and reviewed with the goals set for the Sprint. Deviations from the goal can thus be identified early on and adjustments can be made to ensure that progress remains on track. This monitoring, of course, should be carried out in a way that does not interfere with daily work. Therefore, there are high demands and expectations set for the auditors.

During a review, the auditor may identify deviations that are no longer acceptable. In this case, the process or project must be adjusted accordingly.

Yes. In Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Daily Scrum, and Sprint Retrospective, Scrum prescribes formal iterative review, adjustment, and documentation.

The members of the Scrum team are the Product Owner, the Developers, and the Scrum Master.

Interdisciplinary teams contain all the skills necessary to complete their tasks; they are not dependent on any external resources. In self-organized teams, the team makes all decisions regarding how, by whom, and when their goals will be accomplished.

Scrum teams produce regular product increments.

The main responsibility of the product owner is to maximize the product value. However, they are also responsible for the work and results of the developers and manage the product backlog.

• Create clearly formulated entries
• Prioritize, sort, and categorize the product backlog so that tasks and goals can be accomplished effectively and efficiently
• Ensure clarity (transparency) of the product backlog so that upcoming activities can be clearly identified and understood
• Ensure comprehensibility of requirements so that team members have sufficient understanding of the task at hand

The product owner is accountable for it.
This means that they are responsible for making sure that the work is done „correctly“. However, they can delegate the completion of individual tasks to the developers. If the developer they select does not complete the task correctly and/or in time, then the Product Owner is held accountable (is to blame for selection and/or supervision).

The Product Owner must always be an individual person.
They can represent or take into account the wishes of a committee, but the final decision about entries and changes in the Product Backlog is made exclusively by the individual.

The product owner must be respected by all other members of the organization.
For example, requirements may not be issued directly to the developers. The product owner is the only person who is allowed to set requirements for the developers.

Only the developers responsible for the production of the Product Increment at the end of each Sprint are allowed to participate in its creation.

The Scrum Guide dictates that an increment must be potentially releasable.
This does not mean that every product increment will be released, because other requirements might not yet be met. For example, it is possible that another product that is needed might not be ready in time.

The developers must organize and manage the process of completing their tasks themselves.

• The team must be self-organized and able to make all decisions regarding how to create potentially releasable Product Increments from the Product Backlog. Even the Scrum Master has no influence here.
• The team must be interdisciplinary. This means that they must have all the skills necessary to create a product increment (no dependence on outside resources)
• There is no hierarchy among developers
• There is no subdivision according to activities, such as testing, programming, or investigating. For each task that could theoretically be assigned to one of these phases, the best resource available is allocated, depending on the requirements.
• The entire development team shares the responsibility for producing a Product Increment. Even though individual team members may have specific skills, they are not responsible as individuals for individual errors.

It is difficult to give a definitive number.
It is standard for a Scrum team to have more than three developers. In any case, the team must contain all skills necessary to produce the Product Increment. Likewise, it is considered standard that a team should not have more than nine developers, because the coordination process would become too complex. Product owners and Scrum masters are not counted as developers unless they also perform developer tasks.

The Scrum Master is responsible for optimizing collaboration within the organization such that value is maximized. They are not necessarily one of the developers, but rather a „servant leader“.

Servant leadership means that the leader always aligns their leadership with the interests of those they lead.
Frederick the Great laid the foundation for this principle with the sentence: „the ruler is the first servant of the state“. Accordingly, the Servant Leader’s task is to identify the needs of others and fulfill them to the best of their ability.

The Scrum Master must provide the following services to the organization:

• Leading the coaching of organizations in the implementation of Scrum
• Planning the implementation of Scrum in an organization
• Assisting colleagues and stakeholders in understanding Scrum and empirical product development.
• Initiating changes to increase productivity within the team.
• Collaborating with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of Scrum in the organization.

A Scrum event is a formal opportunity for review and adjustment at critical points.
Events provide regularity/structure in Scrum and reduce the need for impromptu meetings. They have a time limit (time box), the duration of which is defined at the start of the Sprint and may not be changed.

The Sprint is the „heart“ of Scrum.
The sprint is a time box of max. one month, in which a potentially releasable product increment is produced. All sprints within a project should be of equal duration. Sprints occur directly one after the other; the next sprint follows immediately after the completion of the previous one. Each Sprint has a defined scope, plan for implementation, work, and result.

A Sprint includes Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, Development, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.

• No changes can be made during a Sprint that could jeopardize the sprint goal
• The quality standard may not be reduced
• If new findings are made, the scope of requirements can be renegotiated between the Product Owners and developers

The clear timeframe for a Sprint provides a greater capacity for predictability when reviewing and making adjustments regarding progress toward the sprint goal. 30-day Sprints also reduce the cost risk to only one month. A larger timeframe would increase risks (cost, complexity, outcome).

Yes, but only by the Product Owner.

While Scrum’s purpose is the ability to react flexibly to changes within projects, Kanban is geared more towards continuously optimizing existing operational processes.

Because Scrum is a project method that is particularly well suited to dealing with rapidly changing requirements.

An analog Scrum board is a physical representation of Sprint tasks (e.g. a whiteboard with post-its), clearly and publicly stating who is responsible for it and its status.

Yes. Otherwise, there might be a decrease in effectiveness and identification in the project.

This is strongly discouraged due to the inherent conflict of interest between these two roles.

Yes, as long as it is ensured that they can continue to perform their role as Scrum Master.

30 calendar days.

The team can ask the Product Owner for new tasks or improve the quality of the product, e.g., by refactoring.

Iterations are called Sprints in SCRUM.

Agile methods are a good option if:

• Your IT project results often fail to meet the customer’s expectations
• Requirements can only be worked out with the customer during the project
• Current methods seem too cumbersome

Agile methods should not be used if:

• there are no problems with your current methods and results.
• uncertainty is generally unacceptable. This is especially true when the consequence of risks occurring is too great – i.e. in hospital systems, space travel, etc.
• there is too much uncertainty, i.e., if not even rough targets have been defined. Then it is important to reduce the uncertainty to a reasonable level, e.g., through piloting.
• there is hardly any uncertainty, i.e. when it is clear what is to be produced.

You almost always need the support of business and IT management.
Good informational material and sound reasoning are critical. Implementing Scrum often starts with a small pilot project that is not very critical for the organization.

You should have someone who can act as a Scrum „evangelist“, i.e. explain the advantages and aspects of agile software development with Scrum clearly and introduce them efficiently in a pilot project.

Yes, certainly. The benefits of Scrum (better collaboration, control, fast results, etc.) can also be achieved in other types of projects. In fact, our Scrum training is specifically designed for organizations that want to conduct a wider range of projects using agile methods – such as implementing ITIL / Service Management.

No, but the role of a Scrum Master is much more operational, dynamic and closer to the team than that of a classic project manager.