Top 10 Reasons To Go For ManagementYogi’s Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) Certification

Life is never static. It flows forward like a river. Almost every aspect of life changes - or upgrades, if you want - as you grow. It happens in all spheres of our lives, including our professional lives, where we spend much of our time. Let’s consider a few examples:

• You started as a trainee engineer or developer. Do you remain (or want to remain) in the same position as time passes: say, 10 or 15 years down the line?
• You learned Scrum, a team-level framework, years ago. Now, your organization has grown, and Scrum needs to be applied at an organizational level. Will Scrum work in such cases?
• You were fine with lesser, but fair compensation early in your career. Would you want to stay on the same salary for the next 5 or 10 years?

I’m sure you know the answers to these questions!

The old saying below comes to my mind as I write:

“What I hear, I may forget. What I see, I may remember. What I do, I'll understand....and unlikely to forget.”

With the CIPSA Certification, in fact, you are doing all three of the above, i.e., listening to and watching the videos, visualizing Scaled Agile concepts being applied to build large products, and doing them hands-on to understand. 

In addition, you will also have self-reviews with practice exercises, running the solution files with MS Project software, and answering questions.

Now, let’s look at the top reasons to go for the CIPSA Certification.

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Reason – 1: The CIPSA Certification is the world’s only practical, hands-on Scaled Agile certification. 

Worldwide, many Scaled Agile frameworks and certifications exist, but none offer hands-on, practical use with software tools, except CIPSA. Most frameworks are theoretical, which is important, but real-world application is a must for a useful certification. 

The CIPSA certification, based on the CIPSA framework (see here), focuses on practical scaling with hands-on software tools like MS Project. Similar concepts can be applied with other tools.

Reason – 2: The unique CIPSA certification comes at a very affordable price. No other Scaled Agile Certification is offered at such a low cost.

To be a CIPSA, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars, not even a thousand dollar. It comes at a very low cost. 

No other Scaled Agile certification comes at such a low cost. It also comes with a full-money guarantee without any  terms and conditions. No other provider will provide it! The guarantee is applicable for the entire course duration. (See here for price, and guarantee details)

Reason – 3: CIPSA certification combines essential theory with practical.

The CIPSA certification course has a 70%:30% ratio – 70% practical and 30% theoretical. Scaling is new to many teams and scaled Agile aspirants and simplifying it, is challenging for most. 

Therefore, theory is provided for clarity, but the emphasis is on practical application. A large number of solution files are available for hands-on practice. See here for example.

Reason – 4: CIPSA certification offers in-depth, practical Scrum at Scale and Kanban at Scale training—unmatched by any other Scaled Agile certification.

Scrum is one of the widely used team-level frameworks. But when you go for Scrum at Scale (see here), you need to have various meta-events, artifacts and roles/accountabilities at scale. The CIPSA course explains and demonstrates these concepts.

Again, you’ll not only learn how to scale these elements, but also how to apply them practically in a hands-on manner.

Next to Scrum, Kanban is another well-used team-level Lean framework. With Kanban at Scale (see here), you'll also need meta-events, artifacts and roles/accountabilities at scale. The CIPSA course explains and demonstrates these with Kanban projects.

Here too, you’ll not only learn about scaling various theoretical aspects of Kanban ones, you’ll also learn how to do them practically in a hands-on manner.

Reason – 5: The CIPSA framework is simple, easy to learn, and follow. There are little to no pre-requisites.

Simple things are always easy to remember and apply. The CIPSA framework is very simple and easy to follow. CIPSA stands out for its simplicity. In any endeavor, simplicity is powerful. Combined with practicals, you'll learn in and out of the scaling.

Now, because it’s straightforward, your team members can  also quickly grasp and apply it. Some "frameworks" are overly complex with numerous roles and artifacts, taking months or years to understand—let alone apply. That's bureaucracy! When bureaucracy prevails, Agile fails. 

The primary goal of Agile is to deliver valuable increments. With CIPSA, that means the CIPSA Integrated Increment. See here. Complex "frameworks" (which aren’t truly frameworks!) undermine this purpose. 

Download the guide here, for free. You can see it's simple.

Reason – 6: The course comes with a massive content library – 11 hours, 153 videos and over 80 solution files. 

The course content is detailed oriented. You’ll learn with hours of videos, practice, demonstration with software tool. In addition, all solution files are downloadable. 

The solution files are needed when you’re stuck or you’re struggling with the software tool. You can load these files into the software tool and instantly see the solution. The files are in Microsoft Project Plan (.MPP) format. 

