The Professional Scrum Competencies

Professional Agile Leadership™ Certification | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:13 a. m.
PROFESSIONAL AGILE LEADERSHIP™ CERTIFICATION
Prove your knowledge of Professional Agile

Leadership
The Professional Agile LeadershipTM (PAL I) assessment is available to anyone who wishes to
validate that you are a leader who understands that being Agile adds value to your business, and
why leadership understanding, sponsorship, and support of Agile practices are essential to an
organization becoming more agile. Those who pass receive the industry recognized certi!cation as
a PAL I from Scrum.org; demonstrating a fundamental level of understanding about how agility
adds value to an organization, why leadership support of agile teams is essential to achieving
organizational agility, and what leaders can do to support their teams to help them achieve higher
performance.
While attending a class is not a prerequisite, attending a Professional Agile Leadership Essentials
(PAL-E) (https://www.scrum.org/courses/professional-agile-leadership-essentials-training) class is
highly recommended. If you feel you already possess a high level of agile leadership skill, along
with a solid understanding of Scrum,you may choose to take the PAL I assessment. This
assessment will challenge your thinking; if you are not working from a servant-leadership mindset,
and are not prepared to place a high level of trust in the hands of those you lead, you will likely
struggle to pass the PAL I assessment. The assessment covers topics spanning 14 Focus Areas
de!ned in the Professional Scrum Competencies (https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-
competencies) A listing of the Focus Areas covered by this assessment is available on the
Suggested Reading (https://www.scrum.org/resources/suggested-reading-professional-agile-
leadership) page.
The assessment is in place to ensure you understand how Scrum Teams can bene!t from having a
leader reinforce and support agile practices and therefore detailed in its questions and required
answers. Many questions ask the test-taker to think about or interpret how they would handle
scenarios and to apply their own experience along with content from the PAL-E course and the PAL
subject areas.
Prepare for the Assessment

To prepare we recommend you read this blog about Scrum Values
(https://guntherverheyen.com/2013/05/03/theres-value-in-the-scrum-values/) written by
Gunther Verheyen, read the Scrum Guide (https://www.scrum.org/resources/scrum-guide) and
review the material listed on the Suggested Reading
(https://www.scrum.org/resources/suggested-reading-professional-agile-leadership) page and in
the Agile Leader Learning Path (https://www.scrum.org/pathway/agile-leader-learning-path).
Search the list of existing Professional Scrum certi!cation holders here

(https://www.scrum.org/certi!cation-list) or see (https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-
certi!cations/count) a breakdown on how many people hold certi!cations.
The cost of PAL I is $200 USD. Assessment passwords do not expire and remain valid until used.
See more details below.
BUY PAL I ASSESSMENT (HTTPS://STORE.SCRUM.ORG/CART/ADD?ID=3057385570325)
START ASSESSMENT (/ASSESSMENT-LAUNCH/START-PAL-I)
Professional Agile Leadership™ Certification Details
Details Certi!cation
Fee: $200 USD per attempt If you pass the PAL I assessment you will receive the
https://www.scrum.org/professional-agile-leadership-certification Página 1 de 2
Professional Agile Leadership™ Certification | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:13 a. m.
Passing score: 85% industry-recognized "PAL I" certi!cation, along with a

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Time limit: 60 minutes PAL I logo that you can use to identify your
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Number of Questions: (/ABOUT) TRAINING (/COURSES) CERTIFICATION (/PROFESSIONAL-SCRUM-CERTIFICATIONS)
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(/) Format: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer and
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True/False
Unlike other Scrum certi!cations that require only
Di"culty: Intermediate
Language: English only class attendance, Scrum.org certi!cation requires a
PAL Subject Areas minimum score on an online assessment. This gives
(https://www.scrum.org/resources/suggested- Scrum.org certi!cation teeth and ensures that it has

true value in the marketplace.
reading-professional-agile-leadership)
Required course: None
Search the list of Professional Scrum Certi!cate
Recommended course: Professional Agile Holders (https://www.scrum.org/certi!cation-list)
Leadership Essentials (PAL-E
(https://www.scrum.org/courses/professional-
agile-leadership-essentials-training))
Practice assessments: Agile Leadership Open
(/open-assessments/agile-leadership-
open), Scrum Open
(https://www.scrum.org/open-
assessments/scrum-open)
Ways to Learn More
(https://www.scrum.org/resources/ways-learn-
about-scrum) to help you prepare
Passwords have no expiration date, but are valid
for one attempt only
When you purchase a password, it is set up in our

system and emailed to you within one business day.
All Students completing a Professional Agile
Leadership Essentials (PAL-E) course are emailed a
password upon completion of the course (typically
within 3-5 business days).**
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The Professional Scrum Competencies | Scrum.org 23/5/20 12:54 a. m.
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The Professional Scrum Competencies

