CSPO® Curriculum

The Product Owner is an individual on the Scrum team, who represents the user community or business, and is responsible for working with the user group to find the features that will be included in the product release. They are the leaders, managing the team and guiding the product’s progress toward success. The role of the Product Owner is critical to all types of product development, specifically in the Agile methodology.

The Scrum Product Owner responsibilities list includes the following:

• Defining the product features
• Prioritizing the product features
• Adjusting the features and priority after each sprint as required
• Rejecting or accepting work results
• Keeping customers updated about status and getting their feedback

As a Certified Product Owner, you will be given the responsibility of heading an Agile project, liaising with the Scrum Master to achieve objectives and ensuring satisfied customers. The CSPO course will enable you to improve the effectiveness of Scrum artifacts and give you the knowledge necessary to increase the business agility in your organization.

The Product Owner and the Scrum Master are two different roles in the Scrum (Agile) development model. However, both have the same objective of adding value to project management. While the Scrum Master focuses completely on the team and its operations, the Product Owner studies the project from a customer’s perspective. The Product Owners are responsible for managing the product backlog and securing its visibility all the time. On the other hand, the Scrum Master is responsible to motivate the team and help remove any impediments in order to facilitate the timely completion of the project.

• Business Analyst
• Project Manager
• Product Manager
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Gain a detailed overview of the CSPO career path.

Your next step in your Agile journey after earning your foundational CSPO certification and a year of experience working as a CSPO on a Scrum Team is to achieve your Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner™ (A-CSPO™) certification.

Through this membership, you can join local user groups, online social networks, gain access to deep discounts on gatherings, and additional member-only resources. In addition, CSPOs get to use a specially designed logo to highlight their credentials.

Here are some of the top industries and companies that hire Product Owners:

Information Technology:

• Dell
• Oracle
• Infosys
• Siemens
• Honeywell
• Accenture
• Cisco Systems
• Tata Consultancy Services Ltd
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• J.P. Morgan Chase & Co

Telecom: 

• Nokia Siemens Networks Ltd
• Transaction Network Services

Healthcare:

• GE Healthcare
• Siemens Healthineers
• MediQuire
• Evolent Health 

Financial:

• Societe Generale Global Solution Centre
• Fidelity Investments
• PayPal
• Mastercard
• Axis Bank 

CSPO or Certified Scrum Product Owner is a certification offered for the Product Owner by the Scrum Alliance. PSPO or Professional Scrum Product Owner is another certification offered for the Product Owner role by Scrum.org. Both certifications are equivalent in terms of high standards of quality. The difference lies in the way of obtaining and maintaining the certifications.

The CSPO certification exam is taken online after completing a mandatory 2-day training given by a Certified Scrum Trainer. For the PSPO certification, training is not a prerequisite to taking the online exam. Here are a few more differences between the two certifications that you should know:

To assess the value of certification, you need to consider the following:

• Prior knowledge or competence
• Difficulty of the assessment process
• Validity of the certification
• Cost involved

A Product Owner is a person who determines what a Scrum team delivers to stakeholders. Product Owners are a liaison between the development team and stakeholders such as end-users, marketing, sales, customer support, higher management, etc. They carry the vision and manage the user feedback. All Scrum Team needs a Product Owner, as without them, the team will not deliver what is most valuable to stakeholders. As a Product Owner, you must have the following skills:

• Communication skills - A Product Owner works with many stakeholders to understand their vision and helps the development team to bring it to reality. Without good communication skills there will be less alignment amongst stakeholders and less fruitful interactions between stakeholders and the team.
• Commitment - As a Product Owner, you should be committed to the vision, business goals and the team.
• Power of No - A Product Owner is responsible for managing the requests and feedback from stakeholders. Many times, they have to say ‘No’. Developers cannot develop every idea or feedback the stakeholders have, because there are always limits on time and budget. That is why it is important to say ‘No’ in a manner that does not upset or discourage the business.
• Vision - Product Owners are responsible for seeing and communicating the product’s full vision and steering the ship forward. They also align the vision of the product with the vision and needs of the company. Furthermore, a Product Owner needs to communicate the relation between the business goals and the backlog items.
• Curiosity - As a Product Owner, you must be curious to ask ‘Why’ from business and ‘how’ from the development team. And bring stakeholders together with the development team to stimulate unexpected solutions to occur.

All the above-mentioned skills are linked together with communication. A Product Owner must be a master communicator and ensure that stakeholders and Scrum Team are aligned together for making the vision come true.

