MEM Students Earn Scrum Certification

Forty-four current students received their Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certification thanks to a long-standing partnership between Northwestern's Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program and the Scrum Alliance.

Jasper Qingsong is a current student in Northwestern's Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program who owns two startups. He turned to MEM to put him on a path toward professional success. 

One of the skill sets he wanted to enhance during his time in the program was his knowledge of scrum as it relates to product development. Scrum is a set of values, principles, and practices that help break down the creation of a product into a series of mini-projects that allow for quicker and more responsive development. 

Thanks to a collaboration between MEM and the Scrum Alliance, he was able to reach his goal. Qingsong and 43 fellow MEM students recently earned certification as a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) from the Scrum Alliance, which promotes this innovative framework for moving a product from idea to reality. 

Qingsong’s goal is to use what he learned while gaining the certification to kick that door wide open in pursuit of startup success. 

“I am a rookie in this field,” Qingsong said. “It is a great practice for me before I try something new in the real world.” 

Fitting under the umbrella of the popular development framework known as “agile,” scrum is designed to help companies meet complex, changing needs while creating high-quality products and services. 

It is based on three pillars – transparency, inspection, and adaptation – crafted to ensure a product that reaches the marketplace has remained relevant and focused on consumer needs while going from concept to launch. 

Earning the CSPO designation while still in the MEM program gives students an advantage in the professional world, participants said. 

Azgar Ali“CSPO certification offered by the globally recognized Scrum Alliance will play a crucial role in progressing career opportunities for students by equipping us with the right tools and frameworks for developing next-generation products,” said Azgar Ali, a current student who organized the event. 

Raghu Veer, an MEM student with nearly a decade of professional experience, previously used the scrum process in the technology industry. He said earning the CSPO distinction helped refresh his knowledge and gave him an added differentiator for when he graduates.

"People and teams are more agile than ever before and it is important to learn how scrum adds value to the product development process," Veer said. “The CSPO certification is globally recognized and validates an individual within an organization." 

The course was taught by adjunct lecturer Lowell Lindstrom, one of scrum’s pioneers who developed the first commercially available course on the business practices of agile. 

“When such a person provides training, students get to experience first-hand anecdotes about the development of the field,” Ali said. “He made the concepts simple and intuitive.” 

The training allowed students to learn key concepts and then immediately test and implement them. Thanks to the partnership between MEM and the Scrum Alliance, students were also able to become certified at one-fifth the standard price.  

"The value of CSPO is really to help students demonstrate their scrum skills in terms of agile product development," MEM director Mark Werwath said. "CSPO is a supplement to the product management curriculum in MEM, and it's universally recognized because it's offered by the Scrum Alliance. MEM partnered years ago with the Scrum Alliance to offer this to our students at a significant discount, and they've been taking advantage of it ever since."

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