11 great learning resources for agile certification

Many software development companies are now practicing agile methodologies.

Whether you’re new to agile software development or a seasoned developer with experience with waterfall methods, Agile will pass you by.

There’s a good reason for that.

Not only will your development team be more productive, but your customers, vendors, and related professionals will have a better, faster alternative.

This is why agile adoption is spreading like wildfire.

Need more convincing?

Check out Gartner ‘s research. 87% of participants say they use Agile for software development. There is also a lot of data and research that explains the effectiveness of this methodology.

First, before you learn more about which Agile certification is best for you, you need to understand Agile in software development.

Let’s get started!

What does agile mean in software development?

Agile was officially launched in 2001 by 17 technology luminaries who introduced the Agile Manifesto. Its purpose is to develop great applications and software that:

• Enabling people to interact through tools and processes.
• Responds to quick plan changes
• Encourage customer collaboration
• Include comprehensive documentation

Simply put, agile gives you the ability to make changes and respond quickly. It’s a way to cope with an uncertain environment and still succeed.

The word “agile” was chosen to describe adaptability and responsiveness to significant changes in approaches to software development.

Agile software development refers to a set of methodologies based on iterative development that adheres to the Agile Manifesto. Here, requirements and their solutions evolve through collaboration between cross-functional teams.

It promotes a highly disciplined project management process that encourages self-organization, accountability, teamwork, and best practices, facilitating rapid, high-quality software delivery. Agile is an effective business approach that aligns the development process with company goals and customer needs.

What is Agile methodology?

Before understanding Agile methodologies, you need to make sure that you follow the following 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto to make your software development agile.

• Improve customer satisfaction by providing high-quality products with short delivery times
• Address necessary changes even late in the development cycle
• Deliver products frequently, allowing you to focus on shorter timescales
• Development teams and business decision makers must collaborate throughout the project.
• Trust your team members and inspire them to complete the project on time and successfully.
• Have face-to-face interactions to avoid confusion and misunderstandings
• Working software showing progress
• Avoid last-minute rush with constant speed to promote sustainable development
• Focus on technical excellence and superior design to improve agility
• Reducing idle time
• Optimal design, architecture, and requirements for better self-organization
• Monitor work regularly and make corrections to improve team efficiency

Now let’s understand some of the Agile methodologies.

• Scrum : A lightweight framework for project management that can be used to manage many types of incremental and iterative projects. Here, the work is divided into two to four “sprints” or iterations and performed by a team of seven to nine members. It is one of the most popular methodologies around the world due to its proven productivity, simplicity, and flexibility to incorporate practices from other frameworks depending on your requirements.
• Extreme Programming : This framework enables teams to build high-quality software in addition to good engineering practices. Extreme programming is applied to meet changing software needs.
• Lean : Includes a set of principles and tools focused on detecting and eliminating inefficiencies to increase the speed of process development and maximize the value delivered.
• Kanban : A method used to design, improve, and manage workflows by visualizing how work is done and its patterns. This method is useful when work arrives unexpectedly and needs to be deployed quickly.
• Crystal focuses on team members and how they interact with each other, rather than processes and tools. Every project is dynamic and unique. Crystal ensures that projects are completed with better cooperation from all members. Enhance communication and improve engagement.
• Feature-driven development: FDD is a short, iterative, model-driven process built on software development best practices. This includes object modeling, code ownership, feature development, planning, and design.
• Dynamic Systems Development: DSD provides a comprehensive approach to planning, executing, extending, and managing software development. DSD is based on eight principles, including on-time delivery, alignment with business needs, effective collaboration, quality-focused integration testing, clear communication, demonstrated control, and iterative development.

What are the benefits of Agile in software development?

super high quality product

Agile methodologies help you discover problems faster and resolve them efficiently and quickly. That flexibility allows the team to address customer reactions and constantly improve the product quickly.

high customer satisfaction

Increased collaboration among project team members allows you to immediately address customer feedback and improve software quality. The result is high customer satisfaction and brand trust.

Streamline your work and increase productivity

Because Agile is incremental and iterative in nature, projects can be completed in short sprints and are easier to manage. This way, you can deploy your product in less time and make rapid changes as needed during the development process.

Gain more control over your project

Dividing your work into parts allows you to perform rapid iterative cycles. Agile allows you to hold regular meetings to present progress, discuss problems, and work on solutions. It also provides greater transparency and control over the entire development cycle, helping you gain customer trust.

Improved ROI

Customers will be satisfied as a result of fast delivery. Thus, you save time and costs, increase ROI, and gain an edge in the market.

You will see how beneficial Agile is for software development. Therefore, it makes sense to get agile certification.