Reason – 7: You’ll receive hands-on solution files, practice questions, quizzes, and a full-length question set for your CIPSA certification.

The CIPSA certification is highly practical, with essential theory included, making its course structure and test approach unique.

You’ll receive exercises, Microsoft Project Plan (.MPP) files, lesson-end quizzes, and full-length practice exams. For sample questions, see here. 

After preparing, you'll take the final test and earn your CIPSA certification. One free retake is allowed if needed.

Reason – 8: Globally accessible and accessible 24*7. Learn at your pace, anytime, anywhere.

The CIPSA certification course is hosted online and you can access anytime, anywhere from part of the planet. With this you can learn at your own pace and at your own place. 

Another advantage is that as the course is video-based, you can watch the content as many times as you want till you master the topic at hand. 

This certification is globally recognized. A number of articles, webinars and publications have done for this certification. In fact, worldwide, many are pursuing this certification. 

Reason – 9: Scaling is inevitable. With CIPSA certification, you stay ahead of the curve because it's created by industry experts with proven Scaled Agile experiences. 

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, growth requires upskilling and learning. Real learning happens through practical application, which helps you retain knowledge longer.

The CIPSA certifications is prepared with inputs from Agile and Scaled Agile practitioners with decades of work experiences. Hours of discussions, meetings and reviews have been done before it went public. In other words, it's tested and validated by hundreds of hours of reviews.

Your career won’t remain static, and growth is a must. As organizations adopt Scrum at Scale or Kanban at Scale, these skills will become crucial in your skill-arsenal.

Reason – 10: You can lead Scaled Agile Transformations with the Globally Recognized CIPSA Certification.

When you not only explain scaling, but demonstrate how it's done with your CIPSA certification, it goes a long way in securing the coveted job or career growth that you always wanted.

As a CIPSA, you will gain the expertise to guide and manage large-scale Agile transformations within your organization.

Here are some more reasons to go for the CIPSA certification:

• No other certification is needed to be a CIPSA. It’s a stand-alone certification and you can immediately start off. 
• Scaling is inevitable. With CIPSA certification, you stay ahead, boost your resume, and drive your career growth. Your skills become unique – because you can not only tell, but also demonstrate. You truly know how to do scaling.

Conclusion

One can say the following about the CIPSA certification. The certification is:

• Practical and economical.
• Value-driven and Agile-conscious.
• Outcome-oriented and benefits-focused.
• Hands-on skills, and a life-time achievement.

It has a number of real-world projects, comes with purposeful learning, and job-focused results. You’ve complex concepts explained with simple lessons, and will get an unforgettable certification.

With this course, you not only learn, but also get value for your money. 

References

[1] Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) – Practical and Economical Certification

[2] New Practical Scaled Agile Framework – The CIPSA Framework Guide, by ManagementYogi.com

CIPSA Sample Videos:

[1] CIPSA Sample Video List (Choose a Video)

[2] CIPSA Video Playlist (Complete Playlist)

CIPSA Sample Questions:

[1] CIPSA Certification Sample Questions (Part - 1)

[2] CIPSA Certification Sample Questions (Part - 2)

Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA) Certification – The Ninjas, The Guide, The Mastermind and The Patron

Scrum at Scale with CIPSA introduces only two key roles – Chief Product Owner (CPO) and Principal Scrum Master (PSM). But the soul of the CIPSA framework is the CIPSA team as I’ve noted here. 

Without the developers, including the integrations specialists in the CIPSA team, there is no delivery. If there is no delivery, then Scrum at Scale has no real meaning, use, or purpose. 

In addition, there can be a Sponsor. Without a Sponsor or an executive champion, the product is not actively pursued or supported at the executive level. The Sponsor is not directly part of the CIPSA Scrum team but plays a crucial role.

In this article, I’ve taken four metaphors to describe the four roles used in the CIPSA Scrum Framework. CIPSA is world’s only framework that is practical and hands-on. These metaphors set the mindset, which is crucial for implementing the CIPSA framework.

Top 10 Reasons to go for the CIPSA Certification. See here.

Importance of Metaphors

Metaphors exist in every language, including English. In our context, they relate to Agile at Scale, specifically Scrum at Scale using the CIPSA framework.

In individual team-level Scrum, there are only a few people, roles, events (ceremonies), and artifacts. Complexity and dependencies are minimal, and risks, impediments, issues, and problems are mostly contained within the individual Scrum team.

