Scrum Alliance requires professionals to renew their CSM certification every two years. There are three main steps to renew CSM certification. Earn required SEUs, submit your SEUs to Scrum Alliance, and renew CSM certification.

Let’s go through these steps, and elaborate on how to renew CSM certification.

📌 Hint: Do not skip this article, you will find FREE CSM Certification Renewal resources throughout the article.

Step 1 – Earn SEUs to Renew CSM Certification

Before diving into how to earn SEU for renewing your CSM, you must know how many SEUs you need to renew your CSM. Scrum Alliance requires different numbers of Scrum Alliance SEU credits for different levels of certifications. CSM is a foundational level certification and requires 20 SEUs to be earned every two years.

An SEU is based on a 1:1 ratio of contact hours to points. For example, if you attended a Scrum SEU Course and the duration of the course is 20 hours, you will earn a maximum of 20 SEUs.

No limits or caps exist for earning SEU credits from a certain category. So, you can attend an online self-paced Scrum SEU Course, and earn all required SEUs for your CSM certification renewal. Your SEUs must have been earned within the renewal period, which is two years prior to your certification’s current active-through date. SEUs must have been earned within thirty (30) months for all certification renewal cycles.

You can read other requirements in our Scrum Alliance SEU article.

How to Renew CSM Certification

There are four main SEU categories that Scrum Alliance accepts for renewing CSM certification.

1. Learning (*Most Popular)
2. Events
3. Volunteering
4. Other

You can read more in our How to Earn SEU for CSM Renewal – 4 Legit Ways article.

Watch 4 Ways to Renew CSM Certification

We’ve explained the 4 Scrum Alliance-approved ways to Earn SEUs in our following YouTube video. Watch now.

Let’s go through each SEU category one by one now.

1st Way – Renew CSM through Learning

As we’ve highlighted in the previous section, earning Scrum SEUs through the learning category is the most popular way for professionals.

While there are several benefits of renewing CSM certification through SEU courses, here are the top five reasons:

1. No Caps: There is no maximum limit for the learning category, so, you can earn all Scrum SEU needs in one program, and renew your CSM certification. You do not need to go elsewhere and search for how to earn SEU for CSM renewal.
2. Self-Paced: You do not need to attend an event, conference, or seminar. You can follow the courses at your place, at your pace.
3. Affordable: Depending on the program content, you can enroll in a self-paced Scrum Alliance SEU course bundle for ~$200-300. However, seminars or conferences start from $1,000, not only that, you may not earn all SEU needs in one event.
4. Requires less effort: When you enroll in SEU Courses, all you have to do is follow the curriculum, earn SEUs, and renew your CSM certification. However, other SEU earning ways require significant effort from the certification holder such as creating content, sharing a presentation, authoring, etc.
5. Less prone to Scrum Alliance® audit: Since the SEU training programs are used by many certified professionals, Scrum Alliance already has a track and record of the activities. However, for other categories, SEU submissions are more unique and may be more likely to hit an audit.

How to Earn 20 SEUs to Renew Your CSM Easily

San Francisco Business School offers a 20 SEU Course program. The program offers a self-paced business training program: Executive Leadership. SFBS awards a certificate of graduation. While earning SEUs, you will earn reputable business merits to highlight in your resume and LinkedIn.

Watch how Natalia Earned 20 SEUs for CSM Renewal

Natalia Olson is a CSM-certified Professional. Natalia enrolled in the 20 SEU Program from SFBS and renewed her CSM. Watch now her CSM renewal journey.

2nd Way – Renew CSM Certification through Events

You can earn  SEUs for participating in events like Scrum Alliance Global Gatherings, Scrum Alliance Regional Gatherings, and Non-Scrum Alliance-Sponsored Events, as well as in User Groups events and activities. Presenting, coaching, and attending sessions all count as SEU-eligible activities.

Typically, the duration of the activity determines the number of SEUs you will earn. For instance, if you attended a one-day Scrum Alliance SEU event, if the schedule of the event was 9 to 12 in the morning, and 1 to 5 pm in the afternoon, the total hours for the event would be 7 hours. So, you can earn 7 SEUs with this event.

Attending events has benefits like expanding your professional network and learning the changing trends in your domain. However, there are some pitfalls to these events.

