Top Agile Training Courses

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Agile cer­ti­fi­ca­tions enhance career prospects, offer­ing path­ways to high­er-pay­ing roles like Cer­ti­fied Scrum­Mas­ter and SAFe Agilist.
• Top Agile train­ing cours­es cov­er essen­tial frame­works, includ­ing Scrum, Kan­ban, and Lean, with hands-on appli­ca­tions for indus­try relevance.
• Pro­grams vary by expe­ri­ence lev­el, with options for begin­ners (CSM, ICP) and advanced pro­fes­sion­als (PMI-ACP, SAFe Agilist).
• Accred­i­ta­tion by rep­utable orga­ni­za­tions like Scrum Alliance, PMI, or ICAgile is cru­cial when select­ing a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion program.

Are you inter­est­ed in gain­ing sought-after Agile skills? Read on and get infor­ma­tion about the best Agile cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams to start your jour­ney. You’ll find pro­grams for begin­ners and advanced learn­ers, too.

In 2001, the Agile Alliance pub­lished the Agile Man­i­festo that aimed to improve the soft­ware devel­op­ment process. The Agile Alliance con­sist­ed of 17 thought lead­ers, soft­ware devel­op­ers, and project man­agers. Today, the Agile method­ol­o­gy has appli­ca­tions in diverse indus­tries, includ­ing busi­ness and technology.

The Agile approach has these key features:

• Empha­sizes quick deliv­ery and adaptability
• Deliv­ers project com­ple­tion in short cycles
• Encour­ages com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion among team mem­bers and stakeholders
• Works as a loop instead of a lin­ear cycle

Scrum, FDD, and Kan­ban are a few exam­ples of Agile frame­works. Orga­ni­za­tions that adopt them place a pre­mi­um on pro­fes­sion­als with Agile skills. The tech and busi­ness indus­tries val­ue Agile pro­fes­sion­als because of the val­ue they bring.

Relat­ed:

• Busi­ness Degree Pro­grams and Career Paths
• Accel­er­at­ed Busi­ness Degrees for Entrepreneurs
• Top Schol­ar­ships for Busi­ness and Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion Students
• Best Online Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics Programs
• Top Under­grad Busi­ness Degrees

What to Look for in an Agile Training Course

Look for these cru­cial fea­tures when look­ing for the best Agile cer­ti­fi­ca­tion programs.

Accreditation

Always look for the active accred­i­ta­tion of cer­ti­fied Agile cours­es online. Don’t assume that cer­ti­fied equals accred­it­ed, either. Ask about the accred­i­ta­tion and check with offi­cial sources.

The cur­rent accred­i­ta­tion bod­ies for Agile cours­es include:

• Scrum Alliance
• Scrum.org
• Project Man­age­ment Insti­tute (PMI-ACP)
• Scaled Agile, Inc. (SAFe)
• Inter­na­tion­al Con­sor­tium for Agile (ICAgile)

Employ­ers rec­og­nize pro­fes­sion­al Agile cer­ti­fi­ca­tions award­ed by accred­it­ed programs.

Comprehensive Curriculum

The best Agile cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams have a well-round­ed cur­ricu­lum that covers:

• Fun­da­men­tal Agile prin­ci­ples, prac­tices, and values
• Key Agile frame­works, includ­ing Kan­ban and Scrum
• Agile project man­age­ment tools and techniques

Look for pro­grams that adopt an inte­grat­ed learn­ing approach. Case stud­ies, inter­ac­tive exer­cis­es, and didac­tic class­es are a must.

Flexible Learning Options

As a busy work­ing pro­fes­sion­al, flex­i­ble sched­ules are a must. Choose pro­grams based on your learn­ing style, sched­ule, and career goals.

Online pro­grams are flex­i­ble and acces­si­ble but lack in-per­son inter­ac­tions. In-per­son pro­grams pro­vide immer­sive expe­ri­ences and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. Hybrid pro­grams offer the best of both formats.

Benefits of Agile Training and Certification

If you com­plete one of the Agile Scrum train­ing pro­grams, you’ll enjoy these ben­e­fits. These ben­e­fits also apply to oth­er Agile certifications.

Enhanced Career Prospects

Nowa­days, even a mas­ter’s degree is a base­line cre­den­tial for lead­er­ship posi­tions. If you want to stand out, you should have pro­fes­sion­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. These con­vey your exper­tise in spe­cial­ized areas and, thus, boost your employ­ment prospects.