Scrum.org has created these Professional Scrum Competencies to help guide an individual’s personal development with Scrum. Building
pro!ciency with Scrum starts with the fundamentals, Understanding and Applying the Scrum Framework, and it is the foundation for
personal growth. The competencies and underlying focus areas apply to the Scrum Team (Product Owner, Scrum Master, and
Development Team Members) and to other roles in the organization such as Agile Leaders.
Organizations can bene!t from the use of a common understanding of the competencies and focus areas that they use to evaluate and
balance their team’s pro!ciencies based on their unique needs. View (/courses/professional-scrum-training-competency-mapping) how
Scrum.org Professional Scrum Training Courses cover the Focus Areas.
Understanding the Competencies
(/professional-scrum- (/professional-scrum- (/professional-scrum-

competencies/understanding-and- competencies/developing-people-and- competencies/managing-products-with-
applying-scrum-framework) teams) agility)
Understanding and Applying Developing People and Teams Managing Products with Agility
the Scrum Framework (/professional-scrum- (/professional-scrum-
(/professional-scrum- competencies/developing- competencies/managing-
competencies/understanding- people-and-teams) products-with-agility)
and-applying-scrum- Self-Organizing Teams Forecasting & Release Planning
framework)
Empiricism Facilitation Product Vision
Scrum Values Leadership Styles Product Value
Roles Coaching & Mentoring Product Backlog Management
Events Teaching Business Strategy
Artifacts Stakeholders & Customers
Done
Scaling
(/professional-scrum- (/professional-scrum-
competencies/developing-and- competencies/evolving-the-agile-
delivering-products-professionally) organization)
Developing & Delivering Evolving the Agile Organization

Products Professionally (/professional-scrum-
(/professional-scrum- competencies/evolving-the-
competencies/developing-and- agile-organization)
delivering-products- Organizational Design & Culture
professionally)
Emergent Software Development Portfolio Planning
Managing Technical Risk Evidence Based Management™
Continuous Quality
Continuous Integration
Continuous Delivery
Optimizing Flow
*Click a competency to see more details
https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-competencies Página 1 de 2
What is ScrumBut? | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:11 a. m.
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What is ScrumBut?
4.6 from 20 ratings
ScrumButs are reasons why teams can’t take full advantage of Scrum to solve their
problems and realize the full bene!ts of product development using Scrum. Every
Scrum role, rule, and timebox is designed to provide the desired bene!ts and address
predictable recurring problems. ScrumButs mean that Scrum has exposed a
dysfunction that is contributing to the problem, but is too hard to !x. A ScrumBut retains
the problem while modifying Scrum to make it invisible so that the dysfunction is no
longer a thorn in the side of the team.
A ScrumBut has a particular syntax: (ScrumBut)(Reason)(Workaround)
ScrumBut Examples:
"(We use Scrum, but) (having a Daily Scrum every day is too much overhead,) (so we
only have one per week.)"
"(We use Scrum, but) (Retrospectives are a waste of time,) (so we don't do them.)"
"(We use Scrum, but) (we can't build a piece of functionality in a month,) (so our Sprints
are 6 weeks long.)"
"(We use Scrum, but) (sometimes our managers give us special tasks,) (so we don't
always have time to meet our de!nition of done.)"
Sometimes organizations make short term changes to Scrum to give them time to
correct de!ciencies. For example, "done" may not initially include regression and
performance testing because it will take several months to develop automated testing.
For these months, transparency is compromised, but restored as quickly as possible.
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Scrum Glossary | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:08 a. m.
Scrum Glossary
4.7 from 42 ratings
Glossary of Scrum Terms

