CIPSA vs. Other Certifications: An AI-Powered Comparison of Scaled Agile Certifications and Skills

The CIPSA (Certified In Practical Scaled Agile) certification is a specialized credential designed for Agile practitioners who need to scale Scrum or Kanban across multiple teams. It removes heavy overhead of traditional and theoretical frameworks. 

CIPSA distinguishes itself through a 70% practical, 30% theoretical curriculum that emphasizes hands-on tool usage. Though MS Project Agile is used for all the case studies, any other software tool with scaling capability can be used.

The below table shows the comparison among the all the scaled agile certifications. This prepared by professionals, who have been successfully CIPSA certified. 

Comparative Analysis: CIPSA vs. SAFe vs. Scrum@Scale vs. LeSS

 The star rating, used in the below table, is as follows:

• ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = Very high, 
• ⭐⭐⭐⭐ = High, 
• ⭐⭐⭐ = Medium,
• ⭐⭐ = Low, and
• ⭐ = Very low.

The below table is prepared by taking extensive inputs from many Scaled Agile practitioners, including CIPSA, SAFe, and other certified ones. You can also use any Artificial Intelligence (AI) – specifically Gen-AI tools to check. 

As shown above, CIPSA gets the highest overall ranking based on extensive research and inputs. 

Compare CIPSA with Others using GenAI tools

As noted earlier, you can compare CIPSA with any other scaled agile approach using any GenAI tool. Take the above practical parameters.

CIPSA will come on top when you check with any GenAI tool. These tools will also give you thorough comparisons.  You can try it on your own now to check!

In fact, I checked with ChatGPT and used the prompt below:

"Compare CIPSA with SAFe, Scrum@Scale and LeSS. Compare across the following factors. Give star rating for each and a final rating. 

1. Practical, Hands-on Focus

2. Tool Integration (e.g., MS Project or Others)

3. Ease of Implementation

4. Role Clarity and Definition

5. Market Recognition 

6. Cost Effectiveness

7. Flexibility and Adaptability

8. Suitability Across Industries

9. Exam Difficulty

10. Value for Money"

CIPSA came on top as the preferred practical, tool-based Scaled Agile scaling. The star ratings were similar to the above table with a few variations.

Next, I gave the following prompt:

"Give a short summary paragraph on all the above scaled agile certifications, which clearly informs on all four. Inform the final and most preferred one - just one."

The response from ChatGPT was exactly as follows:

"CIPSA, SAFe, Scrum@Scale, and LeSS are four approaches to scaling Agile, each with a different emphasis: CIPSA focuses on practical, hands-on implementation and tool integration; SAFe provides the strongest enterprise structure and market recognition; Scrum@Scale offers a flexible, lightweight approach to coordinating multiple Scrum teams; and LeSS emphasizes simplicity and minimal additional roles and processes. Considering the overall criteria—including practicality, ease of implementation, flexibility, cost effectiveness, tool integration, and value for money—CIPSA is the most preferred overall, particularly for professionals seeking practical, implementation-focused scaled Agile capability."

You can try it on your own to evaluate by using the above prompts. Using the above parameters, you can also check with any AI tool, worldwide.

Further Breakdown

1. Practical/Hands-on Focus: CIPSA leads with a dedicated 70% practical curriculum using real tools. Few others follow with strong experiential learning via "whiteboard" exercises. Rest of them are mostly theoretical, focusing on framework rules and roles rather than tool-based execution. 

2. Tool Integration: CIPSA is unique in explicitly training on MS Project Agile for scaled backlog management. Others have broad vendor support (e.g., Jira or Rally in SAFe) but they teach theoretical concepts rather than specific tool mechanics. Few others are have no tool support. 

3. Market Recognition: Here SAFe leads in the enterprise market with a number of certified practitioners, ranking it higher. CIPSA is a specialized certification with growing global footprint. 

4. Cost Effectiveness: CIPSA, followed by Scrum@Scale and LeSS, offer the best value for your invested money.  Some certifications demand US $800–$1,500 or more for training. 

As informed by all certified CIPSAs, the certification gives the highest value for money. CIPSA certification also has no renewal cost.

5. Flexibility: LeSS is typically considered to be the most flexible, stripping away unnecessary roles to rely on pure Scrum. SAFe is considered to be the most rigid, requiring significant process adoption, for example ARTs, PI Planning etc. CIPSA balances this by offering a structured yet tool-driven approach that adapts to existing workflows. 

CIPSA certification is also one of the few scaled frameworks which supports Kanban at Scale. In other words, you will know both: Scrum at Scale and Kanban at Scale. 

