Skill-Based PSM
The Professional Scrum Master™ (PSM) Class With Competency-Based Extensions
An Immersive Professional Scrum Experience
What Is Skill-Based PSM?
Skill-Based PSM is my way of delivering the Professional Scrum Master™ (PSM) class, including many extensions.
Skill-Based PSM is designed from the ground up as an immersive Professional Scrum experience.
It aims to be as representative as possible of Professional Scrum, and as practical as possible, while staying in line with the vision of the Professional Scrum Master™ class. This is the Professional Scrum Master™ class, supercharged with practice.
Skill-Based PSM is a superb first class to take, to get you started as a beginning Scrum Master.
This training is not lecture-based. It is 100% experiential, practical, and student-centric from beginning to end.
You learn as part of a small group of max. 6 students, for a lot of individual attention and a highly customized experience.
For additional information on the Professional Scrum Master™ (PSM) class, please see the full datasheet.
What You Will Learn
Skill-Based PSM covers all course objectives, mandatory activities, memorable teaching moments, experience highlights, look-and-feel identity elements, and extras of the Professional Scrum Master™ (PSM) class.
In addition, you also get:
A zero-lecturing, 100% experiential and practical training
A student-centric experience that you will own and run collaboratively using Professional Scrum
Useful tools and skills for introducing Professional Scrum into a team or organization
Nine (mini) Sprints of experience (75 minutes each) in using Professional Scrum
One or more Sprints of experience working as the Scrum Master
Opportunities to reflect on your skills and ongoing professional development as a Scrum Master
Development of foundational Professional Scrum Master competencies
Skill-Based Practice
You will learn and practice a range of foundational Scrum-Master competencies that will be useful later when working on the job.
These base on teaching, training, coaching, mentoring, revealing, facilitating, and taking free-form action.
For successful job performance, it is not enough to know or understand. You will have to do, and do so successfully.
Through live interaction with your peers, you will have the opportunity to:
Teach the purpose of Scrum
Teach the benefits of Scrum
Teach the purpose of the Scrum elements
Teach the prerequisites for success of Scrum
Support creating the Product Goal
Support creating Product Backlog items
Support forecasting
Support Product Backlog refinement
Support stakeholder collaboration
Support setting up the Scrum Team
Support self-management
Support creating the Definition of Done
Support the Scrum Events
Learn Scrum Using Scrum
A key challenge shared by many PSM students, is that they have never even been near a Professional Scrum Team. Many foundational Scrum-Master classes do nothing to address this. As a beginning Scrum Master, you can make it through many a class without attending even a single Sprint Planning or Sprint Review, much less supporting any of it as the Scrum Master.
In Skill-Based PSM, you use Professional Scrum to collaboratively run your very training. You plan empirically, self-manage based on the Scrum accountabilities, take guidance in the Scrum values, and create Increments of learning. In doing so, you experience and resolve impediments that are typical of beginning Scrum Teams. You also work as the Scrum Master for one or more Sprints.
In Skill-Based PSM you experience a genuinely complex situation, and leverage Professional Scrum to navigate it. Professional Scrum is superbly positioned for this scenario: being a framework for solving complex problems, and human learning being a highly complex one.
Do not worry - you will be in a supportive, safe-to-fail space, where experimenting is fun. You can start from where you currently are, and safely work your way up to achieving each learning outcome, while the other students and me will support you.
Tacit Teaching
By using Professional Scrum throughout the training, you will get a taste of what "good" feels like. This is possible only through practical experience, not through talk and theory.
You will be part of a Professional Scrum Team, living and and breathing Professional Scrum for almost the entire duration of the training.
What you experience in class will directly transfer to situations that will find later on the job.
Based on the way you collectively run the training, you will gain a lot of subconscious exposure and sensitization, making the experience highly time-efficient.
Skill-Based PSM is designed to maximize this exposure. It aims to support you in making sense of every part of the experience and turning it into actionable insights.
What Skill-Based PSM Will Require of You
To get the best value out of this training, you will need to take responsibility for your own learning, and collaborate with your peers to work effectively as a Professional Scrum Team.