This glossary is meant to represent an overview of Scrum-related terms. Some of the
mentioned terms are not mandatory in Scrum, but have been added because they are
commonly used in Scrum. To learn more about the Scrum framework, to identify which
of these terms are required elements of Scrum and to understand how the mentioned
elements are connected, we highly recommend that you reference the Scrum Guide™
(http://www.scrumguides.org/).
To learn more about terms speci!c to software development teams using Scrum and
agile software development techniques, reference the Professional Scrum Developer
glossary (/resources/professional-scrum-developer-glossary).
B
Burn-down Chart: a chart which shows the amount of work which is thought to remain
in a backlog. Time is shown on the horizontal axis and work remaining on the vertical
axis. As time progresses and items are drawn from the backlog and completed, a plot
line showing work remaining may be expected to fall. The amount of work may be
assessed in any of several ways such as user story points or task hours. Work remaining
in Sprint Backlogs and Product Backlogs may be communicated by means of a burn-
down chart. See also: Burnup Chart
Burn-up Chart: a chart which shows the amount of work which has been completed.
Time is shown on the horizontal axis and work completed on the vertical axis. As time
progresses and items are drawn from the backlog and completed, a plot line showing
the work done may be expected to rise. The amount of work may be assessed in any of
several ways such as user story points or task hours. The amount of work considered to
be in-scope may also be plotted as a line; the burn-up can be expected to approach
this line as work is completed.
C
Coherent/Coherence: The quality of the relationship between certain Product Backlog
items which may make them worthy of consideration as a whole. See also: Sprint Goal.
D
Daily Scrum (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#events-
daily): Scrum Event that is a 15-minute time-boxed event held each day for the
Development Team. The Daily Scrum is held every day of the Sprint. At it, the
Development Team plans work for the next 24 hours. This optimizes team collaboration
and performance by inspecting the work since the last Daily Scrum and forecasting
upcoming Sprint work. The Daily Scrum is held at the same time and place each day to
reduce complexity.
De!nition of Done (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#artifact-

transparency-done): a shared understanding of expectations that the Increment must
live up to in order to be releasable into production. Managed by the Development Team.
Development Team (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#team-

dev): Role within a Scrum Team accountable for managing, organizing and doing all
development work required to create a releasable Increment of product every Sprint.
E
Emergence: the process of the coming into existence or prominence of new facts or
new knowledge of a fact, or knowledge of a fact becoming visible unexpectedly.
Empiricism: process control type in which only the past is accepted as certain and in
which decisions are based on observation, experience and experimentation. Empiricism
has three pillars: transparency, inspection and adaptation.
Engineering standards: a shared set of development and technology standards that a

Development Team applies to create releasable Increments of software.
F
Forecast (of functionality): the selection of items from the Product Backlog a
Development Team deems feasible for implementation in a Sprint.
https://www.scrum.org/resources/scrum-glossary Página 1 de 3
I
Increment (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#artifacts-
increment): Scrum Artifact that de!nes the complete and valuable work produced by
the Development Team during a Sprint. The sum of all Increments form a product.
P
Product Backlog (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#artifacts-
productbacklog): A Scrum Artifact that consists of an ordered list of the work to be
done in order to create, maintain and sustain a product. Managed by the Product Owner.
Product Backlog re!nement: the activity in a Sprint through which the Product Owner
and the Development Teams add granularity to the Product Backlog.
Product Owner (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#team-po): Role in

Scrum accountable for maximizing the value of a product, primarily by incrementally
managing and expressing business and functional expectations for a product to the
Development Team(s).
R
Ready: a shared understanding by the Product Owner and the Development Team
regarding the preferred level of description of Product Backlog items introduced at
Sprint Planning.
Re!nement: see Product Backlog Re!nement
S
Scrum: a framework to support teams in complex product development. Scrum
consists of Scrum Teams and their associated roles, events, artifacts, and rules, as
de!ned in the Scrum GuideTM (https://www.scrumguides.org).
Scrum Board: a physical board to visualize information for and by the Scrum Team,
often used to manage Sprint Backlog. Scrum boards are an optional implementation
within Scrum to make information visible.
Scrum Guide™ (https://www.scrumguides.org/index.html): the de!nition of Scrum,

written and provided by Ken Schwaber and Je" Sutherland, co-creators of Scrum. This
de!nition consists of Scrum’s roles, events, artifacts, and the rules that bind them
together.
Scrum Master (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#team-sm): Role

within a Scrum Team accountable for guiding, coaching, teaching and assisting a Scrum
Team and its environments in a proper understanding and use of Scrum.
Scrum Team (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#team): a self-

organizing team consisting of a Product Owner, Development Team and Scrum Master.
Scrum Values (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#values): a set of

fundamental values and qualities underpinning the Scrum framework; commitment,
focus, openness, respect and courage.
Self-organization: the management principle that teams autonomously organize their

work. Self-organization happens within boundaries and against given goals. Teams
choose how best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside
the team.
Sprint (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#events-sprint): Scrum