Plus, you have effec­tive access to the broad­er com­mu­ni­ty of Agile pro­fes­sion­als. Your Agile net­work can lead to employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties that you would­n’t even know.

Higher Earning Potential

Stud­ies have shown that Agile pro­fes­sion­als can earn high­er salaries than their non-cer­ti­fied coun­ter­parts. Being in lead­er­ship posi­tions does that to Agile professionals.

Here are com­mon Agile pro­fes­sion­als and their aver­age annu­al salaries.

• SAFe Agilist (SA) $129,441
• Cer­ti­fied Scrum­Mas­ter (CSM) $125,649
• ICAgile Cer­ti­fied Pro­fes­sion­al (ICP) $119,883
• Cer­ti­fied Agile Project Man­ag­er (PMI-ACP) $116,579
• Pro­fes­sion­al Scrum Mas­ter (PSM) $113,650

Earn­ing these cer­ti­fi­ca­tions isn’t easy. But the six-fig­ure salaries make it worthwhile.

Improved Project Management Skills

Beyond the mon­ey, Agile pro­fes­sion­als improve their project man­age­ment skills, too. Bet­ter yet, these are trans­fer­able skills with appli­ca­tions in diverse indus­tries. Project plan­ning, team col­lab­o­ra­tion, and adapt­abil­i­ty are the best skills for project managers.

Top Agile Training Courses

Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

This is a pop­u­lar Agile project man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion rec­og­nized world­wide. If you’re new to Agile, it’s an excel­lent entry-lev­el cre­den­tial. You’ll learn the fol­low­ing dur­ing the 16-hour course:

• Agile prin­ci­ples and values
• Scrum frame­work fundamentals
• Team roles and responsibilities

You must pass a 50-ques­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tion exam (i.e., 37 cor­rect answers).

PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

If you’re an expe­ri­enced project man­ag­er, the PMI-ACP is an excel­lent choice. As an advanced Agile train­ing for project man­agers, the course covers:

• Agile method­olo­gies, includ­ing Scrum, XP, Lean, and TDD
• Agile tools and techniques
• Agile approach­es and their prac­ti­cal project applications
• Agile val­ues, prin­ci­ples, and delivery

You need to pass a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion exam to earn the credential.

ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP)

The ICAgile ICP course fea­tures a broad cur­ricu­lum that cov­ers Agile method­olo­gies. Once you com­plete it, you’re ready for oth­er ICAgile certifications.

Top­ics cov­ered in the course include:

• Agile his­to­ry, foun­da­tion, and practices
• Val­ue-dri­ven development
• Cus­tomer knowledge

This course is a for-life cre­den­tial intend­ed for new­bies and hold­ers of the ACP-BAF credential.

SAFe Agilist Certification

If you’re look­ing for afford­able Agile train­ing cours­es, check out the SAFe Agilist cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. You’ll pay $700+ for the course and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion; prices vary.

The course cov­ers these key topics:

• Lean-Agile approach­es
• Agile Release Trains
• Lean Port­fo­lio Management

The SAFe Agilist course teach­es Agile at scale. Pro­fes­sion­als work­ing in large orga­ni­za­tions will agree it’s an excel­lent choice.

University of Virginia’s Agile Development Specialization (Coursera)

UVA’s Agile Devel­op­ment Spe­cial­iza­tion course on Cours­era offers flex­i­bil­i­ty for work­ing pro­fes­sion­als. The course itself con­sists of four cours­es that cov­er top­ics in:

• Agile prin­ci­ples and practices
• Agile devel­op­ment methodologies
• User sto­ries and prototypes
• User expe­ri­ence
• Design meth­ods and thinking

You’ll com­plete the course with a port­fo­lio-build­ing design brief.

KnowledgeHut Agile and Scrum Certification

Both new­bies and inter­me­di­ate learn­ers will find the Agile and Scrum cer­ti­fi­ca­tion online course suit­able. Knowl­edge­Hut empha­sizes hands-on train­ing for prac­ti­cal skills devel­op­ment in the course.

You’ll learn the fol­low­ing key areas, among others:

• Agile man­i­festo and principles
• Scrum frame­work
• Prod­uct back­log and sprint management
• Team col­lab­o­ra­tion
• Facil­i­ta­tion skills

The course includes 54+ hours of self-paced learn­ing and life­time access to courseware.

