How to become a Certified Scrum Product Owner®?

Below are the steps to become a CSPO professional:

Step 1: Enroll on the CSPO course with iZenBridge.
Step 2: Attend our CSPO session with the expert CSTs.
Step 3: Receive an email from Scrum Alliance.
Step 4: Log in to your Scrum Alliance’s dashboard.
Step 5: Complete the survey of Scrum Alliance.
Step 6: Accept the License & Agreement from Scrum Alliance.
Step 7: Claim your Certified Scrum Product Owner professional certificate.

Who Should Attend Certified Scrum Product Owner®?

This workshop for CSPO certification (Scrum Alliance) will be useful for:

• Business Analyst/Senior Business Analyst
• Quality Assurance Professional
• Product Manager/Product Owner
• Product Owners/Existing Scrum Professional
• Scrum Enthusiast
• Software Developers/Software Resters
• Manager and Architects – Software Development
• Team leads interested in learning Scrum

What will you get?

The CSPO online course training will include:

• CSPO Online Training with 100% success rate
• CSPO Training by an elite panel of Certified Scrum Trainers (CSTs)
• You will earn 16 PDUs and 30 SEUs.
• 100% Assured Scrum Alliance’s CSPO certification
• 2-year membership with Scrum Alliance
• Continuous learning and support to advance your Scrum understanding
• Full money back, if you don’t like or are unable to attend the class

Course Prerequisite

There are no prerequisites to take the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO®) training online. However, it will be beneficial for those who have aptitude and curiosity to meet the customers’ needs and expectations.

Product Owner Career Path

Training Schedule With Global Timings

Q. What is the definition of Product Owner?

A. A Product Owner is a mini CEO with complete ownership of a product and the value it delivers to the end customer. A Product Owner’s role is to maintain and prioritize product backlogs, interact with the stakeholders for feedback on a product, collaborate between the team and other stakeholders for effective on-time delivery of the product under development.

Q. Why should I go for CSPO certification?

A. CSPO® – Certified Scrum Product Owner® is a credential offered by Scrum Alliance®. A Product owner understands the customers who buy the product, end-users who use the product and sponsors who invest in the product and prioritizes the work done. If you aspire to become a Product Owner or want to coach Product Owners as a Scrum Master or as an Agile coach, then you should do the Certified Scrum Product Owner course.

The CSPO course covers details related to the Product Owner’s role like
– How to look into the product backlog?
– How to identify the right requirement for the product?
– How to set a vision for the product?
– How to communicate things with various stakeholders and development teams?

It improves your overall understanding of the complete Product Owner’s role. So, professionals who want to become great Product Owners should do it.

Q. Do I have to appear for a CSPO online exam to receive my certification?

A. As per Scrum Alliance, there is no examination required to get the CSPO certificate after attending the training. However, you will receive the certificate based on your active participation and trainer evaluation in the CSPO live training session.

Q. What is the validity of CSPO certification?

A. As per Scrum Alliance, the CSPO certificate is valid for two years. After two years, you can renew your Agile Scrum Product Owner certification by earning 20 SEUs.
Just after the Scrum Alliance’s CSPO training, we provide you access to our three online complimentary programs against which you will earn 14 SEUs. When you plan for the renewal of the CSPO certificate after 2 years, you will claim these 14 SEUs ( from our complimentary programs ) & we would further assist you to earn 6 more SEUs, and you are done with 20 SEUs for renewal(14+6=20). No need to worry about the renewal as we are always available to support our clients.

Q. Which is the best Certification for Product Owners?

Features	Certified Scrum Product Owner	SAFe Product Owner
Exam	No	Yes
Training	Mandatory	Mandatory
Community Membership	2 years	1 year
Certification fee	27000 for exam and training both	50000 Approx. For exam and training both
Branding	Yes	Yes

Q. What is the difference between CSPO® and A-CSPO® certification?

A. CSPO® – Certified Scrum Product Owner® is a stepping stone to get started in project management. If you are looking to enhance your skills and credibility to lead product development initiatives, then the Certified Scrum Product Owner Program is for you. This CSPO scrum online training will teach you the competencies of a successful Product Owner. You will learn how to produce efficiently without compromising quality, how to handle a product together with Scrum teams, how to order the backlog of the product while ensuring that the product is delivered, and so on.