Event that is time-boxed to one month or less, that serves as a container for the other
Scrum events and activities. Sprints are done consecutively, without intermediate gaps.
Sprint Backlog (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#artifacts-

sprintbacklog): Scrum Artifact that provides an overview of the development work to
realize a Sprint’s goal, typically a forecast of functionality and the work needed to
deliver that functionality. Managed by the Development Team.
Sprint Goal: a short expression of the purpose of a Sprint, often a business problem that
is addressed. Functionality might be adjusted during the Sprint in order to achieve the
Sprint Goal.
Sprint Planning (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#events-

planning): Scrum Event that is time-boxed to 8 hours, or less, to start a Sprint. It serves
for the Scrum Team to inspect the work from the Product Backlog that’s most valuable
to be done next and design that work into Sprint backlog.
Sprint Retrospective (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#events-

retro): Scrum Event that is set to a time-box of 3 hours, or less, to end a Sprint. It serves
for the Scrum Team to inspect the past Sprint and plan for improvements to be enacted
during the next Sprint.
Sprint Review (https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#events-

review): Scrum Event that is set to a time-boxed of 4 hours, or less, to conclude the
development work of a Sprint. It serves for the Scrum Team and the stakeholders to
inspect the Increment of product resulting from the Sprint, assess the impact of the
work performed on overall progress and update the Product backlog in order to
maximize the value of the next period.
Stakeholder: a person external to the Scrum Team with a speci!c interest in and
knowledge of a product that is required for incremental discovery. Represented by the
Product Owner and actively engaged with the Scrum Team at Sprint Review.
T
Technical Debt: the typically unpredictable overhead of maintaining the product, often
caused by less than ideal design decisions, contributing to the total cost of ownership.
May exist unintentionally in the Increment or introduced purposefully to realize value
earlier.
V
Values: When the values of commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect are
embodied and lived by the Scrum Team, the *Scrum pillars* of transparency, inspection,
and adaptation *come to life* and *build trust* for everyone. The Scrum Team members
learn and explore those values as they work with the Scrum events, roles and artifacts.
Download (/resources/scrum-values-poster) the Scrum Values Poster
Velocity: an optional, but often used, indication of the amount of Product Backlog
turned into an Increment of product during a Sprint by a Scrum Team, tracked by the
Development Team for use within the Scrum Team.
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Professional Scrum Competency: Evolving the Agile Organization | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:03 a. m.
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Professional Scrum Competency: Evolving the Agile

Organization
Organizations need to learn fast and respond quickly to market conditions in the Digital Age. Evolving the
Agile Organization includes concepts and tools for measuring and enabling business agility through
Evidence-Based Management (EBM) (/resources/evidence-based-management). It also examines the
importance of Organizational Design and Culture, which includes human factors, processes, and structures
in the organization that can promote or inhibit agility with Scrum.
Evidence-Based Management (EBM) encourages rational, data-driven decisions while applying empirical
process theory to the development of high-value products. It includes the use of three key measures: Current
Product Value, Time-to-Market and an organization's Ability to Innovate.
Organizational Design and Culture focuses on understanding how organizational attributes a!ect strategy, stimulate employees, and build
distinctive capabilities that make it easier, or harder, to deliver value to customers. Organizational design, and the use of tools that can
help guide iterative and incremental value-focused organizational change, are critical to evolving and cultivating an Agile culture.
Additionally, Scrum uses empiricism and self-organization to address Portfolio Planning. It is important to recognize that this approach
a!ects the entire organization, not just the Agile Leaders, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Development Team members. Every
person who has inputs to, our outputs from, a Scrum Team or Teams is a!ected by how the team works within the organization.
Scrum Masters and Agile Leaders are particularly attentive to Evolving the Agile Organization, but a key element to that growth is for all
roles in the organization to understand the growth vision, hence, this competency applies to all roles.
Key Focus Areas

Within each competency, a number of Focus Areas provide a more detailed view of the knowledge and skills you require to master that
competency.
Organizational Design and Culture

