Did you know that there are close to half a million Certified Scrum Masters in the world but less than six thousand Certified Scrum Developers? And yet in any scrum team, there are likely to be between four and seven developers (team members other than the product owner and scrum master) for each scrum master.

So, for half a million CSMs, there should be millions of CSDs.

Being a software developer does not necessarily mean that you will be effective and efficient in a scrum environment. There are development practices and there are developer activities that apply to scrum.

It is also not true that a non-technical (hands-on) person such as a project manager who takes the CSM course is going to be able to come back and lead change management in development practices. Those practices are not taught in the CSM and the new scrum master is not versed in them either. A CSC (certified scrum coach) who has never been a true hands-on developer is also not going to be able to help the scrum developers in improving their development skills.

A CSM course teaches a person to start on the road to becoming a scrum master, but it does not teach a developer to become a scrum developer. That is not its purpose.

That is the express purpose of the CSD course!

The CSD course is a hands-on course applicable to architects, designers, “coders” and QA personnel. The Scrum Adventures CSD course is unique in that it teaches the skills and practices of the ultra-successful software companies (activities and philosophies that set them apart from others) while building an actual product within a scrum team, iterating through a series of actual sprints with all of the scrum ceremonies. You truly demonstrate that you know how to do and have even done scrum development.

It is up to developers themselves to take the responsibility to be effective in a scrum environment. Your managers may not understand that it takes more than a project manager retrained as a CSM, or a non-technical coach, or even developers sent to the CSM course to make scrum effective in your organization. Developers should be able to identify when their scrum team is being effective but also to identify situations where what is being done is “not scrum”. Scrum is incredibly successful if it is being done, but when one or more essential aspects of scrum are omitted, especially in the development arena, that success can be elusive. It can even make things worse.

Having the Certified Scrum Developer designation sets you apart as a developer. It makes you one of just a few thousand who develop professionally using scrum practices and are certified as such.