New Exams Target Competencies -- Redmondmag.com

New Exams Target Competencies

Microsoft has released several exams aimed not at making MCPs; rather, these ones measure competencies of Microsoft Certified Partner members.

By Michael Domingo
12/14/2004

With the introduction of new exams for SharePoint Portal Services, Microsoft's Learning Group appears to be taking IT skill assessment in a new direction. Microsoft has released two new exams:

74-131, Designing a Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution.
74-132, Designing a Portal Solution with Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies (including Microsoft Content Management Server)

One unique feature of these exams is that none of them will earn those who pass them a Microsoft Certified Professional designation. The Microsoft Learning group has not responded to numerous requests to comment about these exams, but, according to the exam objective guides, these exams fall under what's called "Partner Competency" exams. The guides define these types of exams as those that "validate that individuals in a partner environment are efficient and capable of deploying multifaceted IT solutions to their customer with skills across multiple Microsoft products and technologies."

Microsoft has revamped its Microsoft Certified Partner Program in recent months, and one feature of the new program is the identification of 11 partner competencies: Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Business Intelligence Solutions, Information Worker Solutions; ISV/Software Solutions, Learning Solutions, Licensing Solutions, Microsoft Business Solutions, Network Infrastructure Solutions, OEM Hardware Solutions, and Security Solutions. Passing some of the new partner competency exams fulfills a portion of the requirements for some of these competencies.

To find out more about the Microsoft Certified Partner program, click here (Microsoft Passport registration is required for access); for Microsoft Competencies, click here.

To find out more about each of the exams, click on the following links: 74-131; 74-132. MCPmag.com will continue to follow this story.

About the Author

Michael Domingo has held several positions at 1105 Media, and is currently the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.

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