You’ve earned your CSM. You’ve been working with a team, running Sprints, facilitating Retrospectives, and removing impediments. But you’ve hit the problems that the introductory course didn’t prepare you for: a team member who resists every change, a Product Owner with no clear vision, Retrospectives that go nowhere, or an organization that wants “Agile” but won’t change any of its behaviour. That’s where the Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM) comes in.

What Is the A-CSM Certification?

The A-CSM is the second level of the Scrum Alliance’s ScrumMaster certification track. It’s issued to Certified ScrumMasters who complete advanced training and have at least one year of real-world ScrumMaster experience.

Where CSM training covers the fundamentals of the Scrum framework (what it is, how it works, why it matters), the A-CSM is about putting it into practice with the messy, complicated, human problems that Scrum surfaces. CSM gives you the “what.” A-CSM teaches you the “how do I actually make this work when things get difficult.”

The A-CSM is intended for people who want to deepen their Scrum practice: not just follow the mechanics, but understand the underlying principles well enough to adapt when the textbook answers don’t fit.

A-CSM Requirements

The requirements are more extensive than CSM:

• Hold a current CSM certification from the Scrum Alliance.
• Have at least 12 months of work experience in the ScrumMaster role within the past five years. (This experience can have been acquired before you took your CSM.)
• Attend an accredited A-CSM course, either online or in-person.
• Complete all pre- and post-course work. Our course requires you to do practical work with your real team and report your learnings back.
• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of Agile and Scrum principles through active participation.
• Accept the A-CSM License Agreement.

The course itself must be certified by the Scrum Alliance. This is non-negotiable. Without that accreditation, it’s not an authentic A-CSM certification, regardless of what the marketing says.

What You Learn in A-CSM Training

The A-CSM covers the same six objectives as CSM (coaching, Agile facilitation, services to the development team, services to the Product Owner, services to the organization, and personal development) but goes significantly deeper:

• Facilitation skills: How to facilitate productive dialogue between team members, Product Owners, stakeholders, and executives.
• Coaching: Moving beyond telling people what to do, toward helping them discover solutions themselves.
• Leading and facilitating change: What to do when the organization resists the changes Scrum surfaces.
• Team dynamics: Understanding what motivates people, how to increase engagement, how to create psychological safety, and how to work through conflict constructively.
• Scaling Scrum: How to extend Scrum and Agile principles beyond a single team.
• Lean Software Development: Understanding flow, waste, and how to improve the system, not just the team.

In our Advanced Certified ScrumMaster training, the learning is spread over several weeks. This is deliberate. Rather than compressing everything into two days and hoping it sticks, you learn a concept, practice it with your real team, then come back to discuss what happened. You build a genuine toolkit of coaching games, facilitation exercises, and practical tools that you’ve actually tested, not just heard about.

A good A-CSM trainer should understand Scrum (all do), but also Kanban, Lean Software Development, facilitation skills, Product Ownership, and have a solid understanding of behavioural psychology. Most don’t have all of these. Ask.

Is the A-CSM Worth It?

If you’re a ScrumMaster who has been working with a team for a year or more and you’ve run into problems that your CSM training didn’t cover, then yes. The A-CSM is where you learn to deal with the real-world challenges that separate a ScrumMaster who follows the rules from one who actually helps their team improve.

The value isn’t the certification itself. It’s the skills you walk away with:

• Tangible strategies for facilitating difficult conversations, coaching resistant team members, and driving meaningful change.
• A deeper understanding of team dynamics, motivation, and the psychology behind why people behave the way they do in organizations.
• The ability to scale Scrum thinking beyond your immediate team.
• Skills that transfer even to environments where Scrum isn’t formally practiced. The facilitation, coaching, and conflict resolution skills are universally valuable.

The A-CSM is also the stepping stone toward the CSP-SM (Certified Scrum Professional ScrumMaster), which is the highest level on the ScrumMaster track and the gateway to becoming a Certified Scrum Trainer or Certified Agile Coach.

A-CSM Salary and Career Impact

A caveat first: as of 2025, there are only several thousand Advanced Certified ScrumMasters worldwide, so any discussion about salary data should be viewed with that understanding carefully in mind. The sample sizes are small and the data is noisy.

That said, Indeed.com reported in late 2023 that the average annual salary for an A-CSM falls roughly between $110,000 and $130,000 in North America. A-CSMs consistently earn more than CSMs, which makes sense: the certification demonstrates deeper skills and a larger investment in professional development.

What determines your salary as an A-CSM depends on several factors:

• Industry: IT, finance, and software development tend to pay ScrumMasters more.
• Skills and experience: The advanced facilitation, coaching, and scaling skills make A-CSMs more effective and more sought after.
• Geography: Salaries vary by market.

Career paths for A-CSMs extend well beyond the ScrumMaster title. The skills open doors to roles as an Agile coach, delivery lead, project lead, software engineering manager, or IT program manager. The A-CSM certification is globally recognized, which matters if you’re looking at opportunities across borders.

How Much Does A-CSM Certification Cost?

The cost varies depending on the trainer, the format (online vs. in-person), and what’s included. The Scrum Alliance certification fee is typically included in the training cost.

When comparing trainers, don’t just compare price. Read reviews. Ask what happens after the workshop ends. A course that’s spread over several weeks with ongoing coaching and a supportive community is a fundamentally different experience from a two-day session where you’re on your own afterwards.

Our A-CSM courses are run as regular cohorts with weekly coaching sessions in a collaborative environment. You’re not just earning a certification; you’re joining a community of practitioners who continue to support each other.

Maintaining Your A-CSM Certification

The A-CSM certification is valid for two years. To renew, you need to:

• Earn a minimum of 30 Scrum Education Units (SEUs) during the two-year period. One hour of Scrum-related education equals one SEU.
• Pay the renewal fee.

Earning SEUs is straightforward. Attend conferences, participate in webinars, read industry publications, join communities of practice, attend our monthly Lean Coffee virtual meetups, or read the resources on this site. The point is to keep learning, which you should be doing anyway.

After A-CSM, the next level is the Certified Scrum Professional ScrumMaster (CSP-SM), the highest certification on the ScrumMaster track. CSP-SM holders are among the most experienced ScrumMasters in the world, and the certification serves as a gateway to Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and Certified Agile Coach (CAC) tracks.

Related Reading

• Why Having a Tech Lead or Manager as Scrum Master Is a Bad Idea explores why the ScrumMaster role requires independence, a theme that becomes even more important at the A-CSM level.
• Coaching Self Organizing Teams covers the coaching fundamentals that A-CSM training builds on.
• The Complete Guide to CSM Certification covers everything about the foundational CSM certification that precedes A-CSM.