Greetings, all. I am a PMP with 20 years of experience managing projects, teaching and consulting. Based on all evidence, I think it's time for me to get some training in Agile. My goal is to get up-to-speed on this so I can either advise customers or perhaps grow into a role of managing one of these projects. My problem is that I am a little bit confused about what the best entry to this would be. On the one hand I'm looking at a company that provides what it calls an Agile boot camp. In this class you learn to: (for example)



Practice and maintain a regular cadence when delivering working software each iteration;
Follow the team approach; start as a team, finish as a team;
Gain knowledge and understanding of Agile principles with context on why they are so important for each team;
Embrace planning from Vision down to Daily level, recognizing the value of continuous planning over following a plan;
Pull together Agile release plans that connect you back to business expectations – including hard date commitments and fixed price models;

The other class specifically says, "In our interactive and hands on Scrum Master Certification course, you will learn the Scrum framework, how to apply Scrum to your projects, and how to navigate the cultural changes necessary to implement Scrum. During the two day course, taught by a Certified Scrum Trainer, you will earn 14 PDUs and become a Certified ScrumMaster through the Scrum Alliance."

I'm no expert here but it seems like the Agile boot camp would make more sense as an introduction rather than Scrum master, which I admit I have no idea what it means. Thoughts?

JPS

The Certified Scrum Master (CSM) title is fairly well recognized and has standardized training. An agile boot camp will be whatever the provider wants it to be and does not lead to a designation. I am not saying the boot camp would not provide valuable personal training, it just won't be recognized by others.

So it sounds like what you’re saying is that the Agile boot camp may well cover the overall information I need but unlike Scrum Master, does not in and of itself lead to certification. And that the Scrum Master class would, I’m assuming, cover more or less the same Agile ground but at the end have a certification that might be recognized by say, hiring managers, customers, etc. Interesting. Food for thought for sure. Thanks.