A-CSPO® – Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner® is designed for Certified Scrum Product Owner® (CSPO®) who wish to take their Scrum Product Owner skills to the next level. As a Product Owner, you will work directly with the business to gain product knowledge, make the decisions related to prioritizing the product backlog items, and also help in providing the vision of the product. If you are already a Certified Scrum Product Owner then the next step in your Agile journey is to achieve your Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO) certification. As an A-CSPO, you will learn how to handle multiple business initiatives from competing stakeholders, order and express items for Product Backlog, define a clear product vision, communicate effectively to achieve alignment with different stakeholder groups, recognize the necessary possibilities and avoid wasting time, define and validate business value, enhance your credibility as a product expert and so on.

Q. What is the difference between CSPO® and SAFe® POPM certification?

A. CSPO® – If you want to start your Agile and Scrum Journey by working with Small Agile teams for effective product development, then CSPO is for you. Through this course, you will get the understanding in developing product vision, prioritize product backlogs and making sure to optimize value to delight the customer. So, professionals who want to become great Product Owners should do it.

SAFe® POPM – If you want to gain an understanding of the role of a Product Management and Product Owner at a SAFe enterprise level, then this course is for you. Through this course, you will explore the role of the Product Management and Product Owner, how to prepare and participate in PI planning, how to ensure smooth execution of Program and Team Backlogs to deliver the maximum business value at scale. So, if your organization is already using SAFe then this is one of the best career investments.

However, to know more, check out our blog SAFe® POPM vs CSPO®

Q. Can I do the online training for CSPO® certification?

A. Yes, unlike earlier, now you can do the online training for CSPO® certification

Q. What are the personal qualities of a successful Product Owner?

Skill	Criticality
Emotional intelligence	Critical
Collaborative skills	Critical
motivating teams	Moderately critical
knowledge of Scrum	Critical
Ability to work and empathize with customers	Very Critical
Ability to communicate difficult decisions at all levels	Very Critical
Ability to work within an organization to remove impediments	Moderately critical
Ability to say no	Critical
Business skills	Critical
Knowledge of the complete product life cycle	Critical
Ability to apply the 80/20 rule	Very Critical
Negotiation skills	Very critical
Ability to influence	Very Critical
Domain expertise	Very Critical
Conflict management	Moderately Critical
Ability to make decisions	Very critical

Q. What are the known scrum anti-patterns that a Product Owner should be aware of?

A. Here is the comprehensive list of Product Owner anti-patterns that a Product Owner should understand and avoid –

Scrum Anti-Pattern (Product Owner)	Explanation
Oversized product backlog	The product backlog contains more items than the Scrum team can deliver within three to four sprints.
Incorrect product Backlog	Product Owner Copies items from requirement documents without consulting the Scrum team.
The weak Product Owner	The Product Owner does not have the ability to say NO.
Prioritization by proxy	Other stakeholders are prioritizing the product backlog and PO is just their proxy with little power.
No One is the Product Owner	When multiple stakeholders are defining and refining the requirements, the team gets confusing decisions and instructions.
“I know everything” Product Owner	The PO does not involve stakeholders or subject matter experts in the refinement process, and probably not even the Scrum team.
Role Confusion	The Product Owner is confused about his role and tries to be both Scrum Master and Product Owner at the same time.
Lack of interaction	Lacks interaction with the team, mostly dependent on tools like Jira for interaction with the team.
Not questioning Requirements	Inserting everything from the requirement document without questioning the value for the end-user.
Not understanding the risk	Add items without a valid understanding of business risks
The lack of a sprint goal	The Product Owner cannot provide a sprint goal, or the chosen sprint goal is flawed.
The pushy Product Owner	Pushes the development team to take on more tasks than it could realistically handle using his previous experience and learning of team velocity
Playing with “definition of done”	Changing DOD by squeezing in some last-minute user stories that do not meet the definition of Done
The absent Product Owner	A Product Owner should be readily available for immediate clarification. His inability to respond quickly will create a risk of the Scrum team missing their sprint goal.
Cannot let go product backlog items once they become sprint backlog items	Increasing the scope of a user story or modifying the acceptance criteria at the last moment without consulting the Scrum team.
The selfish Product Owner	There is no 1 in the team. It’s not his or her accomplishments, it’s team accomplishments. The Product Owners should not take credit for team achievements.
The unapproachable, the broadcasting Product Owner	The Product Owner is not accepting feedback from the customers and the stakeholders.

