Certifications for African Techies (part 2)
Product Owner
If you practice product management in Africa, in most startups, the product manager is also the product owner or partly so. They focus on being the customer representative within the team. They create and groom backlogs for development teams and focus on interacting mostly with internal stakeholders (team, management, engineers, QA etc). But this is a stand-alone role in larger corporations driven by technology. Product Owner is a role mostly associated with Agile practice but It’s a role that will keep gaining ground as a stand alone role in Nigeria and other African countries soon enough. So If you know you already play the role of a product owner and want to future-proof this skill with a global certification, these are the best certifications for product owners globally;
- Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO): This is by far the most recognized certification for product owners in the world. It is organized by Scrum.org and comes in three stages;
- PSPO I : This is for beginners, to test your gasp of the scrum fundamentals. Passing this certifies your ability to apply agile methodology and scrum framework in product development.
Exam Fee: $250
Certification Cycle: No expiration
Training required: You are not mandated to attend a specific training for this exam, you can prepare for the exam on your own or join a live training that prepares you for this exam.
PSPO II: In addition to the fundamentals of scrum and agile, this stage of PSPO certification tests your understanding business strategy and managing of product backlogs.
Exam Fee: $250
Certification Cycle: No expiration
Training requirements: Same as PSPO I, it is flexible but If you don’t have enough time to do self-study, I would advise you attend a live class or bootcamp on a weekend.
PSPO III: This is the final stage of the PSPO certification exam and also the most demanding. Few people have attained this level of mastery for scrum. It takes years of application and mastery of scrum at different levels before settling to take this exam and obviously, you can’t jump the ladder of PSPO I&II.
Exam Fee: $500
Certification Cycle: No expiration
Training requirements: Passing score for this exam is 85%, a combination of multiple choice questions and essay. Duration for the exam is 120 minutes. You need knowledge of PSPO I & II along with years of experience of practicing on a senior level. For more information , you can visit here.
2. Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO): This certification is organized by Scrum Alliance. It is the second most recognized product owner certification globally.
Exam Fee: Training varies depending on your location but can cost between $1000 — $2000
Certification Cycle: Renewed after every 2 years, 30 scrum education units (SEU)
Requirements
- 14 hours face to face or 16 hours online training with a certified scrum trainer (CST) or a 25 hours training with a certified agile coach (CAC).
- After course completion, you need to accept a license agreement and complete your scrum alliance profile.
- To renew your certification you need scrum education units (SEU).
How to Get SEUs
You can get your SEUs by attending scrum events, reading books, attending webinars and many other ways. For more information on this, check here.
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Written by Harry Enaholo
