As my colleagues and I have described in other posts, Perficient China has been a pioneer in areas of CMMI and agile. We were the first CMMI Level 5 appraised company in Zhejiang province, and perhaps the only company in China to be assessed at this level using an agile approach to project delivery. A common key theme to both the CMMI and agile camps is the concept of continuous improvement, and this theme is wholeheartedly embraced by our team. This year we have focused on a wide range of continuous improvement activities, and one that I am particularly proud of is bearing it’s first fruit this week.
Earlier in the year the Scrum Alliance introduced a new mid-level certification program, the Certified Scrum Developer. This program is the third course-based certification promoted by the Scrum Alliance, and along with the Certified ScrumMaster and Certified Scrum Product Owner courses represents formalized foundation level training for all three Scrum defined roles: the ScrumMaster, Product Owner, and team.
To enable the effective delivery of the Certified Scrum Developer program, as well as some forward looking programs to helping teams grow their knowledge beyond the foundations of Scrum, the Scrum Alliance also introduced a new membership type, the Scrum Alliance Registered Education Provider. Becoming a Registered Education Provider requires an organization to demonstrate capability and maturity in their course development and delivery process, with the organization, coursework, and trainers all being vetted independently before the associated coursework can be delivered and recognized under the program.
Given the commonalities between the Foundation Training and Boot Camp programs we were already delivering, coursework including configuration management and version control, continuous integration, test driven development (TDD), acceptance test driven development (A-TDD), refactoring, design patterns, teams and teamwork, etc. we recognized a natural fit with this program, so Perficient China applied and became a Scrum Alliance Registered Education Provider in July 2010.
Perficient China is one of only 3 REPs in China, and is unique among these as our programs are internally focused, intended to continuously improve our own internal training and development programs. Also unique to our program, Perficient China is the only organization that can independently deliver all three Scrum Alliance certification programs.
The Perficient China Intensive Agile Engineering Practices course, which satisfies the 3-day CSD-track technical skills course requirement, has been approved and the first delivery happening now. Along with the Certified ScrumMaster program Perficient China can deliver the full scope of courses required for our colleagues to be eligible to become Certified Scrum Developers.
With the acceptance of our Intensive Agile Engineering Practices course we are making minor modifications to our Boot Camp program to incorporate the improvements made and anticipate our Boot Camp program being submitted, reviewed, and approved which will allow us to deliver a full scope CSD program — a program that will allow Perficient China colleagues to achieve two industry recognized certifications, the Certified ScrumMaster and Certified Scrum Developer — in an intensive three week program. In addition to the Scrum and CSD required courses we will also be developing additional coursework which will further improve our training and development programs.
We have a saying that we’re committed to here in the GDC: There is no best, only better (and better). We’re committed to this concept, and the continuing evolution of our training and development programs are one excellent example; an example that enables our customers to recognize great value from individuals trained in the the best technology school in Hangzhou.
Thanks vernon’s help, I’m one of the CSM now and practice in our projects.
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