Video: Top 10 Reasons to be a CIPSA

You can watch the following video to learn the top reasons to with the CIPSA certification.

Conclusion

In conclusion, CIPSA serves as a high-value, yet highly economical alternative for organizations and individuals seeking immediate, actionable scaling skills. CIPSA is not just theoretical knowledge, which is of little to no use in the real-world. It's thoroughly practical and hands-on with deep explanations of theories. 

CIPSA is a growing certification and focuses on simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and tool-based execution. It's uniquely suited for teams that need to deliver complex products or solutions quickly.

By bridging the gap between team-level Agile and enterprise scaling through practical application, CIPSA equips practitioners in a world which is dominated by theoretical understanding but little practical applicability. 

CIPSA Certification – In-depth, Practical, and Economical

[1] Scaled Agile Certification Course: Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA)

[2] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - CIPSA Certification

CIPSA and CHAMP Success Stories:

• CIPSA Success Story: From CHAMP to CIPSA – Taking Agile to the Next Level with Scaled Scrum and Scaled Kanban
• CHAMP Success Story: Bridging Predictive and Agile Worlds with Hybrid-Agile Mastery
• CHAMP Course: Excellent One for Mastering MS Project in both Traditional and Agile Environments
• CHAMP Success Story: A Niche Certification –Never Seen Anything Like this Before!
• CHAMP Success Story: One of the Best Hybrid-Agile Certification Courses I Ever Attended

Practical Scrum at Scale with CIPSA: Key Roles and Goals (Part - 2)

This is second part of the series. You can read the earlier post in the link below. 

[Part - 1]

In this part, we will learn to use MS Project Agile to have a practical demonstration. It's not mandatory to use this software to scale as any other software with scaling capabilities for Scrum and Kanban can be used. 

I've extensively used this software as it provides capabilities for both Scrum and Kanban. In addition, the traditional aspects of project management are also available. This makes a powerful combination. 

Practical, Hands-on Demonstration

Now, let’s see how MS Project Agile can be used to have all the roles (resources). MS Project comes with a very simple, yet effective view – the Resource Sheet view. This view will be used to add the necessary resources, who play the desired roles.

After you add the resources for all the Scrum teams, the view will come as shown below.

As shown:

• We have 18 resources across multiple Scrum teams.
• Various resource related fields are populated by default.
• For your Scaled Scrum work, you can also add other resources such as material and/or cost.

Next, to differentiate among the teams, we need to have a new custom field, i.e., Team custom field. This field can be added by going to Resource Sheet Tools > Format tab > Columns group > Custom Fields command.

Next, you can add the teams separately, but it’s better to have a look-up for the custom field. This can be done by using the “Lookup …” button highlighted in the above figure.

As shown above, for the Team Custom Field, we have five values:

• Team A, B and C for resources of Team A, B and C.
• Unassigned for unassigned resources.
• All Teams will be resources used across the teams. For roles such as CPO and PSM, it will be an apt choice.
• Unassigned has been set as the default one and hence the blue color coding.

Ensure that the Lookup radio button is enabled so that the values can take effect and will be available in the drop-down list. Next, we can populate this new Team custom field in our Resource Sheet view with the respective team values. The Team column has to be added into the existing list of columns in the view. Post population, it’ll come as shown below.

In addition, we can also associate the resources to the roles being played. The role can be added into the Group field, available by default or one can add a separate custom field. This is shown in the below figure.

As you’d have noticed, three resources are part of the entire CIPSA team (informed as “All Teams”):

• John Robinson, a work resource, is the Chief Product Owner.
• Satya Dash, a work resource, is the Principal Scrum Master.
• Other resources have team specific roles and accountabilities.

Goals in Scaled Scrum *** UPDATED ***

Roles and goals are intricately related. Without clear roles and responsibilities (accountabilities), you won’t have clear goals.

As a matter of fact, I’ve interacted with many Scrum Masters and Product Owners, who don’t have any goal at all for their Sprints. It’s like getting into a train or bus, but without any end destination in mind! Ever travelled like that in any seriousness?

So, who will set the Goals and where? The goals are associated with the artifacts – Product Backlog, CIPSA Sprint Backlog and Team Sprint Backlog.

• Goal for the product will be set by the Chief Product Owner. The Product Goal is part of the Product Backlog. The CPO also prepares the Product Goal and presents it to the CIPSA Team in the CIPSA Sprint Planning meeting.
• Goal for the upcoming CIPSA Sprint meta-event will be set by the CIPSA Team. The CIPSA Sprint Goal is part of the CIPSA Sprint Backlog.

