The Agile Certification Flywheel 🏆

More Money, More Certifications ➡️ Bigger Moat

"I'm one of the around 1000 people with a PSM III certification."

And that, my friends, is how we keep the Agile Certification Flywheel running. More certifications are better, and the higher our level, the better we are.

But is this really true? Or is it simply a heuristic we are tempted to rely on because we prefer being lazy over taking the time to understand what’s really going on?

I want to stress, it's good that people want to learn, and I'm sure they learn valuable things on their journey to obtaining a certification. But is all that badge flashing really something we should be promoting?

Or is it a transaction where people exchange money to secure a moat that confers a competitive advantage over those without badges who may be as skilled as them?

Let's break down what is going on the realm of Agile in four easy steps.

1. The market is saturated with Agile practitioners

The more practitioners, the more difficult it becomes to stand out from the crowd. Practitioners begin to wonder: what are peacock feathers I can obtain to stand out from the crowd?

2. Faced with so many options, employers struggle to select and filter candidates

So much choice! How do we choose? How do we know who is good? We don't have time to talk to everyone, so let's filter out people based on simple rules like whether they have a specific certification or not. Phew! Now the list is much smaller.

3. Candidates notice more vacancies where employers ask for specific certifications

Oh no! The game is rigged. To level the playing field, let's obtain those certifications and secure some paper victories! 🔥 🔥 🔥 .

4. The market is saturated with certifications and certification levels

Oh look, there's a sweet progression system 🎲 ⚔ that can be leveraged to enter the Agile space. NOICE! So many shiny badges, gotta catch 'em all!

And now we've upped the ante. As the number of certifications increases, it becomes even more difficult to stand out. So what's left to do: obtain even more certifications!

And so the flywheel continues.

The question we should be asking: who benefits from this system and who doesn't?

And I'm not under the illusion we can do something about it, because we deeply love leveling up and showcasing what we've achieved, just look at how obsessive people can become over RPGs like World of Warcraft or the amount of money 'Whales’ can spend on games to show off.

For now: expect even more certifications until the Agile bubble pops.

Until then - don’t hate the player, hate the game.