• Typically organized in big cities. If you are living in a relatively smaller city, you might not see any events to earn SEUs.
• Requires in-person attendance. Many of the events take a few days, and you have to take days off from your work to attend these events.
• Expensive. On average, these events are charged $1,000/day. So, for a two-day event, you need to pay around $2,000. Travel and accommodation, if needed, are not included in these fees.
• May not earn required SEUs at once. Although it requires a significant amount of time and money, you may not earn all SEUs through one event.
  Considering you are a full-time working professional and looking to earn the Scrum Alliance SEU hours you need in one step, you may opt for other alternatives to earn SEUs.

3rd Way – Renew CSM through Volunteering

Scrum Alliance encourages professionals to give back to the community. Therefore, SEUs may be earned by providing non-compensated professional Scrum services.

For instance, if you are volunteering in an activity for teaching the basics of agile to high school students, this activity can earn you SEUs for CSM renewal. The critical point here is, that you should not be compensated if you are in a volunteering activity. You can submit SEUs for the duration of the activity. For instance, if you attended a one-hour event, you can submit 1 SEU toward renewing your certification.

Note that, these activities may not be available in your location if you are living in a small city.

4th Way – Certified Scrum Master Certification Renewal through Other sources

SEUs may be earned through a variety of other learning activities as Scrum Alliance acknowledges that not all learning fits neatly into the categories above. For instance, if you are reading a book, blog, or article about agile, you can earn SEUs in the Others category.

Renew CSM Certification SEU Example

In this section, we will go through Scrum Alliance SEU examples by scenarios.

Note that, the following scenario is fictional to provide a better understanding of SEU reporting.

Scenario  – How Jane Earned SEU to Renew CSM Certification

Jane works as a Scrum Master in a Fintech company. She earned her CSM certification 1 year ago, and her certification due date is approaching.

Jane attends the San Francisco Business School’s Free Scrum Alliance SEU Course Online Program. The program contains three self-paced courses, and each course is one hour in length. After completing the self-paced program, Jane can submit 3 SEUs to renew her CSM certification.

Step 2 – Submit Earned SEUs to Scrum Alliance

Once you earned the required SEUs to renew your CSM certification, the next step is submitting them to Scrum Alliance. Since you are a CSM-certified professional, you should already have an account on the Scrum Alliance website.

Step 3 – Pay the CSM Renewal Fee & Renew Your CSM

Once you complete the required SEUs to renew your CSM certification, the next step is paying the CSM renewal fee and completing your process. To renew your certification(s) after submitting the required SEUs, please do the following:

1. Log in to your Scrum Alliance Dashboard
2. Select the Renew Now button in the upper left
3. Select the certifications you wish to renew
4. Confirm your renewal and proceed with the payment

Scrum Alliance requires a certification renewal fee at the end of the renewal process. For the CSM certification, the renewal fee is $100. Note that, this is paid when you renew your CSM certification. So, the CSM renewal fee is $100 for every two years.

However, the CSM renewal cost will be higher than this amount. To earn SEUs, you will attend courses, events, or other activities. If you need to pay for those activities, the cost of renewing your certification will be beyond the CSM renewal fee paid to Scrum Alliance.

How to Renew an Expired CSM Certification

Scrum Alliance certifications are renewed on a two-year basis. If your certification has expired, you are still able to renew it successfully after the expiration date. If you renew past the expiration date, your certification will be extended for a full two years from the date that you pay to renew (vs. from the original expiration date.)

There are several benefits of having CSM certification. Almost all agile roles require a reputable certification and CSM is for sure the most reputable one. Therefore, we recommend keeping your CSM certification active and renewing your CSM certification before the expiration date.

Summary

You need to get 20 SEUs every two years to renew your CSM certification. You can earn SEUs in four different categories: Learning, Events, Volunteering, and Events. Earning SEUs through Scrum SEU courses is the most popular among CSM-certified professionals.

CSM professionals choose to earn SEUs through courses because they are self-paced, affordable, and require less effort. Since there is no cap for the learning category, professionals can earn all required SEUs at once through CSM SEU course programs. One of the other benefits of SEU courses is they are less prone to Scrum Alliance audits.

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