Q. What are the types of organizational contexts that affect the Product Owner role?

A. Three leading organizational contexts affect a Product Owner’s role –

• Full-time Product Owner – A Product Owner acts as a mini-CEO, someone who has complete ownership of the target customer, problem, and solution.
• Product Owner as shared resource – A Product Owner is working with multiple teams as a shared resource or taking care of other engagements while playing the role of a PO.
• Short term Product Owners – a Product Owner works on short-term projects that they own the outcome for, they do not hold a prolonged engagement with the product and are not responsible for the long-term ROI on the product.

 

Q. What are the Product Owner’s tools to bring transparency in Scrum teams?

• Release burn-up charts – A burn-up chart clearly shows work completed and project scope. It is an effective tool for communicating to the project stakeholders and clients how the extra feature requests they are asking for will affect the deadline, and at the same time for reassuring them that good progress is being made.
• Sprint review – Sprint review is another tool to bring transparency within the Scrum team. It’s an opportunity to discuss what is working and what needs to be fixed. The team can openly raise impediments and the Product Owner can work with the Scrum Master and other stakeholders to remove these impediments.
• Product Roadmap – A Goal-oriented product roadmap clearly shows the future course of action to the team.
• Daily stand-up – Product Owners can participate in daily standups to get an update on the progress of product backlog items and issues that the team is facing.

Q. What are the decision-making approaches for Certified Scrum Product Owner?

A. A product owner can take the following distinct decision-making approaches. Here is their pros and cons

Decision-making approach	Pros	Cons
Product Owner decides and informs the team	Product Owners can control the outcome and value of a sprint. Decision making is streamlined Product Owner has full accountability for product quality	The Product Owner is seen as authoritative. The team may feel detached from the product. It may look like Product Owner’s achievement; its Scrum anti-pattern
Product Owner consults the Development Team and/or stakeholders and then decides	The team is involved in decision making and owns the outcome This leads to better feedback and collaboration within the team	It can lead to mediocre product decision The decision-making process will be slow.
Product Owner delegates a decision	Subject matter expert helps Product Owner in taking the decision Stakeholders are more involved.	The Product Owner is seen as a weak or proxy. The team senses an invisible hand or confusing signal which affects productivity.

 

Q. How does facilitation skills help in becoming a better Product Owner?

A. A Product Owner is a natural facilitator. The role involves dealing with multiple stakeholders often with conflicting interests. The Product Owner has to perform the role of a neutral facilitator in the entire discussion; his focus should be on getting unambiguous and non-conflicting information out of a discussion between various stakeholders.

Q. What are the various techniques a Product Owner could use when engaging with stakeholders to gather information or insights?

A. As a Product Owner you need to be a master facilitator who can bring the best out of a team and enhance collaboration. Here is a list of the most important facilitation techniques for Product Owners –

Affinity Grouping –

Affinity Grouping is a brainstorming method in which participants organize their ideas and identify common themes. A Product Owner can use Affinity grouping to club similar product ideas of feature requests, it helps them refine a user story.

Follow these steps to create Affinity grouping in your next Product Discussion meeting –

• Ask everyone to write their idea on a sticky note.
• Place all cards on a flipchart or whiteboard.
• Ask everyone from the group to club similar ideas
• The target for less than 10 groups of items.
• Discuss the grouped items as a team
• Give a name to each clubbed item or attach it to a story
• They discuss every group of ideas with everyone present to stimulate the ideas, add more information or remove what is irrelevant.
• Add the outcome of each discussion to the final list of features or points to the story.