However, Scrum at scale will be very different because of the followings:

• A number of teams will be involved and hence, a number of people.
• There have to be new roles.
• There will be meta-events, not events.
• Additional artifacts will be required. 
• The complexities, obviously, will be more. 
• The focus will be on inter-team risks and dependencies, among others.

Hence, the mindset to scale has to be different when compared to the mindset at individual team-level. To reiterate, metaphors play a crucial role in setting this mindset – the mindset of scale. 

The metaphors used in the CIPSA Scrum Framework are:

• Ninja,
• Guide,
• Mastermind, and
• Patron.

Now, let’s have a look at them briefly. The detailed elaboration is be part of the CIPSA certification course. See the details here.

Ninja

The developers in the CIPSA Scrum Team are Ninjas. A ninja is a top-class implementer. He or she is classically stealthy and highly skilled. Give a ninja a task, and be assured that the work will get done. There is no second-guessing here. This skilled executor focuses on delivering high-quality work and is not high dependent on others to deliver. The ninjas thrive on autonomy and mastery. 

It’s the ninjas who deliver the work and provide the CIPSA Integrated Increment every Sprint. See here.

Guide 

The guide is the Principal Scrum Master and is always available to the CIPSA team. The PSM helps CIPSA team members solve cross-team problems (issues and impediments), rejoices in the team’s growth, shares his/her knowledge, and offers experience. 

In addition, the guide champions Agile values and principles and ensures the team continuously improves. Some of the value and principles may or may not be applied at Scale, but it’s the job of the Guide to understand and provide solutions.

The guide, i.e., the PSM can also be called the coach of the entire CIPSA team. See here.

Mastermind

The mastermind is the Chief Product Owner. In this role, the mastermind is the chief strategist, thinking ahead about the items to be added to the Product Backlog. The CPO, as I’ve noted in this article (see here), is not a backlog maintenance person, but a backlog strategist. 

The mastermind is a visionary who steers product direction and backlog prioritization. As this person thinks ahead, hence the name or metaphor. 

Patron 

The Sponsor is the patron. The patron is the one who supports the product's delivery and remains continuously invested. This person secures resources and organizational support. The patron also champions the initiative at the executive level.

It’s the patron who secures the funding and brings in the resources – financial, assets, material, equipment or others. Hence, the metaphor!

Table Brief – Ninja, Guide, Mastermind and Patron 

Now that understand the metaphors used in the CIPSA Certification Course, it’s a good time to have a summary table. It’s shown below.

Live Video Explanation

I’ve prepared a video [duration - 09: 28s] to further consolidate your understanding. Watch the video alongside this article for a better learning experience. Don't forget to plug-in your headphones and go full-screen HD.

Conclusion

You now may be wondering are there any metaphors in the CIPSA Kanban Framework? 

Yes, indeed! There too we’ve metaphors, but they’re different from CIPSA Scrum Framework. Scrum and Kanban are not the same! Hence, when you scale, your thinking also has to be different. 

For example, in the CIPSA Kanban framework, I’ve used the metaphors of Samurai and Sensei to explain on my visualization of the roles. As wrote in the beginning, it helps to set the mindset when applying Agile at Scale.

So, whether you go for the CIPSA Scrum or Kanban frameworks for implementation in your teams and/or organizations, keep these metaphors and roles in mind to get the maximum value out of your CIPSA certification.

CIPSA Sample Videos:

[1] CIPSA Sample Video List (Choose a Video)

[2] CIPSA Video Playlist (Complete Playlist)

CIPSA Sample Questions:

[1] CIPSA Certification Sample Questions (Part - 1)

[2] CIPSA Certification Sample Questions (Part - 2)

CIPSA Certification:

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

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

[3] New Practical Scaled Agile Framework – The CIPSA Framework Guide

[4] Understanding the CIPSA Scrum Framework – Practical, Hands-on Scrum at Scale

[5] The CIPSA Framework Clock - A Unique Way

Agile and Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Three Cs of a User Story and Three Cs of a Prompt

Agile and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are not exactly cousins or twins. At a fundamental level, there are differences. Agile is about iterative and incremental development, whereas AI is about data-driven learning. Agile is about fast delivery, whereas AI is about fast learning, particularly considering the large language models (LLMs). 

In addition, Agile is about delivering value, whereas AI is extracting value from data. Agile revolves around user stories, whereas AI is mainly about data stories!

So, how does one compare and contrast Agile with AI?

In this article, we will explore more and we will learn through two building blocks of Agile and AI. For Agile, it’ll be the user stories or simply stories. For AI, on the other hand, it’ll be the prompts. 

