I took part in the CTC Mentoring Pilot Program by Olaf Lewitz (CEC) and Martin Alaimo (CEC, CST). Both of them are involved the community of CEC reviewers. They (and other reviewers) have observed many misunderstandings around the CEC certification, especially about what coaching really is and what is meant by enterprise level. Therefore Olaf and Martin decided to offer a mentoring program to support CTC and CEC candidates in preparing themselves and their applications. The mentoring pilot was conducted in the form of eight weekly video conferences and individual work on applications.
At the beginning, the mentors clarified information provided via the Scrum Alliance certification website: Coaches are expected to obtain certifications in this order: CSM -> CSP -> CTC -> CEC, e.g. you need to become a CTC before applying for the CEC. Exceptions have been made in case of coaches holding the old CSC Scrum Coach certification: They could directly apply for the CEC credential. A CTC is expected to work intensively with several (e.g. 4-5) teams, whereas a CEC works with many (e.g. 30) teams and their management.
Edit: As requested by Michael Van Geertruy via the CTC Candiate Google Group, I’m adding the following information: “Thankfully you do not need a CTC before the CEC. They have a different set of skills, and there is no dependant need to have coached a team for a long time to understand how to coach senior leaders.”. This has also been confirmed by Olaf.
Following this overview, the second blogpost in this series is focused on my CTC/CEC application specific learnings. My original motivation in joining the mentoring was to strengthen my coaching skills by learning from a very experienced coach, and I did indeed have some aha moments in this area. I intend to write a third blogpost about this part of my learning later. At this point in time, there is no automatic email notification on this blog, so tweet me if you want to be notified about new posts.
Posts in the Certified Team Coach (CTC) series:
- CTC Mentoring Pilot: Overview
- CTC Mentoring Pilot: Application specific learnings
- CTC Mentoring Pilot: Coaching (To be written, tweet me if you want to be notified.)
- CTC Application Process Tips by Roger Brown
- CTC Quick pointers for candidates by Vernon Stinebaker
- CTC Application Insights by Nils Bernert