Which is better, PMP or scrum master?

Every individual in the same project may need the assistance of a Scrum Master and a project manager to achieve the intended project; however, there are slight differences in their roles and approaches to execute the tasks hence leading to difference in certification procedures. All in all, while comparing the two, the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification can be considered provably cheaper. Study courses are in the range $400 to $1 200 depending on the course and come with two shots at the exam, Any additional shots cost $25. Also, Certified Scrum Masters should be registered with Scrum Alliance and for this, CSMS have to pay $100 as biennial fee. However it comes with a fee; for the training that is mandatory it ranges between a thousand and two thousand dollars plus to this the fee for PMP certification examination to those who are not members of PMI is $ 555 ($ 405 being for members). Again, the reactivation fees are $150 if you are not a PMI member, but if you are a member, then it would be $60; The annual membership fee to PMI is $139.

To be given the chance to sit for the PMP examination, one is compelled to have working experience in project management and this varies according to the applicant’s academic qualifications. Specifically for the candidates with the bachelor’s degree the experience required should not be less than three years and for the candidates with high school education only we require not less than five years of experience. On the CSM certification’s side, there is no restriction what so ever in this aspect of the candidate. The CSM exam is also by its nature time-limited, or to be more precise there are 50 questions and the candidate has an hour to complete it. Thus, to get the total score of 74% the quantity of questions answered correctly should be at least 37. Whereas PMP exam is a set of 180 questions which is to be solved in 230 minutes and the passing criteria is 70% which is approximately 161 of the examined questions. The CSM exam mainly focuses on the Agile methodology, whereas the PMP exam is based most of the traditional organizational project management.

From the following data obtained from Payscale, it can be realized that holders of CSCM in USA gets $97559 on average and those of PMP gets $ 113000 on an average. However, the actual income could differ from one another by the industry, or geographical location.

Deciding between PMP and CSM certification comes down to individual choice. Initially, candidates need to take into account their personal and professional objectives. For instance, a person employed by or considering a career in a software development firm might see more value in CSM compared to someone in charge of construction projects. Next, it’s essential for candidates to determine which certification holds more worth in the areas they intend to be employed in. PMP is commonly utilized in the United States, Canada, Russia, and India. Scrum is widely used in Central and South America, as well as in Europe and Australia.

Resource: Project Management Academy. (2024). Project management training. Retrieved from https://projectmanagementacademy.net/