We will start with the basics and then proceed to the three Cs of user stories and prompts. Prompt engineering is an emerging field in AI and indeed, there are job postings related to it, worldwide. Though a new engineering field, there are commonalities with the “Cs” of a use story, which will make prompts more understandable. 

So, let’s start with the basics.

What’s a Story in Agile?

A story replaces requirements in Agile development. I’ll define a story as follows:

"A story is a brief description of deliverable value to a stakeholder."

But you’d have definitely come across the concept of “User Story”. So, what’s that? A User Story is a story about a particular user. Yes, it’s that simple! For example, the user can be a:

• a customer, 
• a system administrator, 
• a sales person, 
• an employee, 
• or any other. 

You can learn more about story and user story here.

What’s a Prompt in AI?

With prompts, an AI model generates a response. The better the prompt, the better the response. Again, I’ll define a prompt in simple terms as follows:

“A prompt is an input instruction to an AI model.”

That’s it! It’s basically an instruction given to an AI model, e.g., GenAI model. 

Now, like stories, there can be varieties of prompts such as Natural Language Prompts for natural language processing (NLP), System Prompts with predefined instructions or templates, which can be loaded into an AI model to generate concise and clear responses. 

Next, with these basics in mind, let’s dive deeper into the three Cs of stories and three Cs of prompt engineering.   

Three Cs in Agile Use Story (Scrum or Kanban)

The three Cs are actually for user stories, but can be applied to other types of stories. You can use them both in Scrum or Scrum at Scale (see here), and Kanban or Kanban at Scale (see here). The three Cs are:

Card: A card represents the user story’s intent. It can be on an index card, sticky note, or an electronic card. The most used one is a sticky note on a Scrum or Kanban board. This is the visible part of the three Cs.

Conversation: A conversation represents a promise of interaction. This interaction is between the developers and customer, or a proxy of the customer, e.g. the Product Owner.

Confirmation: A confirmation is the verification part of the story. It provides the acceptance criteria and it ensures that the story is properly and correctly implemented. 

A figurative representation of these three Cs in a user story is shown below. 

Three Cs of an AI Prompt

Here, the three Cs are actually for a Prompt, a key aspect in having right conversation with an AI tool, when generative AI is used. The three Cs are:

Clarity: The clarity part is about clear instructions given in the prompt to the AI-bot. A clear instruction helps the AI tool to understand the intent of the user. The instruction should be unambiguous. 

Context: The content part is about background information related to the instructions. It can be associated with a persona, a real-world figure or examples. This guides the AI prompt and actually, the model behind it. 

Constraint: The constraint part refers to the limitations put in the prompt. Constraints set the boundaries or the boundary conditions. The constraints can be with respect to length, format, style, or others.

A figurative representation of these three Cs in a prompt is shown below.

Can 'command' be a "C" for a prompt? No. Because the prompt itself is a command! Isn't it? This is what I wrote in the definition of a prompt in the beginning. In other words, the instruction itself is a command to the AI model.

Types of Stories in Agile 

In an article of Stories about Stories in Agile for Product Managers, I’ve informed about a number of stories with examples. You can read the full article here. At a high level, the types of stories are:

• User Stories
• Spike Stories
• Architecturally Significant Stories
• Analysis Stories
• Infrastructure Stories

For each of the above types of examples are given, followed with exercise. You can try those. 

Types of Prompts in AI

Just as there are types of stories, there are also different types of prompts. The three Cs of stories can be applied to the types of stories and three Cs of prompts can be applied to types of prompts. 

For example, following can be the types of Prompts:

• Zero-shot prompts,
• Single-shot prompts,
• Multi-shot prompts, 
• Chain of Thought (CoT) prompts, among many others.

However, in this article, our focus is on the three Cs. So, let’s take some examples to understand the three Cs and three Cs of User Stories and Prompts.

Examples – Three Cs in a (User) Story

For a user story, as we just saw in the article, the 3 Cs are – card, conversation and confirmation. 

Card: Here is an example prompt written on a card. 

• Incorrect way: “I want a search function.”
• Correct Way: “As a home user, I want to search by water purifier product, so that I can find the right purifier.”

Conversation: Conversation happens between the developers and the customer. Here, the Product Owner (PO) acts as the proxy of the customer. One example conversation might look like this:

• Developer: “Do we need to provide all water purifier product names or specific top selling products?”
• PO: “Initially let’s make it brand specific.”
• Developer: “Can you tell what are the brands we include?”
• PO: “We can start with Brand ABC.”
• Developer: “Should it be applicable to all interfaces – web, mobile and desktop?”
• PO: “Let’s start with the web first.”
• …
• …

The conversation gets more and more refined as the conversation progresses. 