Traditional organizations are often structured around Taylorism and mass production concepts in response to simple problems. Complex
problems require a di!erent way of organizing. This Focus Area describes the fundamental di!erences of an agile organization; namely its
structure, culture, and design. A practitioner will understand what an agile enterprise looks like and approaches for implementing the
agile enterprise in a traditional organization. They will understand how to balance the needs for agility with the existing reality of traditional
organizational structures.
Portfolio Planning
For many large organizations, work is being undertaken in the context of a broader portfolio. That portfolio could be a product, system,
value stream, supply chain, or even a program. This Focus Area describes what agile portfolio planning looks like; its characteristics,
principles, and associated practices. The Practitioner will understand why agile portfolio planning must be di!erent than traditional
portfolio planning in order to deal with complex products and systems. They will also understand how to apply these ideas to their
portfolio. Practitioners will understand the challenges of managing complex dependencies and the choices that need to be made, while
ensuring that team agility is not broken, to serve the needs of the larger organization.
Evidence-Based Management
A fundamental element of Scrum is empirical process; the idea that complex problems require real experience to e!ectively plan and
deliver value. Evidence-Based Management (EBM) (/resources/evidence-based-management) is a set of ideas and practices that
describe broad measurement areas used to provide an e!ective, empirical, and value-based approach to any product. This Focus Area
describes what EBM is and how to apply it to any product. The practitioner will understand what EBM is, as well as the practices
that comprise it, and how to use EBM to enable a business-driven, value-based empirical process.
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Professional Scrum Competency: Developing and Delivering Products Professionally | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:03 a. m.
Professional Scrum Competency: Developing and

Delivering Products Professionally
Developing and Delivering Products Professionally with Scrum results in high-quality software products
delivered iteratively and incrementally with relatively high frequency. These products meet the needs of
stakeholders and customers and provide !exibility for both early value realization and adaptation to changing
needs. Professional software development requires collaboration among team members and the entire
organization, and there are a set of Focus Areas that, when understood and applied, yield the holistic
realization of this end-to-end-vision.
Management throughout the lifespan of application development, reducing cycle times, and eliminating
waste requires a proven set of tools and processes that help organizations integrate di"erent teams,
platforms, and activities. The Focus Area, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery, provides a set of practices and techniques to
deliver value continuously, marrying the ideas of frequent learning with the concepts of small batch size and automation.
The Scrum Team(s) use an Emergent Software Development approach for the overall structure de#nition, where the speci#c detailed
design decisions are made when needed, but not before. The detailed decisions build on the overall framework to create a coherent
product that meets organizational standards.
Scrum Teams should also focus on Optimizing Flow and Continuous Quality that consistently delivers fully integrated, tested, and
potentially releasable “Done” product increments every Sprint. Incorporating the appropriate engineering practices and tools will help
facilitate the consistent development of integrated "Done" increments while Managing Technical Risk that could otherwise compromise
the team’s ability to quickly and easily adapt the product to changing needs, thereby hindering the organization's agility.
The Scrum Team(s) are naturally the tangible developers of Professional Software but some pro#ciency with Developing and Delivering
Product Professionally is important for all roles within an organization to facilitate communication, collaboration, and stakeholder
participation.
Key Focus Areas

competency.
Emergent Software Development

In solving complex problems, the idea of a detailed up-front design has been replaced with an approach that encourages design to
emerge and change within the boundaries of an architecture. In this Focus Area, practitioners will be able to describe what emergent
architecture is and how it translates into incremental development and delivery. They will be able to describe practices that “realize” the
architecture incrementally into a working, agile system. Practitioners will understand the trade-o"s between value, !exibility, and quality,
and will also be able to apply techniques that make the emergent approach transparent to the team, organization, and stakeholders.
Managing Technical Risk

All products have an inherent set of risks to manage. These risks range from the ability to deliver to technical risks associated with
performance and security. This Focus Area describes how technical risks are managed within an Agile approach. Practitioners should
understand what technical risks are and how to e"ectively manage them in an empirical process. They should also understand how to
apply practices to make risks transparent.
Continuous Quality
Working in an agile way does not change the importance of product quality. It does, however, change when and where quality is
addressed. This Focus Area describes what quality is and how the ideas of Agility and Scrum change a product's quality approach. The
practitioner will understand what continuous quality is, how to apply it, and the appropriate practices for delivering quality in a continuous
way. They will understand important concepts like technical debt, Test Left, and the ideas of user-driven testing.
Continuous Integration (CI) / Continuous Delivery (CD)

Frequent learning is a fundamental concept for Scrum. Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration are a key collection of practices
that enable frequent observation of working features. This Focus Area describes the value of the core idea that code should always be
deployable and an understanding of the techniques that can be employed for delivering software that solves complex problems. The
practitioner will understand what CI and CD are, how to apply these ideas, and what it means for an empirical process and the Scrum
framework.
Optimizing Flow
The Sprint is a time-box with clear !ows within it. For large, complex work, the Sprint is just a small part of a broader !ow for the product,
business, or even market. This Focus Area concentrates on making !ow transparent and ensuring that waste is reduced or removed.
Automation and measurement are key elements to ensuring !ow e$ciency, coupled with a series of rules that have evolved in response
to improving !ow. The practitioner will be able to look to !ow approaches such as Kanban and integrate these ideas with Scrum,
frequently delivering valuable products and learning.
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Professional Scrum Competency: Managing Products with Agility | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:03 a. m.
Professional Scrum Competency: Managing Products

