Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) study guide
PSM I · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) is an entry-level credential that assesses whether you understand Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide and can apply it to real team situations. It is aimed at Scrum Masters, but product people, developers, managers and coaches often take it to establish a shared vocabulary before working in or alongside Scrum teams. The PSM I study guide has 5 sections and about 2,362 words.
01Scrum Theory and Empiricism
Scrum is founded on empiricism - knowledge comes from experience and decisions are made on what is observed - and on lean thinking, which removes what does not add value and keeps focus on the essentials. Work proceeds in iterations and increments so the product is inspected and adapted frequently.
376 words, about 2 min02The Scrum Team and its Accountabilities
The Scrum Team is a single small team of 10 or fewer people, cross-functional (it collectively has the skills to create value every Sprint) and self-managing (it decides internally who does what, when and how). There are no sub-teams and no hierarchies within it.
380 words, about 2 min03Scrum Events
Every other event happens inside the Sprint, which is fixed in length at one month or less. Within a Sprint: no changes that endanger the Sprint Goal, quality does not decrease, and scope may be clarified and renegotiated with the Product Owner as more is learned.
388 words, about 2 min04Scrum Artifacts and Commitments
Each artifact carries a commitment that makes it inspectable: the Product Backlog → Product Goal , the Sprint Backlog → Sprint Goal , and the Increment → Definition of Done . Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product; it is the single source of work.
410 words, about 2 min05Scrum Rules, Application and Organizational Context
Scrum's rules are few, but they are what make it Scrum. If you remove them, you are doing something else - possibly useful, but not the framework being tested.
808 words, about 4 min