Confirmation: Confirmation is primarily about acceptance criteria.

Followings are some of the examples of acceptance criteria, assuming the story is really refined and can be done in one Release (as in Kanban) or Sprint (as in Scrum).

• The water purifier items to be listed as the search function is executed.
• At least three items from the same brand – Brand ABC – should be listed.
• The items are both from regular and advertise items.
• If no matching for the product item, then no a message of "no products found" should be displayed. 

Examples – Three Cs in a Prompt

For a prompt used on large language models (LLMs) in GenAI, as we know earlier, the three Cs are – clarity, context, and constraint. 

Let’s look at some examples showing both correct and incorrect prompts for each of the aforementioned Cs.

Clarity: Here is an example prompt with clarity. 

• Incorrect Way: “Tell me about this article.”
• Correct Way: “Summarize the following article in a few sentences.”

Context: Below is an example prompt with context, i.e., background information. 

• Incorrect Way: “Give a summary of hybrid-agile management.” 
• Correct Way: “Considering CHAMP certification from ManagementYogi, summarize the hybrid-agile model and management used in bulleted points.”

Constraint: Here is an example prompt with constraint, i.e., setting the boundaries. 

• Incorrect Way: “Explain CIPSA scaled agile.”
• Correct Way: “Write a summary of Practical Scaled Agile certification of CIPSA from ManagementYogi in 100 words or less.”

As you can see, in the first one, we set a clear tone. In the next prompt (or command), we specified CHAMP certification from ManagementYogi, which provided the context. And in the final prompt, we set the boundary to 100 words for the information related to the CIPSA credential. One hundred words indeed set a constraint.

Using Microsoft Copilot

Among multiple Generative AI (GenAI) models, I found MS Copilot to be the most honest one! 

Others hallucinated and/or many times, provided entirely incorrect information. Microsoft Copilot, a GenAI model, gave the correct information. You can check here.

For MS Copilot, a snippet without the three Cs – clarity, context and constraint – is shown below. You can also write the prompt and test it in various AI models to validate their honesty and integrity. Again, other GenAI models may hallucinate and/or generate completely outlandish information. 

                  

Next, I wrote a prompt with clarity and provided the context. I also set a constraint of 100 words. The response from the AI model is shown below. 

As shown above, the AI model understood. It not only kept it within 100 words, without any extra beautification and addition of its own, but also showed the actual sources. Simple, short, and effective. 

I then asked the following question to Copilot LLM about  practical, hands-on Hybrid-Agile certification. It correctly recognized and gave accurate information.

Indeed, the CHAMP certification is widely and truly recognized as the only practical, hands-on Hybrid-Agile certification, worldwide. As a matter of fact, highly experienced professionals, who are CHAMPs, have written on it. But other LLMs either showed it briefly or were totally wrong.

In all the above cases, other AI models deliberately omitted the source(s) or flip-flopped between showing or not showing the source(s). Above all, most of the time, their information was wrong and misleading with high verbosity.  

Conclusion

Like we apply who, what and why concepts while writing user story on a card, for a prompt too, we can also use them for prompt creation. The table below provides some examples. 

As shown above, we have the examples for both user story and prompts. 

• For the user story: Who is you as a traveler, what is about choosing the travel date and why is for proper itinerary.  
• For the prompt: Who is you as a project manager, what is about summarizing the meeting transcript and why is for action items. 

Finally, as noted at the beginning of the article:

• Agile focuses on delivering value to customers early and frequently.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) focuses on extracting value from data.
• In Agile, the interplay is between team members, whereas in AI, it’s between algorithms and data.

In order to get the right value from an AI model, not only your data, but your prompt also should be good and well-structured. 

Above all, the AI model must have integrity. When you try AI models, also remember to check the integrity of the models and honesty of their responses and ensure right reference sources are provided by the model. 

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This article is dedicated to the memory of my father, the late Harendra Nath Dash, who passed away on June 11, 2019. He didn’t just teach me, but taught me how to learn and apply. It’s a tribute to him and his teachings.

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CIPSA Certification:

• NEW Scaled Agile Certification Course: Certified In Practical Scaled Agile (CIPSA)

CHAMP Certification:

• Hybrid-Agile Certification Course: Certified Hybrid Agile Master Professional (CHAMP)