About two weeks ago, a Scrum Trainers’ Gathering was held in Boston. About 25 Certified Scrum Trainers (CSTs) from all over the world gathered for a great two-day event, discussing training exercises, different approaches to training, and other related issues. There were a number of sessions that I found to be of particular interest and in the next few weeks I will write about three of these sessions including Boris’ Ball Point Game (part 2), Jens’ Written Specification exercise (part 3), and Lowell’s Affinity Estimating (part 4).

The gathering was kicked off by Ken Schwaber, who talked about some of his recent thoughts on Scrum. Much of the material he presented was from his CSM deck, but the real value came from discussions that occurred throughout his presentation. It was an opportunity for Ken to establish a common level of agreement and understanding among the Trainers. If you’re interested in reading his CSM update deck, you can find it here (link).

Jim Cundiffs, the new Managing Director of the Scrum Alliance, gave the event’s closing talk. He began by providing an overview of his experience in running non-profit organizations, before describing some of his recent work at the Alliance. Of particular note is the continued work on its web site (www.scrumalliance.org) and an update on the ongoing certification process. Many CSMs know that the certification process has been a difficult topic for some time and there is a great deal of debate about what “certification” actually means. To establish the certification programs, the Alliance is now working with the same company, who has helped both Microsoft and Oracle create similar programs.

In summary, the Trainers’ Gathering was a great event that was both informative and useful. In my next post, I’ll present Boris’ Ball Point game.