I Passed My SAFE 5.0 Scrum Master Certification Exam!

 

                Hey everybody! I passed my SAFE 5.0 Scrum Master certification exam retake on Memorial Day! I was so happy that this was over because it was a much harder retake exam than I expected.

I scored a measly 13% on my experiencing program increment (PI) section the first time so I spent a lot of time reading that. I also researched the swim lane, product owner, product management, DevOps CALMR and wrote down the Agile Manifesto every single day to retain that information. And STILL it was hard!

                As an economics major, Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Project Management Professional (PMP), I will tell you that SAFe is NOT an entry-level scrum certification. I would recommend that you take the CSM first and work in a SAFe environment. If you cannot do those things, I would recommend taking an introductory SAFe course first to learn the concepts independent of the pressure to pass the exam!

                I am very happy to end the month of May on a very high note. I went from having a very weird interview with a lady who had a major attitude, was all over the place but peaked my interest combining lean with project management to my learning that this combination was scaled agile framework (SAFE) to finding a 50% off exam prep course on Eventbrite to failing my first time to earning this SAFe Scrum Master certification!

SAFE 5.0 - Day 4

 

                I took the official Scrum Master certification exam Thursday morning right after midnight and failed scoring 31/45. It stung because I had scored 82% on the official practice test. I also scored a measly 13% on the Experiencing the PI Planning section which I felt did me in. I knew that I was in trouble off the bat when the first question was talking about program board and a swimlane (which I associated with business analysis but later learned that Kanban also used swimlanes.).

                Failing was the best thing that ever happened to me because I got to take all of my feedback and experiences to the instructor. He answered all of my questions, learned about the new score reporting structure and went through the official practice exam again pointing out the trick words. Had I taken the certification exam either during or after the fourth day of class, I would not had been able to have access to the instructor. It would had been anti-climatic. However, by learning from my mistakes it helped matters. I see myself passing the SAFe Scrum Master retake this weekend.

                On a much happier note, my attending this week’s scaled agile training helped me during my scholarship interview. Thursday I had a scholarship interview to win money to sit for the Certified Scrum Product Owner training. Before this scaled agile training, I thought that the Product Owner role only existed in traditional scrum. However, now I learned that the Product Owner existed in scaled agile too. I felt that from the interviewer’s body language that I won the scholarship.

SAFE 5.0 - Day 3

 

                Once again, I am having issues. This time Windows 10 is kicking out my wi-fi forcing me to constantly restart my computer. Next I have to find instructions to do an online repair of my Microsoft 365 because (you’ve guessed it!), Windows 10 has messed that up too. However, it is day 3 of my SAFe Scrum Master training and you WILL get this story!

                Okay so I ask the instructor if the certification exam was an open book or closed book exam. When he says closed book exam, out of nowhere the same person who texted the group that it was an open book texted saying that ‘This is my fourth exam prep course. No one is monitoring your camera or you work’. Um, that can have your certification exam snatched and banned by the accreditation body. Some people are just lazy I tell you! Anyway, I am very happy that I have stayed consistently throughout the whole thing because I am ready to pass my exam tomorrow night!

I have even taken the practice exam furnished by Scaled Agile. I have to give a course review where I detail the whole Scaled Agile meetup out of nowhere and not being able to log back in because the instructor is hosting another Zoom meeting escapades. After completing the course survey, I take the practice exam scoring 82%. This fuels my fire to pass my exam tomorrow night.

                I admit that during the second half of class, I have skimmed through some things (I know that the Dot review will NOT be on the exam!). However, I have learned how to save the Zoom meting chat. I have saved them on my red laptop so I will transfer these chat transcripts via email. My goal is to be SAFe Scrum master certified by Thursday. Not even the instructor saying that the actual exam is harder than the practice exam scares me. I have been preparing for this moment for over 2 weeks! I am getting my certification!

SAFE 5. 0 - Day 2

 

Once again I am dogged with tech problems. This time it was on my older silver laptop. My Windows 10 license was at the ‘end of life’ and Microsoft would no longer support so I had to do an update. No problem, I thought. I would just do the update now and get it over with.

Wrong!

                I started the update at 2:45pm. I napped awaking at 5pm and it was only up 78%. My training started at 6pm where it (finally!) got to 100%. But once again, had I relied on the laptop, I would had been late for class. So I started my training on the red laptop. Sheesh! I just wanted one day with any tech issues.

                Today I started off mentioning that I put two questions on the collaborate Kanban board regarding the role of the scrum master regarding the backlog and program increment. The instructor said that these were good questions (I try!).

                In the second hour, the instructor ends the Zoom meeting. The entire class tries getting in after the break and we all receive a message saying that the ‘host is in another Zoom meeting’. This is the second day and as many disruptions. I’ve honestly never seen anything like this before. The instructor uses his Zoom meeting room for 5011 purposes besides SAFe exam training.

                Also unfortunately, there are some technical difficulties not just with me but everyone today. I hope that Al Gore’s Internet does not fail us tomorrow on day 3!

SAFE 5.0 - Day 1

                 I am chronicling my SAFE (scaled framework) training here because I chronicled my Certified Scrum Master (CSM) training adventure here. In 2016, it was in person. In 2021 due to coronavirus pandemic, I am online. This does not mean that there aren’t any less plot twists.

Scaled agile framework (SAFE 5.0) is a type of agile project management. I am learning this because during an interview the interviewer mentioned lean and merging the scrum master with the product owner. I thought that was weird even though I knew some lean principles due to my statistics background. I later researched lean + scrum finding scaled agile.

                I started looking on Eventbrite (this site saved my bacon with finding an affordable certified scrum master exam prep course. You can check out the March2016 series here.). I found a course that’s 50% off and purchased it. I could save money and advance my career. I was game!

                I completed the pre-course content going through all of the courses. I also watched a lot of YouTube videos because scaled agile calling it iteration instead of sprints and saying that the agile team is scrum master and product owner vs. the scrum team which is scrum master and the developers threw me for a loop. I also managed to find some practice exams on Udemy and online because I wanted to know what the questions looked like before the exam.

 

Day 1

                I was back to my older computer because my newer one Internet (Chrome, Edge and Firefox) sporadically went out. Also I had to do was connect my Logictech webcam and BOOM I was back in business. Now this laptop wanted to act up 5 minutes before the start of class (I was not surprised!) so I ended up 10 minutes late.

                We spent the first hour introducing ourselves and doing some games. Then at the end of the second hour out of nowhere the instructor invited us to his scaled agile virtual meetup. I was like ‘plot twist!’. Though my doing the pre-course content saved me, I would admit that had I not taken the initiative to read the material beforehand, I would had been lost, frustrated and failed the exam at this stage (but I am passing my scrum master exam). At least he lets us leave early today. 

Blogger Site Has 2.4 Million Alexa Internet Site Ranking

 Very happy to announce that carlarjenkins.blogspot.com has a 2.4 million Alexa Internet site ranking. Alexa Internet is a website ranking tool. It ranks the top 20 million website. Having a 2.4 million site ranking is huge especially since I have not posted on here for over 3 years.

                I thank you for consistently reading all of my old posts. I am grateful that you’ve found value in them especially eBay. Value and highly quality content are the two pillars I have always done. Receiving this high Alexa Internet site ranking is proof positive of this.