A Scrum product owner is one of the main stakeholders of a project. The individuals who are interested in handling the business part of various projects can become a Scrum Product Owner by completing CSPO, A-CSPO, and CSP-PO Certifications.

There is no need to be confused about the Scrum product owner certifications as each one of them complement one another and allow you to enhance your skills and knowledge regarding the roles and functions of a Product Owner.

However, as an aspiring product owner, you must understand the key differences between these certifications.

The Scrum Master is more concerned with the implementation of Scrum techniques and managing the Scrum team whereas the Product Owner handles the product backlog, prepares the vision of the product, and ensures that the end product/project satisfies the needs of the customers.

The CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner) Certification makes you understand the basic responsibilities of a product owner and also helps you tap into career opportunities in the organizations that work on Agile practices.

A CSPO works on optimizing product backlog and is determined to bring more value to the business whereas the A-CSPO (Advanced CSPO) Certification enables you to further develop your skills with the help of which you can manage the time frames better by identifying important business opportunities.

By earning this certification you establish your worth as a product expert and the companies expect you to deliver the best results for their businesses.

By completing the CSP-PO (Certified Scrum Professional – Product Owner) Certification, you can elevate your skillset further and adopt better approaches to validate the assumptions while developing a product.

You also become capable of handling advanced interactions with the end-users and you master the skill of employing advanced techniques while managing the product backlog.

Let us now check the requirements of these certifications separately to identify the differences between them:

Requirements for CSPO Certification:

● For earning the Certification, you must first attend a classroom training session with a CST (Certified Scrum Trainer) or take private lessons and coaching from a CAC i.e. Certified Agile Coach.

● You can also attend a 14-hour online training session with CTC or if you choose the face-to-face training then you must complete at least a 16-hour training session. If you choose to be taught by a CAC then you must complete a 25-hour training program.

● Once you complete the training session you can accept the license agreement and complete the profile on Scrum Alliance to receive the CSPO Certification.

● There is no need to give an exam to obtain this certification currently but you will have to renew it after every 24 months and earn SEUs (Scrum Education Units) to maintain it.

Requirements for A-CSPO Certification

● To earn the A-CSPO Certification you must complete the CSPO Certification first and you will also have to show 1 year of working experience as a product owner in the last 5 years.

● After that, you will have to attend an education course to manage stakeholders and product backlog in a better way.

● Also, you will have to learn all the objectives and complete the entire course which may include the works assigned by your tutor before taking up or after completing the course.

● After this, you can accept the license agreement and add the details to your Scrum Alliance profile to complete it and you will get the A-CSPO Certification.

● You will have to renew this certification after every 24 months and for maintaining it, you will need to earn SEUs (Scrum Education Units).

Requirements of CSP-PO Certification

● To earn the CSP-PO Certification you must complete the A-CSPO Certification first and you will also need to show a 2-year experience of working as a product owner in the last five years.

● After that, you will have to attend the educational training program of CSP-PO to learn advanced level techniques for managing product backlog and master advanced level methods for verifying product assumptions.

● You must also complete all the learning objectives and tasks assigned by your tutor before taking or after completing the educational training program.

● After that, you will earn the CSP-PO Certification once you accept the license agreement and add the details of your new credential in your Scrum Alliance profile.

● Moreover, this certification needs to be renewed every 24 months and you will also have to earn SEUs (Scrum Education Units) to maintain your certification.

Now that we have gone through the requirements of all the three Scrum Product Owner Certifications, let us see the benefits of each one of them separately:

Benefits of earning the CSPO Certification

● On earning the CSPO Certification, you will get deep knowledge of the basic principles of Scrum.

● Also, you will understand all the duties and responsibilities that have to be fulfilled by a product owner.

● You will get to interact with the best Agile practitioners of the world which will widen your perspective and their stories and work experience will provide you with useful insights.

● CSPO Certification acts as an introductory course and helps you commence your journey towards being a professional product owner.

● This certification will enable you to add great value to the products and you will also play a major role in uplifting the performance of the team members.

Benefits of obtaining the A-CSPO Certification

● The A-CSPO Certification will validate you as an Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner at both national and international levels.

● This certification will widen your career opportunities across the globe as you will be carrying some advanced Scrum implementation skills apart from the knowledge of the basic concepts.

● As you become a trained Agile Practitioner, you will be eligible to receive more remuneration at your existing or new workplace.

● Your communication skills will improve and this will enable you to interact with the stakeholders seamlessly.

● After obtaining this certification, you will be able to define the vision of a product clearly and this will help the team to develop a product that meets the needs of the end-users perfectly.

● You will be capable enough to express and order items of Product Backlog clearly. Apart from this, you will learn to handle the business strategies of multiple stakeholders simultaneously after earning the A-CSPO Certification.

Benefits of obtaining the CSP-PO Certification

● The CSP-PO Certification will bring more career opportunities to you and you will be able to progress your journey towards becoming CTC (Certified Team Coach), CST (Certified Scrum Trainer), or CEC (Certified Enterprise Coach).

● Your expertise as a Scrum Professional will allow you to demand more compensation from your current or new employer.

● You will get to attend CSP events where you will be interacting with the top Scrum and Agile leaders. This will help you immensely in your career as you will get to learn new things from their experience.

● Upon completion of this certification, you will get a free membership to the Comparative Agility platform which is the biggest platform when it comes to Agile improvement and assessment.

Conclusion
These were the basic differences between these Scrum Product Owner Certifications. You can start from the CSPO certification and explore the limitless opportunities across the globe by becoming a Certified Scrum Professional – Product Owner.