with Agility
Managing Products with Agility results in products that provide valuable business outcomes, increased
!exibility to respond to change, and greater transparency for investment decisions in product development. A
clear and understandable Product Vision helps to align product development with the organization’s
Business Strategy including strategic goals and/or business vision, while a focus on Product Value
addresses the continuous improvements to the product. Product Value includes considerations such as
greater transparency in value-based decisions and organization-wide, value-driven approaches. Key tenets of
this Focus Area include continuously de"ning value, measuring actual value realized, validating assumptions,
and analyzing trends.
The process of aligning Product Vision with Product Value is iterative and incremental, and it is managed through continuous re"nement
of the Product Backlog. E#ective Product Backlog Management requires input and collaboration from a variety of Stakeholders and
Customers - including the Scrum Team - and requires evolving techniques to ensure appropriate levels of transparency based on the
needs of stakeholders. Similarly, Forecasting and Planning uses an iterative and incremental approach to manage complexity, change,
and the realities of business obligations. Attention to these Focus Areas results in development and delivery of valuable product
increments within 30 days or less. Additional features and bene"ts of these approaches include increased transparency to progress, more
realistic and evolving forecasts to manage stakeholder expectations, and applying appropriate release, sales, contracting, and partnering
strategies.
The Product Owner is typically focused on Managing Products with Agility, however, pro"ciency in this competency is required by all
Scrum Team members, Agile Leaders, and organizational stakeholders to ensure that the full value of using the Scrum framework and an
empirical process is achieved.
Key Focus Areas

competency.
Forecasting and Release Planning

Complex problems and the application of an empirical process requires a speci"c way of planning, estimating, and forecasting.
Practitioners should be able to apply agile forecasting and release planning techniques, and understand the value of di#erent
approaches. They should understand which approaches work better in di#erent situations. They should also understand how releases
should be planned while dealing with complexity, dependencies, and value creation.
Product Vision
The Product Vision de"nes the purpose or goal that the product serves, and is de"ned by the “value” that the product strives to deliver. It
should be the "true north" for the product and should not be a#ected by the day-to-day di$culties or challenges of delivery. The Product
Vision only changes if the goal of the product changes, such as when a business pivot happens. Practitioners should be able to describe
what a product vision is and what techniques should be employed to both build a vision and make it transparent. They should also
understand how to use a Product Vision to drive strategy and execution, and how to build a vision that motivates, communicates, and
provides constraints for delivery.
Product Value
The ultimate goal is to deliver value to the customer and stakeholders. But value is complex, made up of long-term and short-term
impact, internal and external value, and indirect and direct value. The practitioner should be able to understand how to de"ne value for
context, and apply it to the work they and the team do. They should be able to manage others' understanding of value and apply di#erent
techniques and practices for de"ning, communicating and measuring value. They should understand the connection between value and
empirical process, and how value should be the driving factor of the Product Vision.
Product Backlog Management

The Product Backlog is a key artifact within Scrum. It is an ordered list that describes what is needed in the product. The Product Backlog
provides transparency into what is happening to the product for the team, organization, and stakeholders. The practitioner should be able
to describe what a Product Backlog is and apply a variety of techniques for managing the backlog. They should also understand how to
make the Product Backlog transparent and how to manage stakeholder expectations associated with the backlog.
Business Strategy
A product lives within the context of a business strategy. That strategy describes how the Product Vision will be executed in a broader
context. A practitioner will understand techniques for exposing business strategy and show how it drives the product. They will
understand approaches, such as Lean Startup and Design Thinking, and how those a#ect the !ow of ideas from strategy to execution.
They will understand how an empirical process a#ects the execution and feedback of a strategy.
Stakeholders and Customers

https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-competencies/managing-products-with-agility Página 1 de 2
Professional Scrum Competency: Managing Products with Agility | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:03 a. m.
E#ectively working with stakeholders and customers is a key skill for both the Product Owner and the Development Team. Scrum
changes the nature of the interactions, encouraging more frequent collaboration and more open dialogue. The practitioner
will understand the implication moving to an Agile approach will have to their stakeholders and customers and also become familiar with
practices that will help them work and collaborate in a more agile way.

