CertCities.com -- The Ultimate Site for Certified IT Professionals
Listen, See, Win! Register for a Free Tech Library Webcast Share share | bookmark | e-mail
  Microsoft®
  Cisco®
  Security
  Oracle®
  A+/Network+"
  Linux/Unix
  More Certs
  Newsletters
  Salary Surveys
  Forums
  News
  Exam Reviews
  Tips
  Columns
  Features
  PopQuiz
  RSS Feeds
  Press Releases
  Contributors
  About Us
  Search
 

Advanced Search
  Free Newsletter
  Sign-up for the #1 Weekly IT
Certification News
and Advice.
Subscribe to CertCities.com Free Weekly E-mail Newsletter
CertCities.com

See What's New on
Redmondmag.com!

Cover Story: IE8: Behind the 8 Ball

Tech-Ed: Let's (Third) Party!

A Secure Leap into the Cloud

Windows Mobile's New Moves

SQL Speed Secrets


CertCities.com
Let us know what you
think! E-mail us at:



 
 
...Home ... Editorial ... Columns ..Column Story Saturday: April 5, 2014


 Certification Advisor  
Greg Neilson
Greg Neilson


 If I Ran Microsoft's MCP Program . . .
What would you change? Greg shares his ideas (including a hands-on component for the MCSE and a new post-MCSE title) as well as thoughts on the Accelerated exam and MCSE elective strategies.
by Greg Neilson  
3/26/2001 -- This month I thought I would let my imagination go wild and see what tweaks I would make if I were in charge of the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) program. Let me start by saying I'm pretty happy with the current program, but I thought I would be fun to look at what changes each of us might make.

  • Put Network Essentials back into the MCSE. This is important information that everyone should know, and just saying that this is assumed knowledge isn't good enough. As new people come into the networking field, they are not going to know this information and we'll all suffer for that later. Without a requirement in the MCSE, it forces those who want to demonstrate competency in the area to complete CompTIA's Network+ certification.

  • Add a hands-on component. I would keep the existing 70-210 (Win2K Professional), 70-215 (Win2K Server), 70-216 (Win2K networking) and 70-217 (Win2K Directory Services) exams in the MCSE program. These are fine as is and don't require any tweaking. However, I would add a hands-on troubleshooting exam for the MCSE program, which must be done as the last MCSE exam. This borrows ideas from Novell's Service and Support exam and Red Hat's RHCE exam. For example, in my ideal world it could comprise these three components, which would be tested over a day:
    • Hands-on server hardware and networking hardware troubleshooting exercises. This might take 2-3 hours.
    • Theory exam about server and networking hardware, which might take 60-90 minutes.
    • Hands-on Windows 2000 troubleshooting exercises. These again might take 2-3 hours.
    Now, I know that the general feeling seems to be that this is too hard to organize, but I think it is doable -- Red Hat have shown us it can be done. With an exam of this nature, it would once and for all ensures that MCSEs really do know their stuff, killing the "paper MCSE" moniker. I really believe that this would add value back to the MCSE and people would be prepared to pay significant amounts of money to take this exam, which should cover the significant costs involved in setting this testing up. For example, I could imagine that this test may cost something in range of $600-$1,000 to sit, which is comparable in cost or less than the Red Hat and Cisco CCIE hands-on lab exams.

  • Drop some exams. Since we have six exams already for the MCSE, this doesn't leave any room for design electives or BackOffice electives, so I'll have to drop them from my new MCSE design.

  • Create a new premium certification. With the demise of the MCSE+I, I think that there is scope for a new premium MCSE certification level. We'll leave the name for a marketing guru, but we'll use MCEE (Microsoft Certified Enterprise Engineer) for now as a working title. The MCSE would be a prerequisite to entering this program. Based on the electives chosen, it could consist of a number of streams: Enterprise Win2K Directory Services, Enterprise Win2K network infrastructure, Enterprise Win2K security or Enterprise Win2K migration.
    For example, you would take one of the existing 70-219 (Designing Directory Services), 70-220 (Designing security), 70-221 (Designing Network Infrastructure) or 70-222 (Upgrading from NT 4.0 ) exams. Then depending on the elective taken, there would be a advanced, hands-on, half-day troubleshooting lab exam to cover the area of specialization - say AD, or Win2K security.
    Lastly, this new MCEE program would include two elective exams that would include the existing electives from the current MCSE pool. However, these electives would not be expired in the same way they do now: Only the core operating system exams would be expired.

But those are just my ideas: What would you change? I'm interested in hearing what you ideas you have. Post them below or e-mail me at .


In my February column, I briefly mentioned that I was preparing for the 70-240 Windows 2000 accelerated upgrade exam. I'm extremely relieved to tell you that I did pass that exam and my subsequent design exam and have now completed upgrading my MCSE for Win2K. However, I'm thinking it may be a good idea to keep going and complete a few more electives.

