November, 2009

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The Scrum Certification & Required Online Exam

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

The requirements to become a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) have changed effective October 1, 2009.  Previous to this, to become a Certified ScrumMaster you needed to attend and actively participate in the two-day CSM Class taught by a Certified Scrum Trainer.  Now, in addition to taking the class, you must also take a one-hour self-proctored on-line exam.  Those who became Certified ScrumMasters before this change will need to take the exam within two years of obtaining their original Certification in order to maintain their status with the Scrum Alliance.   Our Certified Scrum Master instructor Peter Borsella helps keep us up to speed with what’s going on with the Scrum Alliance.  After completing the ASPE Certified ScrumMaster Workshop, all participants will have the information required to take the online exam and become certified.  This course is found at http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/courses/4400/.

This change is part of the Scrum Alliance’s effort to bring more legitimacy to the title “CSM.”  While the title was never intended to mean that someone was qualified, it has fallen under criticism because of the word “Certified,” which was more intended to indicate that the participant heard material certified by the Scrum Alliance and from a trainer who has also been certified by the Scrum Alliance.

Much time and energy has been put into creating the new exam, including evaluations of this test during Scrum Gathering events, but there’s nothing like testing it in the field.  The Scrum Alliance has decided to make the exam “pass only” for a period of time to help understand if the exam is indeed meeting expectations on providing relevant, coherent, and appropriate questions.  This introductory period will also help ensure that applicants are not inappropriately penalized (failed) due to potential problems with the exam.  Feedback from Peter Borsella tells us he thinks this is a good first step, and so far class participants have been very cooperative and understanding in taking this as a “pass only” experience.

Posted in ASPE-SDLC, Agile, SDLC, Scrum | Comments Off

What is the PMBOK® and what are the v4.0 changes?

Friday, November 20th, 2009

We asked our instructor David Caccamo, PMP about the PMBOK’s changes as it moved to the new v4.0.  PMBOK® stands for Project Management Body of Knowledge.  PMI, the organization that issues the PMBOK®, prefers to refer to it as “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge” since it is not intended to be the final definitive word on what does or does not constitute the discipline’s body of knowledge.  Please note that the PMBOK® is a standard, duly authorized by ANSI (the American National Standards Institute) body of knowledge.  With our Project Management training, we utilize the PMBOK® v4.0 as the base for our courses and they can be found at  http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/projectmanagementtraining.php.  To see details on our Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam Prep Boot Camp, please visit http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/courses/4200b/.

The PMBOK® has been around for some time and we are currently in the fourth edition of that work.  The major changes incorporated in the transition from the third edition revolve around a “tightening up” of the text: standardizing the naming of processes; combining some closely related processes; adding a process to demonstrate an increased emphasis on stakeholder management; and the incorporation of the requirements gathering process in the scope management knowledge area.  ASPE has a white paper that provides a more detailed discussion of the exact changes.  Feel free to download this “Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), 4th edition” white paper at http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/offers/.

Posted in ASPE, ASPE-SDLC, Free, Giveaway, PMP, Project Management, Uncategorized, whitepaper | Comments Off

One Of The Many Reasons to Become an Agile Professional

Monday, November 16th, 2009

ASPE-SDLC, in conjunction with VersionOne, has published an Agile Practitioner Salary Survey for 2009.  The survey was based on the responses of 2,786 Agile Professionals from over 89 different countries.  The response was tremendous.  For a detailed summary of the findings, you can download the Agile Practitioner Salary Survey White Paper at http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/offers/agile_survey_offer.php.  You may also register to attend a free 45-minute web seminar on these results that will be delivered on Tuesday, December 1stat 12 noon eastern standard time.  Regsitration for this free online web seminar is open at http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/webseminars.

We decided to blog on a few of the more intriguing findings from the survey.  The first item we wanted to divulge from the survey is compensation for Agile Practitioners.  From a pure salary perspective it is great to be an experienced Agile Practitioner.  Below is a quick list showing the mean salary for Agile Practitioners by region.

Mean salaries for Agile Practitioners by region:

USA/Canada:              $90K – $99.9K

Europe:                        $60K – $69.9K

Rest of World:              $50K – $59.9K

Asia:                             $30K – $39.9K

For the USA/Canada region, this mean salary is over twenty thousand more than the mean salary of a Business Analyst Practitioner.  It is over forty-five thousand more than the mean household income in the US as reported by the US Census Bureau.  Also, as you gain more experience in Agile your salary increases.  Every month of Agile experience increases salary by $227.

Based on the results from the survey, Agile Practitioners are in high demand and are compensated extremely well.

Posted in ASPE-SDLC, Agile, Free, SDLC, Web Seminar, whitepaper | Comments Off

Interesting Business Analyst Salary & Gender Results

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

ASPE and Ravenflow completed the Business Analyst position Salary Survey in July 2009.   Over 2,100 professionals filled out the survey within a two-month period in late Q1 and early Q2 of 2009. A professional statistician analyzed the data and ASPE & Ravenflow provide the final data results and analysis in a white paper available at http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/offers/ba_survey_offer.php. ASPE is also  presenting a web seminar to go over these results with analysis on Tuesday, November 17th at 12 Noon Eastern time.  Visit http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/webseminars to register for this free web seminar.

As a prelude to that presentation, we decided to blog on some of the most surprising results.   The biggest surprise, and the one that we could not find any logical explanation for, is the salary difference between genders.  Females made up a larger percentage of respondents to the survey than males.   We found that 56.7% of respondents were females and 43.3% were males.   An assumption can be made based on that data that females make up a larger overall percentage of professionals doing BA work than males.  If this is the case, it would be easy to make another assumption that since females are a majority of the workers in this field, then they should be better paid or paid equally to their male counterparts holding everything else equal.   There should be no bias or the bias should favor women over men.

Based on the data from the survey, the second assumption was completely wrong.  In a field dominated by females, holding everything else equal, female Business Analysts earn about 7% less than their male colleagues.  There is no logical explanation for this within the data collected.  It would be expected that because females have made major strides in this field based on the raw number providing the service, that those strides would also show up in income data.   One can only hope this trend changes rapidly.

Posted in ASPE, ASPE-SDLC, BA, Business Analysis, CBAP, Free | Comments Off

SharePoint 2010 Courses Coming

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Some reports today have announced the official release of the SharePoint 2010 public beta. At the time of this post however, Microsoft’s SharePoint 2010 homepage was still asking for pre-registration information. Regardless, we expect that we will start seeing more questions about SharePoint 2010 training over the next couple weeks, and figured we would go ahead and address our plans for updating our SharePoint curriculum.

Our Hands-On SharePoint Administration course will be the first course to receive an update after SharePoint 2010 is released. Initially, we will address both the 2007 and 2010 versions in our Utilizing SharePoint for Project Management course, and will later look to update the rest of our SharePoint curriculum as deemed necessary by demand and by version changes.

In addition, we will be debuting a 1-day evaluation course at the beginning of the year tentatively titled, “SharePoint 2010: a First Look” to help people in their version transition.

We will update further on things as they develop.

Posted in ASPE, ASPE-IT, ASPE-SDLC, Pilot Session, Project Management, SharePoint, SharePoint training | Comments Off