https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-competencies/managing-products-with-agility Página 2 de 2
Professional Scrum Competency: Developing People and Teams | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:03 a. m.
Professional Scrum Competency: Developing People

and Teams
Scrum is only as e!ective as the individuals and teams using it. All Scrum Team roles must e!ectively use
Scrum and continuously improve their Scrum implementation to increase the bene"ts and adapt as new
challenges arise. Embracing these challenges by continuously Developing People and Teams results in
motivated and dynamic high-performing teams capable of collaborating e!ectively together, and across an
organization, to creatively and productively solve complex problems in product delivery.
Teaching, Facilitation, and Mentoring and Coaching are hands-on approaches to personal self-development
that bring new individual knowledge and skills, enhance team collaboration, and are appropriate to be
received or provided by all capable members of an organization. It is also important to recognize that all
individuals can bene"t from increased levels of personal leadership presence and a pro"ciency in applying appropriate Leadership
Styles to e!ectively communicate and in#uence others at all levels of an organization. Finally, Practitioners of Scrum must understand
and appropriately address team dynamics with models that enable individuals to form and develop cross-functional Self-Organizing
Teams.
All Scrum Team members must continuously grow in their ability to contribute to and in#uence team outcomes. This requires in#uencing
and collaborating with others in the organization. Scrum Masters have a speci"c responsibility to support and shepherd development of
Scrum Team members and other members of the organization.
Key Focus Areas

competency.
Self-Organizing Teams
A fundamental foundational element to Scrum; self-organizing and empowered teams are the engine to delivering value. Practitioners
need to understand what self-organization is and how to apply it to their context. They should also understand how to incrementally
introduce self-organization, the practices that can help self-organization occur, and the measures that help one judge if a team is able to
be empowered to self-organize.
Facilitation
Making decisions, sharing ideas, and being transparent is easy to agree to, but in reality, it is hard to do. Facilitation is a set of practices that
help support the collaboration, communication, and creativity of teams and individuals. The practitioner should understand the value of
facilitation, and have a collection of techniques they can apply. They should also have experience applying them in di!erent situations
with varying levels of complexity.
Leadership Styles
There are many di!erent leadership styles ranging from traditional ‘command and control’ to more collaborative or even Machiavellian.
Understanding the right style to use at a given time and how di!erent styles can in#uence - in a positive or negative way - the agile
agenda of empiricism, empowerment, and improvement is a key Focus Area. Practitioners should understand the concepts of leadership
styles and be able to apply a particular style when the situation calls for it. They should also be able to demonstrate their ability to decide
on the right style and understand its impact on the organization.
Coaching and Mentoring

A key aspect of servant leadership is the ability to coach and mentor the organization, the team, and the business. The objective of
coaching and mentoring is to help people get better at their work, deliver more value, or resolve a con#ict or problem. The practitioner
should be able to coach as well as mentor. They should understand di!erent formal techniques and be able to apply those techniques in
di!erent complex situations.
Teaching
The ability to inspire others to learn and share information in an e!ective, repeatable, and e$cient manner is a key aspect to any agile
practitioners' skills. The practitioner should understand the value of teaching and appreciate the means of measuring the success of their
teaching. They should understand di!erent learning approaches and understand when to apply di!erent techniques in di!erent contexts.
(https://twitter.com/Scrumdotorg) (http://facebook.com/scrum.org) (https://www.linkedin.com/company/scrum-org)

https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-competencies/developing-people-and-teams Página 1 de 2
Manifesto for Agile Software Development 23/5/20 12:57 a. m.
Manifesto for Agile Software Development
We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
Kent Beck James Grenning Robert C. Martin

Mike Beedle Jim Highsmith Steve Mellor
Arie van Bennekum Andrew Hunt Ken Schwaber
Alistair Cockburn Ron Jeffries Jeff Sutherland
Ward Cunningham Jon Kern Dave Thomas
Martin Fowler Brian Marick
http://agilemanifesto.org/ Página 1 de 4
© 2001, the above authors

this declaration may be freely copied in any form,
but only in its entirety through this notice.
Twelve Principles of Agile Software
View Signatories
About the Authors

About the Manifesto
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Suggested Reading for Professional Agile Leadership | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:12 a. m.
Suggested Reading for

Professional Agile Leadership
4.4 from 15 ratings
Delivering products is complex work and for more than 20 years, people have been
using Scrum to do so; leaders are increasingly focused on how they can help their
organizations become more agile. The PAL I assessment includes questions from the
following Focus Areas as de!ned in the Professional Scrum Competencies
(https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-competencies).
Understanding and Applying the Scrum Framework

