Scrum.org certifications

PSM I and PSPO I are siblings rather than steps. Both are foundational, both are taken online with nobody watching, both set eighty questions across a single hour and want 85 per cent, and neither asks for a qualification, a course or prior experience. The split runs along the two accountabilities the framework defines. PSM I examines how Scrum is meant to work and how the Scrum Master behaves once it comes under strain; PSPO I examines the product side and reaches beyond the Scrum Guide into Scrum.org's evidence-based management material, which is why revising from the Guide alone fails more people there. One difference worth knowing before you book: PSM I has a Chinese edition through a Scrum.org partner, while PSPO I is English only.

Lifetime validity is a real saving and a real blind spot at once

• Nothing falls due after the pass. These credentials are issued for life, carrying neither a renewal nor a yearly charge, so holding one for a decade costs what a single attempt cost. Set against bodies that invoice on a cycle, that is the most concrete reason to prefer this one.
• Permanence hides how long ago you learned it. A credential that cannot lapse tells a reader only what somebody understood on one afternoon, and that afternoon may be eight years back. The saving on renewal and the missing proof that you kept up are one design decision seen twice.
• The pass mark carries the credibility alone. No class is compulsory, so the assessment is the only filter in the scheme, which is why the threshold sits so high and why the questions describe a situation instead of asking for a definition.
• A failed attempt is bought again at the full rate. No reduction applies to a second try. Scrum.org's own classes bundle one attempt with a further sitting free inside a fortnight, the only relief offered anywhere.
• Everything you need to read is free. The Scrum Guide, the Open Assessments that mimic the real paper, and Scrum.org's text on evidence-based management for the extra ground PSPO I adds.

The choice that actually matters is not PSM I against PSPO I. It is Scrum.org against the Scrum Alliance, whose Certified ScrumMaster covers similar ground on a different model: attending a two-day class is compulsory, the assessment that follows it is gentler, and the certificate lapses every second year and bills you to reinstate it. This site carries records for Scrum.org only, so read this as a note on what is missing rather than a verdict between equals. Practitioners hold the Scrum.org papers in higher regard, precisely because no quantity of sitting in a room produces one; recruiters often read the two as the same line on a CV. If your employer will pay for training and you want a classroom, the other body suits you better. Now the harder question. Should somebody who has never run a sprint buy a Scrum Master certificate at all? Our answer is no, not as a way into the work. The questions are situational, and a candidate with no delivery behind them revises towards the letter of the Guide and arrives in a market that reads an entry-level agile certificate as proof of reading. Buy PSM I once you already sit in a team and want your understanding made formal, because that is when it repays what it costs. If you are changing career, put the money towards getting into a delivery team in any role, and certify from inside it.