It seems that 90 percent of the MCSE population did TCP/IP and IIS 3.0 for their MCSE electives, so they are facing a total of four exams before they can upgrade their certification. Fortunately I had done some more recent electives and didn't need to upgrade my electives since I still had Exchange 5.5 and SNA Server 4.0 as valid electives. However, my concern is how quickly these Microsoft exams get expired. It's been five years now since I originally completed my MCSE on version 3.51, and since that time I've had 17 exams that I had passed become or will become expired (and this doesn't include any exams taken for my MCSD, which I held between 1996 and 2000). So I was thinking it would be a good idea to get some electives under my belt now, rather than being forced to later when it suits Microsoft and possibly won't suit me. My plan is to sit the Win2K network infrastructure design exam and use this as an elective, and later in the year I am contemplating taking one or both of the Exchange 2000 exams. I would definitely take an exam for Host Integration Server 2000 if offered since I had taken the exams for SNA Server (the old name for the product) versions 2.11, 3.0 and 4.0. However, it doesn't seem Microsoft has any immediate plans for an exam on this product.

What are your MCSE elective plans? How many electives have you taken? Post your comments below, or contact me at the address above. Until next month....


Greg Neilson, MCSE+Internet, MCNE, PCLP, is a Contributing Editor for Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and a manager at a large IT services firm in Australia. He's the author of Lotus Domino Administration in a Nutshell (O'Reilly and Associates, ISBN 1-56592-717-6). You can reach him at Attn: Greg.

 


More articles by Greg Neilson:

-- advertisement --


There are 24 CertCities.com user Comments for “If I Ran Microsoft's MCP Program . . .”
Page 1 of 3
3/27/01: James says: I certainly would not appreciate a one time $600-$1000 cost of sitting the exam you described. The one time shot at 70-240 is bad enough. I cannot convince myself to take it yet because of the mess of 4 I will have to take if I do not pass. As for electives, I have taken exchange 5.5, and proxy 2.0, as well as tcp/ip. I took Designing Active directory infrastructure as the required. I, too, am considering taking Designing Nework Infrastructure as an elective, when I finish the core (or 240). I will probably take Exchange 2000, when the time comes, also. I do not think I would change anything MS is doing except the rotten 70-240 option that is failing 70% of the attempts (so I hear). It would have been better if they just gave us a freebe exam on each of the core four - trying to prep for all 4 at once is pretty daunting. I am beginning to feel that each new fact I am learning for the test is forcing a different one out the other ear! No matter what anybody says about "paper" vs experience (I have over 5 years with NT), preparing for a test is vastly different from doing the job.
3/27/01: Anonymous says: Just Too Much
3/27/01: Anonymous says: The email address you posted in the article doesn't work! Here the message I got.... Your message To: '[email protected]' Subject: RE: If I Ran Microsoft's MCP Program . . . Sent: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 15:46:19 -0800 did not reach the following recipient(s): '[email protected]' on Tue, 27 Mar 2001 15:32:34 -0800 The recipient name is not recognized
3/27/01: Greg says: I'm having someone look into the email account problem. Will let you know once it is sorted out. Thanks for letting me know!
3/27/01: Becky says: Anonymous -- Thanks for letting us know! It was a technical glitch on our end, which has been fixed (I tested it myself); you shouldn't have any other problems, but if you do, please let us know. -- Becky, Web Editor, CertCities.com
3/29/01: john says: i think that microsoft is coining it in (pardon the pun), there is no need to chop and change (again parden the pun) i do agree with what j. budleman is saying, i think they should listen more to what people on the ground think!....... listen up microsoft, no need to change so much!
4/3/01: rocky says: could it be that expiring certifications is a marketing ploy to force customers to upgrade to more recent versions due to lack of certified support personnel for older versions?
4/4/01: Becky says: Update -- E-mail address isn't working, at least for people outside our network. Trying to get it fixed now. In the meantime, send any e-mails for greg to [email protected] and we'll forward them on.
4/5/01: Beatrice says: Hi Greg, I appreciate your idea on the MCP Program but have to disagree with the $600-$1000 fee. Considering time lost studying and investment in training material will increase this amount three-fold. MS should appreciate that there is a dedicated community supporting its platforms, and should try to keep exams at their cost. Building value through the hands-on component, yes, but pay this much for it? No! Continuous training, briefings and test labs take enough money out of my bottom line. Add one or two conferences a year, I'll be working just to pay to stay current with the latest MS flavor of the month. Retireing certifications doesn't mean that this version software being used in commerce will go away soon. Small businesses (which I support) made the initial investment and when things work, they'll use it until it falls apart. Now I have to be a salesperon and explain why they should upgrade from Win2K to XP? Personally I believe that MS is using the MCP community to passively push their products, that's fine, but keep the price down, or I may not buy into the program.
4/5/01: Anonymous says: Removing Net essentials and expiring tcp/ip as an elective is ridiculous. Forcing people to upgrade their certs or lose them is absurd too. MS should label their cert as mcse 4...etc. Does a mechanic lose his cert for the older model when a new model comes out? Is not a solid knowledge of tcp/ip and network essentials important to being a good Network support person. duh
First Page   Next Page   Last Page
Your comment about: “If I Ran Microsoft's MCP Program . . .”
Name: (optional)
Location: (optional)
E-mail Address: (optional)
Comment:
   

-- advertisement (story continued below) --

top