Expert Scrum Master Certified (ESMC®)
$640
Price
180 days (6 months)
You've held SMC, SAMC, and SPOC. You're three years past your first Scrum project. Now you're scaling Scrum across teams, programs, or portfolios — and the framework's defaults stop holding.
Course Overview
ESMC is the senior credential in the SCRUMstudy Scrum Master track. It's for practitioners with at least three years of hands-on Scrum/Agile project management experience who already hold SMC, SAMC, and SPOC. The course covers complex Scrum delivery, multi-team coordination, scaling Scrum to programs and portfolios, advanced impediment removal under organizational friction, senior-level stakeholder negotiation, and how to coach other Scrum Masters. The certification also requires submission of a 500-word write-up on two prior Scrum/Agile projects.
What You Will Learn
- How to manage complex Scrum projects with high uncertainty and high stakeholder count. How to scale Scrum across multiple teams, programs, and portfolios without fragmenting into independent silos. Advanced impediment removal under organizational friction — the kind of impediment that exists because someone important wants it to. Senior-level stakeholder negotiation. How to coach other Scrum Masters into competence. How to stand up a Scrum Guidance Body.
About the Course
- ESMC is the senior credential in the SCRUMstudy Scrum Master track — the right cert once you already hold SMC, SAMC, and SPOC and need to prove you can run Scrum at program and portfolio scale.
How the Course Works
- Online and self-paced through the VMEdu LMS. You get 180 days of access from the day your enrollment activates, the full preparatory course, an e-copy of the body of knowledge, chapter tests, two full-length simulated exams, and the proctored certification exam itself. Mobile and desktop both work. If you're buying for a team or want help applying what you learn after the exam, an optional Trinity advisory engagement is available on request. ESMC also requires a 500-word write-up on two prior Scrum/Agile projects, submitted as part of the certification.
Individual Outcomes
- You'll hold the senior Scrum Master credential, qualify for program-level Scrum Master and Agile coach roles, and command top-of-market rates. ESMC is also the foundation for executive Agile transformation work.
Who this Course is For
- You if you've earned SMC, SAMC, and SPOC and have three or more years running Scrum/Agile projects. You if you're moving from single-team delivery into program- or portfolio-level responsibility. You if you're an Agile coach and the expert credential is what your clients ask for.
Organizational Outcomes
- If you're trying to develop internal capacity to run Scrum at scale without leaning on external consultants, ESMC is the credential that names the senior practitioner who can do that — and the credential you'd evaluate against if you're hiring one.
Why Choose this certification
- ESMC is the credential hiring managers look for when they need a Scrum Master who can operate at program and portfolio scale, not just one team. It's the senior tier in the SCRUMstudy track and the foundation for executive transformation work.
Why choose Trinity
- Running multi-team, multi-stakeholder programs under high friction is what ESMC certifies. The team I led directed a $385M end-of-mission program that moved over 100,000 tons of cargo globally and closed 46 bases in 60 days — 14 days ahead of a presidential directive. That's the scope and the operational friction the credential is designed for. Trinity carries ESMC because the discipline transfers directly, and an optional Trinity advisory engagement is available after certification to help you apply ESMC at scale in your own organization.
Accreditation & Recognition
- Trinity is a SCRUMstudy / VMEdu Authorized Training Partner (V.A.T.P.). Trinity provides training and enrollment support using VMEdu's accredited course content and platform; credentials are issued by SCRUMstudy (a brand of VMEdu Inc.) upon meeting their requirements. Trinity does not issue credentials directly.