I probably hate homework as much as you do. However, I found that completing a few warm-up activities a few days prior to the class offers disproportionate benefits, relative to the time invested. It effectively extends the time for you to process key information, from just two days to several more. Therefore, for optimal preparation, I highly recommend completing a brief set of warm-ups a few days before the class. This will require about 2-3 hours of your time.
You will also need access to Zoom and Miro (both available online for free), a webcam, either microphone and speakers or a headset, and a reasonably fast and stable internet connection (3 Mbps downstream / 2 Mbps upstream at a minimum, faster being better).
Please find all needed instructions regarding login details, preparations, and schedule in the pre-class email that you will receive shortly after registering for the class.
Accessibility
I am constantly working to make Skill-Based PSM more accessible.
Screen captioning is enabled throughout so that you can turn it on in your Zoom client. In my Skill-Based PSM extensions, I use high-contrast visuals, and can provide special enlarged and maximum-contrast variants of the most important concept maps on request.
I also strive to make all content as screen-reader friendly as possible, and provide special transcripts where needed.
In addition, I use a high-quality voice microphone and audio interface for the clearest voice transmission. On request, I can also supply you with a separate high-bitrate voice feed.
For any activities that place demands on physical fitness, I make available lower-intensity alternatives.
If you desire special accommodations, please contact me up front and I will do my best to make this a great experience for you. I mean this truly.
If nothing else, the more sensitized I am to your needs, the better I will be able to cater to them throughout the training. So please do let me know.
Optional Pre-Session
As part of your booking, you will also receive access to an optional pre-session. This pre-session will take place a couple of days before the training.
You can use this pre-session to already get to know me and some of the other students. You can personally ask me anything that you have on your mind in terms of how to best prepare for and participate in the training. You may also use the pre-session as a tech-check. While the Zoom session will already be accessible for you to do a quick tech check at any time, successfully interacting with others may give you additional confidence that things are working as they should.
Do not worry if you cannot make the pre-session. It is strictly optional. While participating will likely provide additional value, all details needed to successfully start the class are also contained in the pre-class email. I will also give you up-front access to a Discord server where I am available to support you in best preparing for the class.
Summary of Your Benefits
Get all benefits of the popular Professional Scrum Master™ (PSM) class, including a free attempt at the PSM-I certification, and another free attempt should you try and not pass within two weeks after the training
Enjoy a zero-lecturing, 100% experiential and practical approach to training
Retain the teaching materials after class for later reference
Receive pointers to helpful books, gear, and other resources to help you advance your professional development as a Scrum Master
Learn useful tools and skills for introducing Professional Scrum into a team or organization
Get nine (mini) Sprints of experience (75 minutes each) in using Professional Scrum
Get one or more Sprints of experience in fulfilling the Scrum Master accountability
Learn and practice a broad range of foundational skills that are directly relevant to working as a Scrum Master
Ask questions and benefit from my experience in supporting organizations applying Scrum across products and industries
Learn as part of a small group of max. 6 students, for a lot of individual attention and a highly customized experience.
Take the class directly from the creator of the Skill-Based PSM extensions.
Billing Details, Terms and Conditions, and Contact
The course fee is 999 € per person (equivalent about 881 GBP as of May 1, 2023). It includes 19% German VAT. Various payment methods are available on check-out, both for immediate and deferred payment.
If you are a B2B client from a country other than Germany, we can bill you VAT-free, to be compatible with the VAT reverse-charge requirement. In this case, please enter the coupon code VATFREE during check-out. Please make sure to specify your organization's VAT ID number and legal form in the sign-up form. You will then be charged the net price (839,50 €) and your invoice will include a reverse-charge annotation.
If you sign up for a training more than two days in advance, you may choose to defer your payment until the training commences. This will allow you to pay via wire transfer. To do so, please enter the coupon code DEFERPAYMENT. To defer a VAT-free payment (non-German B2B clients only), please enter the coupon code DEFER_VATFREE.
This is a two-day training. Due to the way our booking system works, the training will be represented as a series of two appointments - one for each day. So you will see two appointments confirmed on the checkout page - one for each day. Please rest assured that you will be billed only once.
Specific terms and conditions apply, as listed on the booking page.
For any other questions, please contact me at daniel@experiencescrum.com. I am very happy to cater to student requests and business inquiries, and usually respond within a day.