(https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-competencies/understanding-and-
applying-scrum-framework):
Empiricism, Scrum Values, Roles, Events.
Developing People and Teams (https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-
competencies/developing-people-and-teams):
Self-Organizing Teams, Facilitation, Leadership Styles.
Managing Products with Agility (https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-
competencies/managing-products-with-agility):
Forecasting & Release Planning, Product Value, Stakeholders & Customers.
Developing and Delivering Products Professionally
(https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-competencies/developing-and-
delivering-products-professionally):
Emergent Software Development, Continuous Quality.
Evolving the Agile Organization (https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-
competencies/evolving-the-agile-organization):
Organizational Design and Culture, Evidence-Based Management.
This assessment will challenge your thinking; if you are not working from a servant-
leadership mindset, and are not prepared to place a high level of trust in the hands of
those you lead, you will likely struggle to pass the PAL I assessment. Below are some
resources for learning more about Professional Agile Leadership and preparing for the
Professional Agile Leadership I (PAL I) certi!cation assessment.
Preparing for PAL I

Begin by reading this blog about Scrum Values
(https://guntherverheyen.com/2013/05/03/theres-value-in-the-scrum-values/)
by Gunther Verheyen.
Study the resources in the Agile Leader Learning Path
(https://www.scrum.org/pathway/agile-leader-learning-path).
Take the Agile Leadership Open (/open-assessments/agile-leadership-open)
assessment.
Study the Scrum Guide (https://www.scrum.org/resources/scrum-guide).
Courses:
Professional Agile Leadership Essentials training
(https://www.scrum.org/courses/professional-agile-leadership-essentials-
training)
Scrum resources:
Familiarize yourself with the Scrum glossary (https://www.scrum.org/scrum-
glossary).
Read articles on our Blog ( https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/welcome-
new-scrumorg-community-blog), written by our expert Professional Scrum
Trainers.
ABOUT US Join
(/ABOUT) TRAININGForum
the Scrum.org (/COURSES) CERTIFICATION
(https:/ (/PROFESSIONAL-SCRUM-CERTIFICATIONS)
/www.scrum.org/forum) discussions.
View the Scrum.org Resources page (https://www.scrum.org/resources?
search=Agile%20Leadership).
View the What is Scrum Resource page (https://www.scrum.org/what-is-scrum).
Practice
Build your Scrum muscle memory by engaging in discussions and practicing Scrum
fundamentals with your team.
Practice Assessments
Take the Agile Leadership Open (/open-assessments/agile-leadership-open)
assessment until you are comfortable with the content. Feedback will be
provided on the Open, but not on the certi!cation assessment.
Take the Scrum Open Assessment (https://www.scrum.org/open-
https://www.scrum.org/resources/suggested-reading-professional-agile-leadership Página 1 de 2
Suggested Reading for Professional Agile Leadership | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:12 a. m.
Take the Scrum Open Assessment (https://www.scrum.org/open-

assessments/scrum-open) until you are comfortable with the content. The
Scrum Open assessment is a learning tool, and thus feedback is provided
during the test.
If you are a developer, also take the Scrum Developer Open Assessment
(https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/scrum-developer-open). This
assessment looks at a number of software development practices and
techniques that support building high-quality and high-value products in a
Scrum Team.
If you are responsible for maximizing the value of a product, take the Product
Owner Open Assessment (https://www.scrum.org/open-
assessments/product-owner-open). This assessment helps strengthen
knowledge on the role of the Product Owner in Scrum.
Apply Scrum in your workplace. As you do, stop to re"ect on whether you’re taking
advantage of all of the opportunities that the Scrum framework o#ers, or if you’re
using ScrumBut (https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-scrumbut).
Be conscious of your decisions as you adapt and evolve with projects complexity
and team member's old habits. Think about why Scrum is structured the way it is,
and how the Scrum framework di#ers from traditional management practices.
Assess
All Scrum.org assessments use the most recent version of the English Scrum Guide as
the source for questions regarding the rules, artifacts, events, and roles of Scrum.
However, reading the Scrum Guide alone is not enough for someone to pass a
Professional Scrum Assessment. Questions often ask test-takers to interpret information
and apply it to challenging situations, so knowledge gained from personal experience
and other sources is typically needed.
Once you have solidi!ed your Scrum knowledge and understanding, you're ready
to validate it with an Assessment! (https://www.scrum.org/professional-scrum-
certi!cations)
Share this article
& Email (mailto:?
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Professional Agile Leadership™ Certification | Scrum.org 23/5/20 1:13 a. m.

PROFESSIONAL AGILE LEADERSHIP™ CERTIFICATION

Prove your knowledge of Professional Agile

Prepare for the Assessment

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Passing score: 85% industry-recognized "PAL I" certi!cation, along with a

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