This page describes the best practice guidelines already in use by many senior CSTs. Reviewers of CSTs have been requested to consider this in their reviews.
These best practices were later also agreed by the CSTs interested in this topic at the ScrumGathering in Orlando.
We recommend that a duly elected Representative Committe (from the CST community) approve these best practices. Immediately.
We recommend that the ScrumAlliance board approve these best practices immediately.
Mentoring serves two purposes.
* Enable the mentor (and others) to make an informed recommendation or decision.
* Enable the candidate to learn more about being a CST, so that, if approved, he or she can be more successful.
Scrum is important and very strong CSTs are critical to its continuing success. Thus, mentoring is important.
It is in the best interest of the customers who ultimately benefit from Scrum that the CST community be improved.
A candidate must complete an application. Two CSTs must review and approve an application before it is submitted to the Scrum Alliance board. The Board has final authority to accept or reject candidates. (The Board meets 3 times a year.)
Currently the application must include recommendations.
These additional practices did not and do not change the existing process, except to clarify and make more consistent what happens before an application is complete. After the application becomes complete (as described below), then the current "two reviewer approval" process can begin.
What is described below is happening already in many cases. (The percentage might already be high or even all.)
* Before starting the mentorship, a candidate must already have done teaching or leading of courses in a related subject. One-day courses or longer, by himself or herself.
* The candidate will find a Mentor CST, and co-teach at least 3 CSM courses with that person.
* The candidate will find two other CSTs, and co-teach at least 1 CSM course with each of them.
* These courses may not happen in extremely rapid succession.
* The 3 CSTs will provide feedback to the candidate during the mentorship.
* After each course, the candidate is expected to describe how he or she would conduct the course differently, as a learning opportunity for both.
* The candidate will be able to stand up to 1 hour of questions from attendees.
* Over the 5+ courses, the candidate will teach all major topics in the CSM course.
* Assuming the 3 CSTs decide to recommend the candidate, each must disclose any conflicts of interest.
* This is not to be construed as a minimal "if-you-can-survive-this" bar. The 3 CSTs involved in the mentorship should only recommend very strong candidates. In general, the CST community should improve when a new CST is added.
A CST may consider many factors in a recommendation, not just those mentioned below. The 3 CSTs involved in the mentorship will discuss the meaning of these and other ideas on what makes for a strong candidate.
* Knowledge of Scrum, and what is and is not part of Scrum
* Teaching ability, in some sort of engaging or interactive approach
* Practical experience with Scrum in many real world contexts, probably through being a ScrumMaster or coaching
* Basic personality (one example: people in certain Myers-Briggs categories will naturally gravitate toward a command & control style; we are not in the business of re-making a person's fundamental personality)
* Clear evidence of a willingness to stay involved "in the trenches" and to learn from that (no ivory tower teachers)
* An ability to, and interest in, contributing to the Agile and Scrum communities. And has done so
* A person able to run more successful courses on their own, including gathering sufficient signups and organizing all aspects of a course. We emphasize that this must be demonstrated in practice
* A person who would represent the Scrum community well (character, leadership, and all those other hard-to-define-yet-essential qualities)
* This list is by no means complete, nor can it deal with all situations. The CSTs involved are supposed to apply good professionally judgment.
To complete the application, a candidate for CST must get at least 3 recommendations from existing CSTs.
One recommendation must be from a Mentor (a CST who mentors the candidate). The mentoring process will include co-teaching at least 3 courses with that Mentor. The mentor and the candidate will work together to define what else the mentoring will involve.
The Mentor will check that the candidate CST has or will be co-teaching with at least 2 other CSTs (ie, at least 1 course with each). With a successful candidacy, those other 2 CSTs will also provide recommendations, with those co-teaching experiences as a minimum basis for the recommendation.
The candidate will organize those 5+ courses (thus proving their business ability to be successful as a CST in practical matters). The Mentor will be available to answer questions in the organizing phase. And obviously do those things that the candidate CST cannot do (eg, CSTs can add courses on the scrumalliance.org site).
The candidate and each CST involved may agree on any distribution of the revenue from each course they co-teach. No expectation is set on whether the distributions will be the same.
The 3 CSTs (the Mentor and the 2 other CSTs) will discuss the candidate during his/her mentorship, so that they might learn about the candidate and advise the candidate on areas of improvement. And so that they may discuss what characteristics are needed in a good candidate. (This is an inspect and adapt process for all, on multiple levels.)
After each course, the candidate will discuss how he/she would conduct the course differently. In part due to different skills, interests, abilities, and in part perhaps due to other reasons. This is also to demonstrate that the candidate is not a mere recording device of the mentoring CST.
All 3 CST recommenders will review the candidate's application.
It is expected that all candidates will have areas of improvement, and that the CSTs will provide feedback on that during the mentorship.
It is likely to be normal that a large number of candidates will need further development before becoming a CST, ie, that this will extend the mentorship in some way or other. It is also likely that some number of candidates should be encouraged not to continue their candidacy. Being minimally qualified is not enough.
All 5+ co-taught courses will be CSM courses (although one of them could be a CSPO course). All 5+ courses must be taught while the CSTs are aware that person is a candidate (eg, they are looking at things with those eyes).
