A Self-reflection on Taking Professional Examinations

I have been in the IT industry since graduation. Five years ago, the company promoted agile development. Since then, I have been working as an agile coach.

Time flies. I am now a development lead who leads a small product team. Scrum is the primary practice my company adopts. In the meantime, I also learned others like Kanban, SAFe, etc. Combined with these practices and other knowledge learned from books, my team gradually formed a specific working practice.

Does it comply with the company standards? I have no idea. We keep improving our practice. Can I still remember Scrum thoroughly? I doubt it. Maybe it’s time to revisit the materials about Scrum methodology.

Should I take professional examinations? 4 years ago, I refused to do so. My daily work as an agile coach is about practical skills. Exams are just about paperwork and theories. I couldn’t apply the guideline to the actual situation. For instance, the Scrum Guide states a Scrum Team should be as small as 10 people. If the team size is too large, we should split the team. However, there were 20 people in our team, and team formation was fixed. We couldn’t do too much about it.

But now I realize I was wrong. Taking exams is not only about revising the written materials. Indeed, the guideline can never be the same as real life. However, with deep understanding and multidisciplinary thinking, you can mix and match to become your new tools. Taking exams is a direct way to force you to study the materials and strengthen your knowledge.

Here is a self-reflection. The real reason for not taking exams was fear of failing them. What if others know I, as an agile coach, fail an agile-related examination? No, no one cares. I was procrastinating. If I fail the exams, I can retake them without telling others.

If I had taken the exams a few years ago, I probably could have taken the more advanced exams this year. Procrastination hurts a lot in personal development.

I am now preparing PSM (Professional Scrum Master) and PSPO (Professional Scrum Product Owner). My goal is to pass both by the end of this year. Although I have never worked as a product owner before, the knowledge acquired through exams should help my career growth and improve the working practice of the team.

Learning is hard. It requires sacrificing your short-term pleasure (entertainment, TV shows, gaming) for long-term growth (knowledge, career, finance). Challenge yourself and strive for a better future.