Simplilearn Agile Scrum Master Certification

Work­ing pro­fes­sion­als love the self-paced study learn­ing for­mat of Sim­plilearn’s CSM course. You’ll also love the empha­sis on live projects and case stud­ies. The inte­grat­ed approach means more oppor­tu­ni­ties for prac­ti­cal under­stand­ing and applications.

Here are among the key top­ics cov­ered in the course:

• Scrum and Agile methodologies
• Scrum rules and values
• Scrum cer­e­monies, roles, and artifacts

The cer­ti­fi­ca­tion comes with a two-year membership.

Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master (PSM)

The PSM course empha­sizes inter­ac­tive fea­tures and activ­i­ties for prac­ti­cal skills devel­op­ment. You’ll gain a robust under­stand­ing of your roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties as a PSM, too.

Oth­er key top­ics cov­ered in the two-day course include:

• Scrum frame­work, prin­ci­ples, and best practices
• Agile mind­set
• Project man­age­ment tools and techniques

New­bies and inter­me­di­ate learn­ers are wel­come. Many stu­dents are Agile/Scrum Coach­es and Scrum Masters.

LinkedIn Learning Agile Foundations

Led by Dough Rose, the LinkedIn Learn­ing Agile Foun­da­tions course cov­ers Agile basics. There’s a free tri­al avail­able. But it’s also among the most afford­able and acces­si­ble courses.

You’ll learn key top­ics in:

• Core Agile prin­ci­ples and frameworks
• Roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties with­in Agile teams
• Strate­gies for adapt­abil­i­ty and change

The course also uses prac­ti­cal exercises.

edX’s Agile Project Management Professional Certificate

It is among the best accred­it­ed Agile train­ing pro­grams offer­ing broad knowl­edge in Agile and Scrum. The Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem of Mary­land and edX offer it as a partnership.

Learn­ers cov­er top­ics in:

• Scrum mechan­ics
• Agile frame­works like LeSS and SAFe
• Agile prin­ci­ples and their prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tions in diverse industries

The pro­gram includes five self-paced cours­es that can be com­plet­ed in five months.

How to Choose the Right Agile Training Program

Here are the cru­cial steps in choos­ing from among these programs:

Identify your expertise level.

You must deter­mine your lev­el of Agile exper­tise first. Do you need an entry-lev­el course or an advanced cer­ti­fi­ca­tion? Once you have decid­ed on it, mak­ing the choice is easier.

For new­bies, these are your best choices:

• Cer­ti­fied Scrum­Mas­ter (CSM)
• ICAgile Cer­ti­fied Pro­fes­sion­al (ICP)
• LinkedIn Learn­ing Agile Foundations

For advanced prac­ti­tion­ers, con­sid­er these certifications:

• PMI Agile Cer­ti­fied Practitioner
• Cer­ti­fied Scrum Professional
• Dis­ci­plined Agile Senior Scrum Master

Be sure to con­sid­er the Agile cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that your indus­try looks for, too. The SAFe Agilist cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for health­care pro­fes­sion­als is a good example.

Assess the course format.

In-per­son pro­grams pro­vide face-to-face inter­ac­tions and hands-on activ­i­ties. How­ev­er, the trav­el require­ments and set sched­ules may be problematic.

Online pro­grams offer flex­i­ble sched­ules, self-paced study, and afford­able costs. How­ev­er, there are lim­it­ed real-time inter­ac­tions and hands-on projects.

Hybrid pro­grams com­bine the ben­e­fits of in-per­son and online pro­grams. These can also be more expen­sive in fees and trav­el costs.

Tips for Success in Agile Training

• Pre­pare for the course by read­ing about Agile fun­da­men­tals and frameworks.
• Col­lab­o­rate with oth­ers on group projects where Agile meth­ods are useful.
• Take prac­tice exams, too, so you can become famil­iar with the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion exam.
• Stay updat­ed on Agile trends and apply them in your work.

Conclusion

In con­clu­sion, com­plet­ing online Agile cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cours­es is only the first step. Whether you’re a project man­ag­er or a busi­ness own­er, you must lever­age the knowl­edge and skills gained for your career growth.

Don’t for­get that mak­ing an informed choice in these cours­es is also cru­cial. Choose one based on your cur­rent needs and career goals.

Last­ly, earn­ing an Agile cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is no mean feat. Besides intel­lect, you must engage in hands-on prac­tice and prac­tice ded­i­ca­tion to your craft.