Don’t be surprised if we say that professionals with knowledge of agile approaches are in high demand. This will help you achieve better career scope and is also perfect if you want to expand your software development knowledge or improve your project management.

Some of the leading agile certifications:

• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner or PMI-ACP – ideal for professionals working in Agile teams or organizations seeking greater agility
• AgilePM or APMG International Agile Project Management Certification – Ideal for project managers with limited knowledge of Agile or foundation-level certifications.
• CSPO or Scrum Alliance Certified Product Owner – ideal for professionals familiar with Scrum
• CEC or Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coach – Ideal for business leaders with a strong understanding of Scrum principles and enterprise transformation.
• Disciplined Agilent with CDA or DAC certification – ideal for professionals new to or new to software development

Ready to learn about the best learning resources for Agile certifications?

Wait no more!

Agile method

This video by Edureka on YouTube uses Agile methodologies to explain Agile and its frameworks. Other topics covered in this article are the main reasons why you need agile, its benefits, and how to implement it effectively.

Certification training lasts from 4 to 16 weeks and includes 24/7 live one-on-one technical support to help you if you run into any issues. Once you complete your training, you will work on assigned real-time projects. For this, we obtain a grade along with a verifiable certificate.

agile crash course

Take Udemy’s Agile Crash Course on Project Management and Agile Delivery. These will help you become an Agile certified professional and will teach you important concepts along with tools from Scrum and other Agile methodologies.

At the end of the course, you will learn how to differentiate between traditional and agile product delivery, processes, guidelines to follow, and focus on the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). They tell us the true meaning of end-user stories, reflections, and daily stand-ups along with Kanban dashboards. This allows you to launch your product or online course faster.

Upon successful completion of the course, you will receive a certification from Udemy. No prior knowledge or experience with agile software development is required to begin the course. The courses are quite reasonable.

Certified Scrum Master

Another resource on Edureka’s list is Certified Scrum Master (CSM) training. Get a comprehensive understanding of the Scrum framework in agile project management.

This training will help you become a certified Scrum Master. Teach the basics of Scrum and its lifecycle to effectively organize teams, set up projects, and implement Scrum from sprints to releases to enterprise transformations.

This is a two-day classroom training that can open up new and exciting career opportunities. This course also includes three complementary courses:

• Cloud basics
• Six Sigma Green Belt Certification Training
• microsoft project training

When you take the CSM, exam fees are included and you receive a two-year membership in the Scrum Alliance.

software development

By enrolling in Udacity’s Agile Software Development Nanodegree program, you’ll learn best practices in agile frameworks to help you create better products more efficiently and faster. The estimated duration of this course is 3 months, 5-10 hours per week.

No prior experience is required if you want to get started. Learn how to create value-driven products through an agile approach to software development.

Build an environment that fosters productive teams and iteration management while teaching you the differences between Scrum, XP, and Kanban. Apart from that, you will learn how to lead and organize projects and have effective team communication.

The program includes real-world projects under the supervision and guided technical guidance of industry experts. Get access to resume support, Github portfolio reviews, and a LinkedIn profile that can help you advance your professional career and land a high-paying job.

project management

The Agile Project Management (APM) certification from edX is another certification to seriously consider. Here you’ll learn how Scrum works, as well as how to translate agile frameworks such as SAFe, LeSS, and Disciplined.

Easily gain deep insight into agile principles and their applications in any industry, including software, finance, construction, aerospace, and more. Teaching people how to implement agile controls in their projects helps reduce the risks associated with project failure.

Apart from that, lean work management methods increase delivery speed, leadership approach and innovation improve projects and help teams reach their full potential.

This certification process is based on five skill-building courses under expert guidance and takes five months to complete. The great thing about their courses is that you can try them out before paying. Course fee is $905.

With Lab

Whizlabs offers the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner Course (PMI-ACP). This course is one of the most popular and fastest certifications in Agile Project Management. Here we teach and validate your knowledge of Scrum and other agile methodologies such as Kanban, Lean, and XP, and assess your expertise.

This course prepares professionals for the PMI-ACP exam, and its material is aligned with PMI’s Agile Practice Guide. Whizlabs also offers three things.

• Free online test with 120 question report
• Exam simulator, 600 questions and report
• Self-study training, 6+ hours, 600 questions with reports

Whizlabs’ course materials are updated and verified by experts to facilitate intensive training with practice problems plus an effective course curriculum. You have the freedom to choose how you study in either practice mode or exam mode, and you can start a test or course at any time.

scrum.org

Professional Scrum experts lead training classes by Scrum.org, facilitating experiential learning, exercises, discussions, examples, and group activities based on Scrum competencies.