After all 5+ courses are completed. the three CSTs will discuss the candidate and, if they concur that the candidate is sufficiently strong, then independently write (or finalize) each recommendation. Or the candidate may be requested to co-teach more courses. Or the candidate might be advised to end their candidacy. Etc.
For any reason, the candidate may find another CST (or CSTs) to work with in the mentorship (any of the 3 original CSTs). This change must be disclosed to the new CST group.
Any issues that might be deemed conflicts of interest or bias will be disclosed by the 3 CSTs in their recommendation letter (email). Positive or negative. Obviously, in the case of any large conflict of interest, a CST should use good professional judgment and withdraw from the situation.
The reviewers may take conflicts of interest (whether disclosed or not) into consideration is their reviews of candidates. Reviewers may contact CSTs to discuss a conflict of interest. Reviewers are expected to use good professional judgment about this, and consider the long-term best interest of the users of Scrum and the customers who get the benefits of Scrum teams. And the impact on the Scrum community generally.
Failure to disclose a conflict of interest could lead to action by the Scrum Alliance board, including rescinding the person's CST certification.
We foresee an inspect and adapt process for light gray conflicts of interest. We recommend erring on the side of fuller disclosure.
Already in effect for years as a best practice. Immediately, for all candidates that have not yet received Board approval.
This may require someone to explain this best practice to candidates already in process. They may be delayed. While not an ideal circumstance, still a reasonable situation.
We urge that this page be made very publicly available.
If approved, it is normally expected that the Mentor will offer some advice to the new CST as he/she gets started acting as a CST. Beyond that, how the relationship evolves will be up to the people involved.
There may be special circumstances that make it obvious that a less "rigorous" approach should be taken than the one described here. For example, if the candidate's great qualifications are already publicly very well known by many, the vetting and learning process inherent in this approach may not be appropriate. The CST community respects the judgment of the Scrum Board in identifying these special situations. The CST community requests that such situations be disclosed to the CST/CSC community (or its representatives) beforehand, in case the CST/CSC community might have input. And the CST/CSC community requests broad disclosure of such an exception after the fact.
The 3 CSTs involved should review this whole page (including this section), and discuss the meaning, interpretation and application of these requirements, ideas, and comments. Probably at the beginning and toward the end, at least.
* It is a normal human situation that a CST will like a candidate as a person, the candidate understands Scrum basically, and the candidate can teach Scrum adequately. So one may feel "how can I not recommend the person?". Nonetheless, this is not sufficent for a recommendation as a CST.
* Being a CST is hard. Understanding the role of a CST is complex. There is much explicit and tacit knowledge to impart and learn. In many domains.
* Understanding whether a candidate for CST is qualified typically takes time.
* The best way to see whether a person is qualified is to watch them in action over time.
* The best way to impart tacit knowledge is by interaction during real action.
* There are many qualities that make for a good CST, teaching ability being only one of them. Business sense and the ability, from a business viewpoint, to run at least a modestly successful coaching and training business are also among them.
* We do not want an inbred CST group, where an incoming CST is just friends or a business colleague of existing CSTs, without further independent vetting.
* An inbility to think for oneself and think independently would tend to be disqualifying characteristics. (At an extreme, this would be evidenced by a candidate merely repeating another CSTs speeches and slides.)
* We need each new CST to appreciate that there are multiple styles and learnings that CSTs draw upon. Only by working with multiple CSTs will this appreciation grow in a candidate.
* It is understood that each CST continues to be a CST no matter what position he or she may take or move to. Thus, comments that "I only intend to use the CST in such and such a way" are not relevant.
* All CSTs must be capable of being a ScrumMaster and of coaching. And must have continuing experience "in the trenches" in some way. This is necessary because the training must be based on real and continuing experience.
* Because of the variety of implementations of Scrum, it is important that the candidate have experiences of Scrum under many conditions. Those whose experience base is limited to one context, even if quite deep in that context, may need to do "extra credit" compared to the minimal requirements of mentorship.
* The interest of the candidate to continue learning about Agile, Scrum and all the disciplines around them is a key success factor for candidates for CST (and for CSTs).
* The ultimate success is that, because of what the candidate does (and does not do), customers, stakeholders and workers benefit. That course attendees remember key concepts is not the real success we seek.
* Candidates must be able to run a reasonably successful training and consulting business. There are many reasons for this. One is so that the candidate is never tempted to cut corners, compromise Scrum, or engage in unprofessional activites.
* If a candidate is interested in Scrum or the CST certification mainly for the money, as with most things in life, this is almost surely not a good sign. Almost no one will admit this is his main motivation.
And probably contributed to what was articulated on this page. Or agreed to use it.
Jeff Sutherland
Boris Gloger
Bas Vodde
Dan Rawsthorne
Jim York
Mike Vizdos
Robin Dymond
Roger Brown
Mishkin Berteig
Alan Cyment
Andreas Schliep
Alexandre Magno
Kiran Thakkar
Joe Little
Others are welcome to "sign on".
This page represents the current best practice. Some of the above mentioned people require (or may require) more.
Another CST has suggested that these long-used best practices be posted as the current best practice for all. If others wish to make visible a better approach (at least in their opinion), let the CST community consider that as well.