Dot Voting

Dot Voting is another group discussion technique used by Product Owners to find preferences. The Product Owners can use this technique to prioritize a feature list or a list of story items. Follow the steps below to use the dot voting technique –

• It is a simple group activity for recognizing preferences among limited options:
• Participants are each given a set number of dot stickers.
• They place dot stickers next to options presented that they like.
• Options with the most dots “win”.

Fist to five

Fist to five is another popular brainstorming technique used by Product Owners to help achieve consensus among teams. Follow the steps below to use this technique –

• State an action the group should take or show their level of support to a story item.
• Each member responds by showing the number of a finger or closed fist. Higher the number of fingers, the more the support.
• Any team member showing less than 3 fingers is allowed to share her objections.
• The team will address the objections and the process is repeated. It continues till the team achieves a consensus.

Open-ended Questions

• As a Product Owner, if you want to explore a story in detail, Open-ended questions are a great way. By asking open-ended questions you offer people an opportunity to share more information, feelings, attitudes and understanding of the topic.

Who is responsible for the product backlog?

A. The product backlog and owned, managed and prioritized by the Product Owner. He may take some help from the Scrum team and discuss ideas but primary responsibility stays with the Product Owner.

Q. What is the difference between Product Owner and Product Manager?

A. Scrum does not recommend any role of a Product Owner. The complete product backlog and stakeholder interaction are owned by the Product Owner. But in an Enterprise Agile Environment, organizations do have a Product Manager role that focuses on high-level requirements and interacts with the external stakeholders.

Difference between Product Owner and Product Manager

Product Owner	Product Manager
Converts high-level requirements into user stories.	Manages high-level requirements.
Writes story level Acceptance criteria and Definition of done.	Writes high-level Acceptance criteria.
Interacts with internal stakeholders.	Interacts with external stakeholders.
Focus on immediate delivery and product value. Attends Scrum meetings, retrospectives, product demo etc.	Has a long-term vision for the product, interacts with sales, marketing and other external stakeholders.

Q. Is the CSPO certification cost included in my course fee?

A. Yes, the Certified Scrum Product Owner cost of certification is included in the course fee.

Q. At what experience level should I go for an online Certified Scrum Product Owner® certification?

A. There is no defined level of experience after which you can consider going for a PO role. Ideally, after 3-4 years of experience, you might be able to handle the challenges which a Product Owner role offers. A Product Owner needs to be a tough negotiator, team player and a great collaborator to succeed in his role. Domain expertise and understanding of the Scrum framework is also critical for success.

Q. Will I get any PDUs after the CSPO® virtual training program?

A. Yes, you will get 16 PDUs and 30 SEUs after the Certified Scrum Product Owner training program.

Q. Do I need membership of Scrum Alliance to attend training for the online CSPO® certification?

A. No, this workshop provides you with the membership of Scrum Alliance for 2 years.

Q. Do I need to take any test to become CSPO®?

A. No, on successful completion of the course, you will receive a Certified Scrum Product Owner® (CSPO®) Certificate.

Q. Is the CSPO training cost included in my course fee?

A. Yes, the Certified Scrum Product Owner Certification training cost is included in the course fee.

Q. What next after becoming a CSPO®?

A. You can go for advanced certificates like CSP® or PMI-ACP®. We also provide support in getting your advanced certificates like CSP® or PMI-ACP®.

Training Schedules would support the time zones of the following countries/Cities

US, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Boston, Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami, Washington, D.C, Canada, UK, London, Australia, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Florida, New York, Washington, Seattle, Mississauga, Charlotte, Cairo, Columbia, Wellington, New Zealand, Fishers, Toronto, Germany, Denmark France, Chile, Santiago, Argentina, Poland, Portugal, Netherlands, Prague, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, UAE, Dubai, Egypt, Greece, South Africa, Turkey, Nigeria, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Manila