5 Best Agile Certifications to Enhance Your Career
Companies now recognize the advantages of implementing Agile into their teams, be it through enhanced adaptability, better transparency, or improved delivery speed. Though Agile principles started in software development, the flexible project management style is now used in other areas of the company, such as IT, operations, marketing, and human resources.
Dabbling into Agile now can make you a better project manager and professional, whether you’re learning the fundamentals of Agile or going right into mastering Scrum.
Although Scrum is an Agile methodology, we mean to say that practitioners tend to not see the many other frameworks in Agile. The comparison of Agile vs Scrum highlights the difference between a “mindset” and a structured approach to project management.
An Agile project management certification acknowledges your grasp of Agile concepts and shows employers that you’ve studied and earned a credential. It can help you advance your project management career, establish yourself as an Agile professional, and implement Agile techniques in your workplace while also empowering cross-functional teams.
Top 5 Agile Certifications To Enhance Your Career
The Agile Certificationslisted below include fundamental ones that encompass all of the Agile ideology, certifications specific to Scrum (the most prevalent Agile technique), and certifications for bringing about business agility.
- PMI ACP
PMI ACP is the top pick among all agile certifications because of its credibility and rigorous examination. It is offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and was recently revised to better reflect the industry’s best practices. PMI ACP goes beyond the traditional Scrum framework, branching out to other Agile methodologies like XP and Lean.
The new revision of the PMI ACP syllabus condensed its old domains into more practical 4 domains. It followed suit to the popular PMP which also caters to a more tailored approach rather than a prescriptive one. Besides the curriculum, you should keep in mind the prerequisites of the PMI ACP certification. You need around 2-3 years of experience to qualify for the exam along with 28 hours of training.
- DASM Certification
Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) is the course for you if you want to break away from frameworks and develop the optimal way of working (WoW) for you and your team. With the Disciplined Agile toolbox, you can develop ways to improve your procedures and drive greater team results.
This course will provide you with all the knowledge, techniques, and methods you need to start utilizing Disciplined Agile right away, including live, interactive sessions, activities, animations, supplemental reading, and more. In just two days, you’ll learn about the basic agile and lean methods that DA supports, practice problem-solving with the toolset, and discover how to establish high-performance teams.
- DASSM Certification
Disciplined Agile pulls together multiple activities such as solution delivery, enterprise architecture, portfolio management, security, finance, and vendor management to produce the best business outcomes, laying a solid basis for business agility. Organizations with high agility report more projects reaching original goals and business intent than organizations with low agility using the same methodologies (Source: PMI’s Pulse of the Profession 2018).
As a result, there is an unprecedented need for educated Disciplined Agilest and experts with Scrum Master credentials. Top companies around the world are hiring Scrum Masters, including Google, Amazon, Walt Disney, LinkedIn, Polaris Laboratories, Roche, BBC, ExxonMobil, Verizon, Walmart, Dow Jones, and Tesla, with
job listings up 67 percent year over year. These well-known corporations throughout the world have implemented the Disciplined Agile methodology to improve business agility and become truly flexible organizations by reducing time-to-market, increasing quality, and improving employee morale.
Get the PMI® Alliance Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) Certification to improve your Scrum Master skills and take advantage of the rising demand across sectors.
- Certified Agile Project Manager
The International Association of Project Managers (IAPM) provides this certification. This IAPM certification is a part of a series of agile PM certifications and comes at level 2 of the three. This certification covers agile methodologies you can use to direct projects and create results. It is best for beginners because there’s no particular eligibility criteria for it. However, if you have a little bit of Agile or project management experience, it can always come in handy.
This exam is based on the Agile PM Guide 2. It tests you on major Agile approaches such as Scrum, Kanban, and XP.
The Certified Agile Project Manager certification test requires you to answer 120 questions in 80 minutes. The passing score is set at 65 percent; you need to score at least this much to earn the credential.
- SAFe Agilist
The SAFe Agilist certification is an enterprise agile credential provided by the Scaled Agile framework. It mainly focuses on Scrum for IT environments. This certification is for professionals who want to contribute to scale enterprise Agile framework development.
To qualify for the certification, you must attend a 21-hour program led by an Agile-certified training partner. The exam fees for the SAFe Agilist certification come to around $714 but it differs as per training providers. The said exam is 90 minutes long, and requires you to solve 45 questions. You need to score a minimum of 75% in the test to become a Certified Safe Agilist.
Conclusion:
Agile certifications won’t magically transform you into a project management pro, but they will equip you to contribute better and polish up better. Whether it’s Scrum, scaling, or the full Agile toolbox, each certification adds a little extra sparkle to your skill set—and who doesn’t love a good plot twist in their career?