4 Best Online Agile Product Management Certifications
What are Agile product management certifications?
For the majority of SaaS product teams, the Agile product development methodology is standard operating procedure. Certifications are a great way to learn the foundations of Agile and incorporate them into your work, whether you're an experienced PM or applying for your first associate product manager role.
What are the benefits of Agile product management certifications?
Like most careers in the tech world, the job market for product roles is competitive—so any product management certifications are exceptionally useful for making your resume stand out and helping you advance faster. However, courses focused on the Agile product development methodology can help you establish yourself as a reliable agile product manager—which is indispensable for virtually every product role you're likely to apply for!
In this article, we’ll take a look at four different online agile product management certifications to take into consideration.
1. The Agile Certified Product Manager and Product Owner (ACPMPO) Certification
The ACPMPO, offered by the Association of International Product Marketing & Management (AIPMM), ensures those who are certified understand agile product management and are able to apply the concepts to their jobs.
The course covers:
- How to integrate business strategy and product management into your agile process to drive successful products
- Product owner strategies for every phase of the product life cycle
- How to influence and lead agile teams
- Best practices of agile
- Covering methodologies such as Lean, XP, and Kanban
How To Apply For The ACPMPO Certification
To apply for the ACPMPO certification, you can take the agile product management course through 280 group, which allows you to take two attempts at the test to become certified.
As of writing, you can take this course at your own pace through self-study.
The modules covered are as follows:
- The Agile Competitive Advantage
- Scrum and Release Management
- Release Planning and Story Mapping
- Prioritization, Vision, and Roadmap
- Keys for Agile Success
- Creating Shared Understanding
- Optimizing Value Delivery
- Practical Product Leadership
The cost for the course is $1,495 USD.
Who Is ACPMPO Certification For?
This certification is recommended for those with at least 1 year’s worth of experience in the field of product management.
That said, those who want to move into a Product Manager/Product Owner role or those with roles that have significant interaction with product management will benefit from this course.
This certification will also go beyond what other courses tend to cover, like being a scrum product owner.
2. Certified Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Agile Product Manager
SAFe’s professional certification is a means of assessing the skills, knowledge, and mindset of those who work in agile environments. Certified professionals have shown their ability to support company initiatives and transformations in a lean and agile enterprise.
A certified SAFe agile product manager combines design thinking with Lean-Agile values and principles to create products and solutions that are desirable, viable, feasible, and sustainable.
How To Apply For The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Agile Product Manager Certification
The course can be taken through Advised Skills. The modules covered are as follows:
- Analyzing Your Role as a Product Manager in the Lean Enterprise
- Continuously Exploring Markets and Users
- Driving Strategy with Market Segmentation
- Using Empathy to Drive Design
- Defining Product Strategy and Vision
- Creating Roadmaps to Build Solutions
- Delivering Value
- Managing Value Stream Economics
- Creating Innovation in the Value Stream
The course can be taken online over a course of three days, with prices at $2608.20 USD.
Who Is The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Agile Product Manager Certification For?
As this certification tends to pop up the most frequently in job requirements for agile product management roles, this certification will benefit anyone in the product management field. If there is one to focus on from this given list, this one would be your first priority.
3. Professional Scrum Master Certification
The Professional Scrum Foundations training certification aims to provide students with the product management principles they need to effectively use Scrum in the workplace.
The structure of the Professional Scrum Foundations course begins broad and becomes increasingly focused. Students first review general Scrum principles. They then work on a team product, learning how to implement the Scrum framework.
By the end of the course, students are prepared to successfully deliver valuable software. The Professional Scrum Foundations training certification takes two days to complete and costs $1,200 USD. Over the course of these two days, participants attend lectures and work on team-based exercises to receive a Scrum master certification.
How To Apply For The Professional Scrum Master I Certification
Go to the Professional Scrum Master section on the Scrum.org’s website to apply.
If you feel that you have the knowledge and don’t need the course, you can take the assessment test for the certification right away for $150 USD. If not, there are two-day courses for $1200 USD available to get more in-depth knowledge about scrum.
Who Is The PSM Certification For?
Students with varying levels of Scrum training can benefit from this certification. No prior experience is required. This course provides students with a deeper understanding of the Scrum framework, so a new or experienced product manager can become a Scrum master.
Team roles can also benefit from this training certification. Learning how to implement Scrum foundations can help optimize teams across industries. Financial service companies, tech companies, government agencies, data agencies, and legal firms all use Scrum principles.
Like the SAFe certification, it’s fairly common for the professional scrum master certification to pop up for job requirements for agile product manager roles. Depending on your knowledge, this is the easiest and quickest one to get.
4. Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) Certification
The CSM is an equivalent of the PSM that’s done through ScrumAlliance. They offer 2-3 day online training sessions (which vary in price). You need to take a course first before you can do an assessment test.
How To Apply For The Certified ScrumMaster Certification
To apply, you can find a course on the ScrumAlliance website. They offer in-person and online courses with various instructors. After you’ve completed the course, you can activate your ScrumAlliance certification account and complete the CSM test.
The test has a 60-minute time limit where you have to answer 37 questions out of 50 correctly to pass.
Who Is The CSM Certification For?
The CSM is for software engineers, business analysts, product managers, project managers, and people who are interested in becoming new scrum masters.
It is also suitable for marketers, data scientists, and other professionals who work with cross-functional teams and are adopting agile methodologies.
Benefits Of Agile Product Management Certification
There are several key benefits to agile product management certification:
- It shows employers that you have the skills and knowledge required for a product management role.
- With bigger name associations, such as the AIPMM, employers will recognize the name and understand the level of rigor associated with the product management course.
- Certifications can be taken as skill or knowledge upgrades while working in your current role, as they can often be taken online or in person, which provides flexibility to students.
- Some courses also offer group or private training sessions, giving you the opportunity to network with others in the field.
- You’ll learn specific technical knowledge and skills, such as portfolio management, new product development strategies, and product life cycle management skills
Overall Takeaways
Receiving a product management certification, whether it’s a Scrum or agile certification, can demonstrate your skills to recruiters. While there are many product management certifications online, it’s important to find a program that fits your needs.
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