You can know more about the Product Goal in the following article:

Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) Certification: Product Goal – What It Is and What It’s Not!

Goals for the upcoming Team Sprint events will be set by the individual and respective Team Product Owners. The Team Sprint Goal is part of the Team Sprint Backlog.

Video – Key Points Recap

Now, it’s a good time to recap what we have learned so far with the help of MS Project Agile software tool. To support this, I’ve provided the following video [duration: 4 minutes approx.]. For the best experience, you may want to go full-screen with HD mode and plug-in your earphones.

Conclusion *** UPDATED ***

In the beginning, I wrote: 

Simple is beautiful. Simple things are followed. And simplicity is sticky. 

It is applicable to many aspects of our lives, too. For example, as a kid, did you like the simple game of baseball, cricket, and/or badminton, or the complex game of synchronized swimming with eight or ten people and rules? I’m not saying synchronized swimming is not good, but which one did you mostly follow? You know the answer!

The CIPSA framework is intended to be simple, so that it can be followed easily. More importantly, it’s hands-on and practical. This can be used with any software tool, which provides Agile at Scale capability. MS Project Agile does that and hence it’s used. Of course, it can be used with any other software tool providing proper scaling capabilities.

[Part - 1]

--

This article was first published by MPUG on March 11, 2025. This an updated version. 

References

[1] Certification Course: Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA), by ManagementYogi.com

[2] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - CIPSA Certification

[3] The CIPSA Framework – A Simple Clock View

CIPSA and CHAMP Success Stories:

• CIPSA Success Story: From CHAMP to CIPSA – Taking Agile to the Next Level with Scaled Scrum and Scaled Kanban
• CHAMP Success Story: Bridging Predictive and Agile Worlds with Hybrid-Agile Mastery
• CHAMP Course: Excellent One for Mastering MS Project in both Traditional and Agile Environments
• CHAMP Success Story: A Niche Certification –Never Seen Anything Like this Before!
• CHAMP Success Story: One of the Best Hybrid-Agile Certification Courses I Ever Attended

Practical Scrum at Scale with CIPSA: Key Roles and Goals (Part - 1)

Scaling frameworks should be simple but will be used to deliver complex work. 

Scaled roles should be small in number, but will be used to deliver big solutions. 

Scaled events should be minimal, but the productivity should be maximal. 

I believe in it because simple is beautiful. Simple things scale well. Simple things are memorable. In fact, simplicity sticks. 

See here –10 scaling mistakes to avoid.

Indeed, some of the most beautiful things in the world are simple, yet powerful. The Sydney Opera House, when seen from outside, looks like nested flower petals. It’s simple, yet a beautiful architecture and projects a powerful image of Sydney harbor.

Microsoft’s Bing is a powerful search engine and now loaded with gen-AI search, yet has a very simple user interface (UI). It’s only a textbox to do your search. That’s it! Think about it for a moment. Can it be simpler than that?

Agile at Scale is no different.

Let me also inform you, to make things simple is not that simple! It’s actually very hard. It takes enormous time and effort, practice, a number of iterations with feedback.

The Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) – pronounced 'sip-sa' – framework strives to be a simple one. It extends both team-level Scrum and team-level Kanban, in a minimal way in all aspects – be it events, roles, artifacts or others.

In this article, we are going to follow the CIPSA Scrum Framework. Here it’s specifically about scaling of roles and goals for Scrum at Scale. To understand the basics of this Practical Scaled Agile framework, you can check this article, specifically the first video in brief. You can also download the CIPSA Framework Guide for free here.

Two Key Roles in Scaled Scrum

Considering Scrum, the CIPSA Scrum framework adds only two new roles at scale:

• Chief Product Owner (CPO)
• Principal Scrum Master (PSM)

The CPO role is unique to CIPSA. The CPO is accountable for the Product Backlog. The CPO may be a dedicated individual or someone from the Product Owner Team (i.e., team of Product Owners from the individual teams) can play this role. The CPO creates a single, ordered backlog. The items from the backlog will be the deliverables by all teams.

The CIPSA Cross-Team Backlog Refinement and CIPSA Sprint Review meta-events are led by the CPO, with other product owners and needed representatives from the individual teams.

The PSM role is also unique to CIPSA. The PSM is accountable for the entire CISPA process. He or she focuses on the progress and helps in prioritization as well as removal of cross-team impediments. The PSM is also responsible for continuously improving the effectiveness of CIPSA processes. The PSM may be a dedicated individual or someone from the Scrum Master Team, i.e., a team of Scrum Masters from the individual Scrum teams.

