3/8/2005 -- The first of several new WebSphere certification exams will go live later this month.

According to a 2005 WebSphere exam schedule posted on IBM's certification Web site, the following portal exams will launch March 30:

• IBM WebSphere Portal 5.1, Deployment and Administration (#397)
• IBM WebSphere Portal 5.1, Application Development (#399)

Both exams are updates of previous 5.0 versions (#347 and #348, respectively). Retirement dates for the older exams have yet to be announced.

According to the release schedule, several other new WebSphere exams will be debuting in the coming months:

• April 11: Developing with IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere 6.0 (#255)
• May 20: WebSphere Application Server 6.0 Network Deployment, Basic Administration (#252)
• June: Application Development with IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere 6.0 (#256)

The exact date of the Application Development exam has yet to be announced. All of these exams are updates of previous versions. Note that IBM will be rebranding its WebSphere Studio Application Developer and Site Developer under the Rational name, so the title of a certification may be different if earned with the upcoming exams.

For more information on this area of IBM's certification program, go here. -Becky Nagel