How to Pass the Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner Certification Test (PSPO 1)

Summary: The Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner certification test is no joke. Given how crazy things are in my personal and professional life, a big part of me wanted to just take what I learned from the two-day training class and then just wing the test. I am glad I didn’t. Below is a look at some of the resources I used to prepare for the PSPO certification test and some recommendations on what to have handy during the test.

Why Having the Professional Scrum Product Owner Certification is Important

Before we get into how to prepare for the PSPO certification test, let’s first determine why it is worth doing in the first place. If your organization uses the Scrum framework within their IT department, no matter what department you work in, having a knowledge of the Scrum process can help you more effectively navigate getting products and projects completed. If you “own” a product (like a website, app, physical product, etc.), Scrum is a great framework for keeping development around your product going, so having a certified background in product ownership within Scrum is a very good thing.

Having the Scrum Product Owner certification also can earn you a higher salary. I checked a variety of different job websites and found the average salary for a Certified Product Owner to be around $106,000 a year, with the highest PSPO certification holders making just under $150,000 a year.

If you are a Product Manager or want to get into product management, having a Scrum Product Owner certification can be very beneficial.

Now let’s get into how to earn your PSPO certification.

Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) Training Class

My path to the PSPO certification started with a 2-day training class provided by Scrum.org. My instructor for the two days was Chuck Suscheck who is a long-time Scrum.org course instructor. I was in a Zoom class with five other people. The two days were filled with learning, group activities, and reviews of certification test material. I found the training very helpful and would strongly recommend using this as your starting point if you're interested in PSPO certification.

Scrum Product Owner Books - Reading Materials

For about two weeks after the conclusion of the training course, I spent quite a bit of time reading and reviewing materials related to the certification test. Much of that time was spent reading a few Scrum Product Owner books. These books came as a recommendation from my class instructor, so I took the bait and purchased the books. I can say that all of them were helpful but one in particular offered the most value, which was The Professional Product Owner by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham.  So if you had to get one book for your studying, that would be the one I would recommend, hands down. Here are the three books I read with links to pick them up on Amazon.com.

• The Professional Product Owner by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham

• Crossing The Chasm by Geoffrey Moore

• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

The Scrum Guide

On the first day of my training class, it also happened to be the release date for the updated Scrum Guide, version 2020. The course instructor informed the class, however, that our certification test would be based off of the Scrum Guide 2017 version. If you sign up for a PSPO class between November 18, 2020 through January 21, 2021, your certification test will be based off the 2017 Scrum Guide. After that, everyone will test under the 2020 version. The official Scrum Guide is a very short and concise outline of the entire Scrum framework. I think it's around 17 pages or so depending on how you view it or print it. The 2020 version is actually shorter, which I think is really interesting that the authors were able to condense and consolidate information to make it even more brief. How “scrum” of them!

During the course of my studying I reviewed the Scrum Guide 2017 on several occasions reading through it in its entirety. Again, it's not a long read so it doesn't take very long. The web version is built in outline format so I didn't really take any notes, I just made some points of reference if I needed it in the future for the test . I strongly recommend reviewing the Scrum Guide, whatever version you need to for your test, because it does really do a good job of giving great information that you'll need for the certification test.

Open Assessments

There are two Product Owner Certification practice tests, called “Open Assessments”, on the Scrum.org website that I strongly recommend you spend time doing. One is the “Scrum Open” and the other is the “Product Owner Open”.  These assessments are like pretests. They're very short, the Product Owner one is 15 questions and the Scrum one is 30. The questions are randomly pulled from a larger pool of questions.  While I found that most of the questions on these open assessments were not on the certification test, some were and more importantly, the questions really helped me understand how the test was going to be laid out and the way questions are asked. So taking these assessments were very valuable during my study time.

My recommendation is to take both of these PSPO 1 practice test open assessments as many times as you can, over and over and over again.  After you take the assessment the first few times, you might feel they are getting a little repetitive and you might want to stop. I recommend to keep doing them, because as you do you'll see new questions you hadn't seen in the previous practice tests. I am not joking when I say take these assessments over and over again. They don't take that long and as you do them over and over you'll complete them quicker. I am not exaggerating when I say that I took the open assessments probably over a hundred times. They are really quick and easy ways to study. These Product Owner Certification practice tests are a great way of validating your basic knowledge.

Product Owner Learning Path

After passing the certification test and thinking back to some of the questions I know I did not get right, I explored the one resource I wish I would have spent more time looking at. That is the Product Owner Learning Path resource on the Scrum.org website. The instructor of my two-day course recommended looking at this resource but I did not spend as much time as I probably should have. During my study time I did review some of the materials on the site and found them somewhat helpful, but if I had to do this all over I would have spent more time there, so I recommend you don't overlook it.

Training Course Materials (Slide Handouts, Mural Whiteboards)

Prior to the two-day training class, I received the complete presentation slide deck, which was HUGE, but very helpful. That will also be a great reference for the future. Also, something that was really cool about the class was that we all collaborated on a virtual whiteboard tool called Mural. All of our team exercises were done there and the instructor presented some material there as well, so reviewing that during the study time was helpful.

What Test Night Looked Like

I don’t know why I subject myself to the torture of taking certification tests late at night, but that was what happened with the PSPO test. I took it at 9:45 PM, which maybe wasn’t the best idea, but it worked. I do tend to think better late at night, so I roll with that (I am actually writing this post at 10:30 PM).

For my setup, I had two laptops and my Samsung Galaxy Note20. The certification test is online, so get your setup ready to be able to do quick searches if you need to. One of my laptops had the test open, and the other one had open the Scrum Guide 2017 in one tab, and the PowerPoint deck from the training class in another tab. My phone was for quick Google searches as needed.

The PSPO I certification test is 80 multiple choice and true/false questions that need to be completed in 60 minutes or less. Trust me when I tell you, time management is key for this test. At times I felt like I was trending good on time, but I cut it really close to finish.

My tip is this… roll through your first pass quickly, hammering out the no-brainer questions, and flag the ones you need extra time with. Each question has a flag option so you can find those questions easily later. Trust me, time is no joke with this test. You have less than one minute per question, and while that sounds reasonable, it will test you.

To pass the certification test, you need to score 85%, which means you are only allowed to get 12 answers incorrect out of the 80. If you manage your time accordingly, and leave some spare time to refine answers you were unsure of through the first pass-through, you should be okay.

Best of luck on your Professional Scrum Product Owner Certification test!