A Word About the Exam
The SAFe Agilist (POPM course) exam is a practical test of your knowledge about how to implement Lean and Agile software development for any project you may face in your role as a product owner or product manager. The test does not go over conceptual information; it tests your ability to put into practice your knowledge and skills as they relate to real-world business problems.
Who Can Apply for Safe® 5.1
Product Owner and Product Manager? Anyone (individual or organization) who meets one of the following three criteria can apply for a new product owner/product manager role: has direct involvement in creating a product that is used by an internal or external customer; helps create high-value products that are consumed by internal customers; helps run business units that create products and services delivered to internal customers.
This includes business owners and executives who own part of their business such as Director / VP / SVP / CXO level staff of companies that deploy products internally or externally.
Where Should I Start?
To become a Certified SAFe® 5.1 Product Owner (SAFe PPO) or Certified SAFe® 5.1 Scrum Master (SAFe SM), you must first have your Agile Transition Plan approved by your company’s Executive Committee before attending a training course at an authorized training provider.
So you must do two things: First, get familiar with who is on your Executive Committee so that you can send them email updates as progress on your transition plan and certification plans becomes available; second, you must follow our instructions regarding how to prepare for each of these courses so that you can best absorb what will be taught and avoid wasting anyone’s time at class.
Why You Should Get Certified?
There are only a few certifications available for SAFe product manager product owner(Scaled Agile Framework) and because of its popularity—the past two years have seen exponential growth—getting certified is more difficult than ever. If you’re looking for a new opportunity, having a certification can be advantageous during your job search.
How Long It Takes to Prepare
The amount of time it takes you to prepare for certification depends on your previous experience with Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and other agile practices.
If you have little-to-no exposure to any methodologies, we recommend that you first get yourself up to speed by studying: Getting Started with Scaled Agile Framework and Introduction to SAFe—then sign up for a training course where you can learn hands-on how it’s done in practice.
Before you Start Studying
Familiarize yourself with SAFe and its basic tenets: It’s a huge framework with a steep learning curve, but it’s well worth your time.
Where Can you Study?
It’s not hard to learn what it takes to pass an exam and earn certification—after all, you can read about it online—but choosing a venue for taking certification tests is more complicated than most people realize. There are two considerations here: finding an appropriate venue (online or at-home study or live classroom) and locating one that doesn’t require you to travel far away from home or lose large chunks of time due to unexpected delays caused by your daily routine (work commute).
What Happens if I Fail?
First off, don’t worry; nobody passes everything the first time around. The good news is that all of your learning materials are included with your certification package so you can study and try again as many times as you need until you pass. We’ve kept our failure rate low (the lowest of any vendor) by focusing on people rather than numbers. When we fail someone it’s for something like not following our policies or failing to hand in work on time – and it’s never a reflection on their skills or intelligence. Our chief goal is always to get everyone through and accredited – we just need them to be fully aware of what they’re committing to when they do so.
Do I Need Any Experience With SCRUM or SAFe Practices Before Taking the Exam?
Nope. This is a certification exam, so there are no prerequisites! If you are not familiar with Scrum or SAFe practices, you should take some time to study up on them first so that you know what you’re getting into. It’s okay if you don’t know everything—you can learn it during class!
How Much Does it Cost?
The current asking price for a class is USD 4999 plus USD 1000 per day for 3 days of training. If you are based outside of North America, your flight and accommodation will need to be covered as well. Please note that these prices are subject to change by Scaled Agile Inc., but only if their expenses increase; so far they have not changed since 2012 when they were announced on the SAFe Roadmap wiki page
The Certification Examination Process
The examination is a multi-hour, closed-book exam which will be taken at Prometric test centers around Australia and New Zealand. The format of each exam is three hours long and consists of 60 multiple choice questions (multiple choice answers). The passing score for certification is 75%.
How Will My Progress be Assessed?
We won’t ask you for receipts or photos—you won’t have to prove that you did anything! We’ll assign exercises and create checkpoints. If your attendance is consistent, you should be able to complete your progress from start to finish in about two weeks. Here’s how it will work: we’ll post an exercise and give you a deadline by which it must be completed (usually within 48 hours). You must provide all material within that period or risk not being able to continue with us until we can resolve what’s missing.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to take your career to the next level, but aren’t sure how to proceed, gaining the SAFe® 5.1 Product Owner Product Manager Certification (POPM) could be an excellent next step. You can either do it on your own, or you can do it at Salford’s upcoming training course in Brisbane, Australia – what you need to know about it and why it might be right for you will be explained below.