The CIPSA Sprint Planning and CIPSA Sprint Retrospective meta-events are led by the PSM, with other Scrum Masters (SM) and the needed representatives from the individual Scrum teams.

As the role of CPO and PSM can be confusing for aspiring CIPSA certified professionals, the best way to know these roles is with the next two sections – what it is and what it’s not.

The Role of CPO – What it is and is Not *** UPDATED ***

The CPO sets the product vision, which is strategic and is aligned with organizational vision, mission and strategic objectives. The CPO is accountable for creating a single, ordered product backlog, which will be worked-upon by individual Scrum teams.

Now, the following differentiations inform what a CPO is not and what a CPO truly is for Scrum at scale:

1. The Chief Product Owner does not get the product vision from the top executive team. The Chief Product Owner sets the product vision.
2. The Chief Product Owner is not a portfolio or program manager. The Chief Product Owner is the visionary for the Product.
3. The Chief Product Owner is not a backlog maintenance person. The Chief Product Owner is the main backlog strategist.
4. The Chief Product Owner is not a lone-wolf. The Chief Product Owner works with other Team Product Owners, stakeholders and customers.
5. The Chief Product Owner does not have a management mindset. The Chief Product Owner has an ownership mindset.

You can know more about the role of the CPO in the following article:

CIPSA Certification: The Chief Product Owner (CPO) – What It Is and What It’s Not!

The above article also has an accompanying video explanation. 

The Role of PSM – What it is and is Not *** UPDATED ***

The PSM ensures (i.e., accountable) the CIPSA meta-events take place, conducted in the right way and within a timebox. After all, the PSM is accountable for the CIPSA process. The PSM also improves the effectiveness of the Scaled Scrum, such as higher quality, lesser number of bugs and lower cost.

To make this role clearer, the following differentiations outlines what a PSM is not and what a PSM actually is for Scrum at scale:

1. The Principal Scrum Master is not the manager of the CIPSA team. A Principal Scrum is a true leader who serves the team and organization.
2. The Principal Scrum Master is not concerned about intra-team dependencies. The Principal Scrum Master focusses on inter-team dependencies.
3. The Principal Scrum Master does not track the individual Team Increments. The Principal Scrum Master tracks the overall product work and progress.
4. The Principal Scrum Master is not concerned about individual risks arising from individual teams. The Principal Scrum Master is concerned about the cross-team risks.
5. The Principal Scrum Master is not a replacement for individual Team Scrum Masters. The Principal Scrum Master complements the individual Team Scrum Masters!

You can know more about the role of the PSM in the following article:

CIPSA Certification: The Principal Scrum Master (PSM) – What It Is and What It’s Not!

The above article also has an accompanying video explanation for the PSM role. 

Figurative Representations – Scaled Scrum Key Roles

Let’s see how the CPO and PSM are part of the entire CIPSA team. The below figure represents these rolls within the team.

As shown above:

• We have three Scrum Teams: Scrum Team A, B and C. Each team has its own individual team members.
• At scale, the CIPSA team has the Chief Product Owner (CPO).
• At scale, the CIPSA team also has the Principal Scrum Master (PSM).
• The CIPSA team is considered to be a single entity and there is no throw-over-the-wall mentality.

You might be wondering about the individual Scrum teams’ roles. The below figure shows a high-level view.

As shown above:

• Each Scrum team will have roles such as Product Owner (PO), Scrum Master (SM) and developers or team members.
• There can be some specialized roles, but then also do remember that the team members are generalizing specialists with broken-comb skill sets.
• While the individual Scrum teams have their own goals and deliverables, they have to integrate for the entire CIPSA team.

At scale, I’ll be not focusing on the individual roles, as the focus is on the entire CIPSA team, CIPSA integrated increment, cross-team risks, cross-team dependencies etc.

Use the below link to read the second part.

[Part - 2]

References

[1] Certification Course: Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA), by ManagementYogi.com

[2] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - CIPSA Certification

CIPSA and CHAMP Success Stories:

• CIPSA Success Story: From CHAMP to CIPSA – Taking Agile to the Next Level with Scaled Scrum and Scaled Kanban
• CHAMP Success Story: Bridging Predictive and Agile Worlds with Hybrid-Agile Mastery
• CHAMP Course: Excellent One for Mastering MS Project in both Traditional and Agile Environments
• CHAMP Success Story: A Niche Certification –Never Seen Anything Like this Before!
• CHAMP Success Story: One of the Best Hybrid-Agile Certification Courses I Ever Attended