3/12/2008 -- Have you been to CompTIA's site lately? You may have noticed that when you try to access any of the CompTIA certification exam objectives on the site, this paragraph appears:

"CompTIA is constantly reviewing the content of our exams and updating test questions to be sure our exams are current and the security of the questions is protected. When necessary, we will publish updated exams based on existing exams objectives. Please know that all related exam preparation materials will still be valid."

The concept of a rolling update -- the practice of replacing questions on older technologies with new ones -- isn't new, and offers a great deal of flexibility as well as time and cost savings.

Here's a simplified example: Suppose an exam has an objective of "Troubleshoot operating systems." The last revision of many CompTIA exams occurred several years ago and -- at that time -- it would've been common to expect an administrator to know how to troubleshoot Windows 98 and Windows 2000, as well as Windows XP.

As times have changed, the support for older operating systems has waned. CompTIA could keep the same objective, but remove the questions relating to the two older operating systems in exchange for ones related to Vista.

As long as these are the only changes made, we avoid the need to go through another round of beta testing and exam revision, and the exams continue to be available and relevant.

Three Windows Server 2008 Exams Live
Microsoft went live with three Windows Server 2008 exams last week:

• Configuring Windows Server 2008 Active Directory (70-640)
• Configuring Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure (70-642)
• Configuring Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure (70-643)

All three are Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) exams.

The Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) exams on similar topics -- 70-646 (Windows Server 2008, Server Administrator) and 70-647 (Windows Server 2008, Enterprise Administrator) -- are expected to go live in April.

Book of the Week: 'The SharePoint Shepherd's Guide for End Users'
This week's book isn't really a book in the usual sense, but a collection of step-by-step instructions for 116 tasks that end users might do, with the content designed to be licensed to organizations for internal use.

The SharePoint Shepherd's Guide for End Users by Robert Bogue, is now available here. Priced at $34.99, it's 377 pages of solid information. The table of contents can be found on the book's Web site at lulu.com. There's also a companion Web site where you'll find a sample task.

I highly recommend The SharePoint Shepherd's Guide for End Users for that growing number of administrators who've found SharePoint to be a service they regularly support.