This page provides advice for how to prepare for Disciplined Agile (DA) exams. Each exam involves randomly selected, multiple-choice questions. To prepare for a test, you must take the corresponding certification workshop. For example, once you take a Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) workshop you may then take the corresponding DASSM certification test.
Specific advice pertains to the following certification exams:
- Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant (DAVSC)
- Disciplined Agile Coach (DAC)
- Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) and Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM)
Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant (DAVSC) Exam
To prepare for the Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant (DAVSC) exam, you must first complete the DA Value Stream Consultant workshop. Once you have completed the workshop, you will receive an invitation to join the DAVSC community of practice (DAVSC CoP). As a member, you will have access to advice for how to prepare for the exam, including the recommendation to form as study group with some of your peers, and you can access to the case study upon which some exam questions are based.
Disciplined Agile Coach (DAC) Exam
To prepare for the Disciplined Agile Coach (DAC) exam, you must first complete the DA Coach workshop. Once you have completed the workshop, you will receive an invitation to join the DA Coach community of practice (DA Coach CoP). As a member, you will have access to advice for how to prepare for the exam, including the recommendation to form as study group with some of your peers, and you can access to the case study upon which some exam questions are based.
Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) and Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM)
After either the Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) or the Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) it is recommended to do some additional exam prep-work. Such as:
- Familiarizing yourself with common agile concepts and terminology covered in the workshop.
- Reviewing key areas that address learning objectives in the "Choose Your WoW!" book. See below and follow the instructions for the edition of the book that you’re working from.
- Familiarize yourself with common agile strategies, see the list below.
- Familiarize yourself with the DA process goals. To do this, use the DA Browser (v5.3) material online to review the version of DA that the test is based on. Don’t worry, this isn’t a memorization exercise, rather a familiarization one. Do a bit of browsing, read the description of each process goal to understand what its focus is and look at each diagram to get a feel for the range of techniques that each goal encompasses.
- It’s essential that participants take notes and review them prior to the exam.
- Review of workshop handouts.
- Organize a virtual study group to confirm the understanding of processes, application, and concepts addressed in training.
Choose Your WoW! First Edition
If you are working from the first edition of Choose Your WoW! you will want to read section 1 of this book (chapters 1 through 6). You’ll notice that the courseware has updated versions of several of the diagrams, in this case refer to your courseware.
Although you can read sections 2-5, which contain reference material for the process goals, you may instead want to access that material online from the DA Browser.
Choose Your WoW! Second Edition
Read the entire book. This edition was released in late January 2022 and is an updated version of the first section of the first edition. Because the DA tool kit evolves regularly, we decided to move the reference material that made up sections 2-5 online, specifically into the DA Browser and a collection of short articles:
- Agile Documentation Strategies
- Choosing and Evolving Your Team’s Way of Working (WoW)
- Collaborative Development of Shared Guidance
- Comparing Agile/Lean Backlog Management Strategies
- Comparing Communication Strategies Between People
- Continuous Deployment (CD)
- Continuous Integration (CI)
- Coordinating Between Locations
- Coordinating Team Cadences Within A Program
- Cost of Change on Software Teams
- Evolving Your Team’s Life Cycle
- Funding Agile Teams
- Gantt Charts and Agile Planning
- Levels of Competence
- Metrics Categories: How to Roll Up Metrics When Every Team Measures Uniquely
- Quality Requirements and Agile
- Risk:
- Technical Debt
- Test Automation Pyramid
- Testing Quadrants
- The Scope of Governance
- Tips for Effective Agile Planning
January 2022