Here are some of the best Product Owner Certification for a business analyst:

• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) - This certification will help you expand the horizons of your career. You will be able to demonstrate your Scrum knowledge, engage with agile practitioners, and understand all the Scrum methodologies.
• SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (SAFe POPM) - As a Scaled Agile Product Owner, you are responsible for the Lean-Agile team. If your organization has adopted scaled agile methodologies, then you should go for this certification. It will help you develop skills to lead any agile team towards growth. You will learn about the value and quality control of the product. The certification facilitates the gamut of information on release training, planning, and execution of Agile projects in a Lean-Agile environment.
• Professional Scrum Product Owner l, II, III (PSPO I, II, III) - This certification can be considered as a self-paced learning method that provides all the information on how to manage a project effectively. It is best suited for Agile and Scrum enterprise. Its focus is on how to maximize the product’s value. Completing the three levels of qualification will make you an expert in product ownership.

Certified Scrum Product Owner or CSPO is a Scrum certification offered by the Scrum Alliance. Anyone who wants to be a Product Owner in a Scrum team should go for this certification. It is a globally recognized certification that you can use in different industries like information technology, infrastructure, automobile, etc. The CSPO course will cover the following:

• Fundamentals of Scrum and Agile
• Product Discovery
• Product Roadmap
• Product Vision
• Estimation
• Use stories
• Burn up and burn down charts
• Release planning, etc.

The primary aim of this certification is to help the candidates understand what the role of a Product Owner is. A good way to do this would be understand the responsibilities, characteristics, and common anti-patterns of a Product Owner.

Yes, of course. The CSPO  training is right for you if you fall under any of the following categories:

• If you want to learn how to prioritize and interface with Agile teams
• If you want to maximize the benefits of Agile projects
• If you are a Product Owner or Product Manager and are looking to advance your skills while addressing real-world issues that you have encountered

Yes, there is an online/virtual course for CSPO. 

Our Certified Scrum Trainers® (CSTs) are:

• Professionals licensed by Scrum Alliance to teach the official Scrum Alliance curriculum,
• Masters in Scrum who have immense experience in leading, applying, coaching, and teaching it,
• Skilled in product management and software development, and
• Subject experts who are active in software development and local Agile communities, along with the broader global Scrum and Agile movements.

Our dedicated team of CSTs delivers training on par with the standard of excellence as set out by Scrum Alliance. So, every candidate receives the same high-quality content irrespective of the trainer and the location. They help you further develop the competencies and skills you need to make a difference in your organization.

Certified Scrum Product Owner® is a much sought-after credential in the Agile space, and the value of the CSPO certification has gained momentum since the last few years. In today’s constantly changing industry environment, businesses have realized the value of adopting an Agile methodology to achieve higher profitability with better utilization of resources. By recruiting experts who are proficient in agile methods, they can ensure that teams are better tuned-in to the Agile mindset, thus ensuring project success. CSPO certified professionals have the knowledge and skills to enable them to make the right decisions as an effective customer to the Scrum team, motivating their team members to perform better and maximizing ROI which is the need of the hour. 

• Gain an exemplary foundation of Scrum
• Enhance the level of Scrum functionalities
• Provide leadership to Agile teams
• Improve professional skills, as an efficient Product Owner
• Integrate the newly acquired skills to improve employment prospects 
• Stay updated by gaining an updated understanding of different Agile practices
• Expand your career opportunities across all industries adopting Agile practices
• Gain access to a number of local groups of Scrum users and social networks.

CSPO is a participation-based certificate. On successful completion of an in-person, two day (16 hours) CSPO course taught by a Certified Scrum Trainer® (such as this course), you will receive a Certificate from Scrum Alliance designating you as Certified Scrum Product Owner®. The certification includes a two-year membership in Scrum Alliance.

The course fee paid includes the first 2 years of Certified Scrum Product Owner® certification cost.

CSPO certification renewal needs to be done every 2 years. You need to pay $100 to extend the credential for a further 2 years from the date of your current expiration. In order to renew your Scrum Product Owner certification, log in to https://www.scrumalliance.org/login, go to your dashboard and choose the ‘Renew Certification’ option available under the heading ‘Actions’.

Starting from February 4, 2019, candidates are now required to earn 20 Scrum Educational Units (SEUs) within the past two years, in addition to the $100 renewal fee that has to be paid.This new requirement has been mandated to validate your participation and continued proficiency in the fundamental principles and practices of Scrum. You can earn the required SEUs by completing an educational training or a learning opportunity.

At present, the average Certified Product Owner salary is $134,366 per year.

PDUs and SEUs are credits awarded by the Project Management Institute and the Scrum Alliance respectively. They recognize your dedication to the Agile world through the award of credits for every educational effort you make throughout your career. Scrum Alliance members who hold a credential from Scrum Alliance need to earn SEUs to get recertified every two years. PDUs are offered by the PMI®, and every PMI® certification, except the CAPM®, requires you to earn a specific number of PDUs per three-year certification cycle.

You can get 14-16 PDUs and SEUs by participating in our 2-day training program.