They have trained over 239,000 students worldwide and provide the latest educational materials aligned with the latest agile practices. Here you will understand the importance of adaptation, inspection, and rapid feedback cycles.

What’s new is that you can attempt the certification assessment within 14 days, but if you fail a score of 85% or higher, you must take a second attempt at no additional charge. Scrum.org offers the following certifications:

• Professional Scrum Fundamentals: A 2-day course that teaches you how to deliver products using Scrum. You’ll encounter simulations of real-life problems and learn how to work in sprints, join teams, and fulfill assigned roles.
• Professional Scrum Master: In this two-day course, you will learn how to effectively use Scrum to optimize productivity, cost, and value of product ownership. You’ll be given the tools to respond to behavioral changes, collaborate with your team and members, and facilitate and guide your methods.
• Professional Scrum Master II: This is a two-day Advanced Scrum Master course for Scrum Masters to learn how to implement Scrum values ​​and principles to face and resolve change during agile software development.
• Professional Scrum Product Owner: A two-day course where product managers, owners, and other responsible professionals learn how to maximize the value of products and systems through coaching and team-based exercises.
• Professional Scrum Product Owner – Advanced: A 2-day course that helps experienced Agile practitioners expand their capabilities, establish a solid vision, test hypotheses, and deliver maximum value.
• Professional Scrum Developer: A 3-day course that teaches team members how to leverage Scrum to create high-quality software, work in sprints, foster collaboration, and apply modern engineering practices.
• Enhanced Professional Scrum with Nexus: A two-day course that teaches professionals how to use Scrum to build and deliver products through hands-on case studies on the Nexus framework and over 50 practices for mitigating dependencies. Helps you scale.
• Essentials of Professional Agile Leadership: A two-day workshop that provides instruction and guidance to help business leaders and managers work directly with agile software development teams to guide, support, and coach their teams to improve productivity. Use exercises.
• Professional Scrum with Kanban: A two-day course that Scrum practitioners can take to understand the application of Kanban practices without changing Scrum through case studies, theory, and exercises.
• Professional Scrum with User Experience: In this two-day course, experienced professionals will learn how to effectively integrate modern user experience practices into the Scrum framework.

Google Digital Garage

Learn the principles of agile software development and learn how to plan sprints, create retrospectives, hold daily meetings, and build feedback cycles using Google Digital Garage .

This is a 15-hour course divided into three modules that requires intermediate subject knowledge, but is completely free of charge. Learn skills with short video tutorials and test your understanding with activities and quizzes. Additionally, you can track your progress yourself through the “My Learning Plan” page.

agile development

Coursera’s Agile Development Specialization course helps you deliver value using agile methodologies. This course is offered by none other than the University of Virginia and is free to enroll.

Learn how to determine what’s of value to your users early in a project by creating a strong shared point of view and testable narratives. Teach you how to implement test-driven and results-driven agile approaches.

Apart from that, you will learn how to focus and charter analytics, find and test appropriate agile practices to improve your core objectives. Coursera helps you master skills such as hypothesis-driven development, lean startup, UX design, agile user stories, design thinking, and more.

This course will take 4 months to complete. Useful if you have some knowledge of software development. However, it is not required.

The Grand Guide to Agile

This book is available on Amazon. It helps you increase business value using Scrum on a predictable and productive schedule.

preview	product	evaluation	price
	The Grand Guide to Agile: Use Scrum to Drive Business Value on a Predictable Schedule		$39.95	Buy on Amazon

It will help you find anecdotes and examples to solve problems, effective ways to implement Scrum and Agile, planning sprint sessions, testing, control techniques, and tricks to accelerate production.

On Amazon, this book has over 40 5-star reviews and ranks in the top 100 software books. The paperback version costs $49.95 and the Kindle version costs $41.47.

agile coach

Agile Coach is Atlassian ‘s comprehensive guide to agile software development. Covers almost everything you need to know about Agile.

A guide to what Agile means and a comparison to the Waterfall approach to understand why Agile was created in the first place. Next, we will discuss the benefits of choosing Agile for software development and its relevance now and in the future.

You can also cover topics such as the Agile Manifesto and various agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, Agile Project Management, Product Management, and Large Scale Agile.

conclusion

We hope you find the information about agile software development, its frameworks and benefits useful.

As we see more adoption of Agile in the market, there’s never been a better time to expand your knowledge by taking a course on Agile. It can also help you land a well-paying job. Experienced professionals can also better manage their teams and increase productivity.

In addition to agile, check out our cloud computing learning resources.