News
Assessing Your Desktop Support Skills
Microsoft, MeasureUp team up to provide desktop support assessments.
Over the past year since Microsoft debuted its skill assessments online,
the company has added new assessment packages, including those for Exchange
Server 2003, Visual Studio .NET and Storage Server. Just recently, the
company added three modules geared to helping help desk and desktop admins
get a handle on their desktop support and deployment skills. Now available:
- Introduction to End-User Support for Windows XP
- Supporting Deployment for Microsoft Windows XP
- Supporting Deployment for Microsoft Office 2003
The modules were developed for Microsoft by MeasureUp, an official Microsoft
Practice Test Provider who also developed the other offerings. That a
test provider developed these assessments is no indication that they're
geared toward test takers and in fact, in an interview early last year,
when the first modules debuted, Dan Truax, Director of Microsoft Certification
Business & Product Strategy, emphasized the assessments' aims to measure
implementation knowledge rather than test preparation. (To read more about
the skills assessments, click
here; to hear an interview with Dan Truax, click
here.)
Microsoft does include the assessment packages as part of several highlight
offerings for the new MCDST title, which you can view by clicking
here.
Microsoft announced the MCDST title back in October 2003 (click
here to read more); the title was made available with the release
the 70-292, Supporting Users and Troubleshooting Desktop Applications
on a Windows XP Operating System, in February 4, 2004 (click
here).
To take a sample desktop support skills assessment, go to http://www.msmeasureup.com/test/home.asp.
About the Author
Michael Domingo has held several positions at 1105 Media, and is currently the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.