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On October 25, 2005, Microsoft announced that it would offer a new generation of certifications. These certifications were designed with the goals of better allowing candidates to distinguish their product and technology knowledge and skills from other IT professionals. And to allow HR personnel to better determine if a potential employee has the required skill set for a position.
I don’t know about you, but initially I found this new system to be somewhat complex and/or confusing. In this article, I will discuss why Microsoft changed the structure of its certification program; take a look at the new program and how it differs from the legacy one and then finish with a peek into the credentials that make up these new certification tracks.
Microsoft has had a certification program since Windows NT 3.51 with its flagship MCSE. This certification has served more or less as a template for many of the certification programs offered by the company including the MS Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) and MS Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA).
To obtain these titles, a candidate must successfully write (take and pass) a series of exams that the education folks at Redmond feel encompass the knowledge and skills necessary to perform the job tasks that the title implies.
But what job tasks does the MCSE title imply? What about the MCSD or the MCDBA? Should an MCSE know how to troubleshoot a dll version conflict? Should an MCSE know how to install a particular application (Microsoft Office for example)? I would answer yes to these questions, but having the MCSE title alone does not guarantee this.
Taking into account that the exams that make up these titles are designed to cover a large swath of product features with a certain level of detail, another problem emerges.
Consider the desktop support technician whose primary responsibility is to manage desktop machines. His job responsibilities include installing and maintaining desktop applications, installing the OS on new machines and possibly managing user accounts. Let’s say that he gets his MCSE. Is he qualified to now engineer Microsoft systems across the entire corporate IT infrastructure, even when his job experience consists only of desktop support duties? Also, since the individual tests that make up the MCSE cover such a large product feature area, the depth of coverage of any given area may vary from shallow to fairly deep. In other words, the tests are not necessarily consistent in the treatment of any particular topic.
These are some of the problems that Microsoft has attempted to address with its new certification program. Based on feedback from IT professionals in the field, these and a few other problems were discovered which pointed to flaws in the way IT personnel were certified on MS technologies.
The new certification structure has three tiers and four credentials. Each of these credentials contains a number of certifications for individual products and technologies within the Microsoft product families.
The Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist credential is at the first tier which is called the Technology Series. Certifications within this tier are targeted at allowing a candidate to demonstrate their breadth of knowledge for a particular product or technology. Specific certifications may be added as new technologies become available. Certifications will also be retired once mainstream support for the product or technology has expired. Between one and three tests are required to obtain this credential with most of the credentials requiring only one. The certifications within this credential do not focus on any job specific roles.
The Professional series is at the second tier and is comprised of two peer credentials: the Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) and the Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD). Certifications within this tier are targeted at allowing a candidate to demonstrate a depth of knowledge for a particular product or technology with the MCITP targeting administration and operational topics and the MCPD targeting applications development. Like the MCTS, these credentials also typically consist of between one and three exams but also have one or more prerequisites from the Technology Series. Professional Series certifications will require recertification every three years from the date of issue.
The Professional series certifications are focused on a single job role. For example, three MCITP certifications are available for MS SQL Server 2005; one for Database Administrators, one for Database Developers and another for Business Intelligence Developers. Each certification within this series delves deep into the core responsibilities of each function.
The third and final tier has the Microsoft Certified Architect. This is the new premier credential offered by Microsoft (effectively removing that distinction from the MCSE). Candidates are expected to have a minimum of 10 years in the IT field with three of those years as a practicing architect. Candidates should also have strong technical, leadership and business skills. As of this writing the MCA credential is still under development with its pilot phase only recently concluding.
Unlike the other Microsoft certifications, the MCA is granted solely by peer review. Candidates must apply for the MCA. If the application is accepted, an existing MCA will be assigned as a mentor. Documentation must then be submitted to support the claim that he\she is worthy of the MCA credential. Finally the candidate must appear before a review board of four MCA’s in order to defend the claim. This is the last stage before the credential is either granted or denied.
The MCA is divided into the broad and product architecture skills tracks with the broad track further divided into infrastructure and solutions tracks. The broad architecture skills tracks are not product specific and are vendor neutral. This is an acknowledgement that most IT environments are not technologically homogenous, but consist of products from many vendors that must ultimately be integrated into a cohesive and comprehensive working system. There are no certification prerequisites.
The product architecture skills tracks are product centric and Microsoft specific. This is to provide a method of certifying a top tier of candidates on Microsoft specific products and technologies. This is constantly being updated and more information can be found here.
The new certification structure from Microsoft is a step in the right direction. It offers shorter certification paths that are more targeted to job roles. Shorter certification paths also means less money spent on obtaining certification.
I cannot say enough how important it is to be prepared when taking a certification exam. For the Technology and Professional series certifications, knowing the material, choosing training methods that fit your learning style and being comfortable with the test taking process is a solid strategy.
For the Architecture Series, the strategy outlined previously will only get you so far. This is almost purely a job experience based certification and will require a significant amount of experience in the IT architecture job role. But of course, that only makes obtaining the MCA even sweeter.
That is all I have for this topic. Good hunting.
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Tagged:Certification Help, IT Job Info, It Training News, LongHorn Certifications, Microsoft, windows longhorn, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008
zak Says:
May 20th, 2007 at 9:59 am
this is great news i would say from microsoft.
it was really time the sructure off certification changed, but i dont know what happens with those already certified or are carrying the MCSE cert.