WM6 Exam - Any Takers?

Published 10 May 07 12:14 PM

It seems like it was just yesterday when the forums were on fire with all of the craziness that was the Windows Mobile 5 Exam beta.  And yet just as that fire was extinguished, we were asked a new question by the Windows Mobile product group - when can we release a TS certification for Windows Mobile 6?

Now, for the moment, let's forget the question of when we could release a new exam/certification.  More fundamentally, I'm curious as to whether or not there is any value in doing so for the developer audience.  If you look at the feature delta between 5 and 6, it seems as though most of the new functionality falls into more of the IT PRO/Infrastructure audience domain.  In terms of developer-related additions, I see a lot of improvements, but not a lot of new, testable features.  Am I missing something here?

In sum, I'll ask you - do you believe that WM5 and WM6 are different enough to warrant the creation of a WM6 exam and certification?

by hdierking
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# Jeff Wharton said on May 11, 2007 2:47 AM:

I don't.  Think the time would be better spent putting more structure into the current certification model and creating a MCPD stream for Mobile Development or a MCITP: SQL CE DBD stream.

# Meile Zetstra said on May 11, 2007 3:39 AM:

I'ld agree with Jeff. Certainly a MCPD for the Mobile Development stream would have more value.

The difference between WM5 and WM6 is not enough to go through another (hopefully less troublesome) cycle of creation and testing a WM6 exam.

On the other hand there is the fact that currently one would be holding a WM5 certification while WM6 is on the market. How would you explain that to the business? They might be asking for a WM6 certified professional, while only WM5 certified professionals exist. Is it possible to leverage the certification without retaking exams to say both WM5 and WM6?

# plaudeman said on May 11, 2007 4:38 PM:

How about a new exam that would target the deltas between WM5 and WM6. This new exam would only be available to those individuals who took and passed the WM5 exam. This might help address Meile's comment. I do like the sound of a MCPD+Mobile certification path.

# S.Y. Paul Lai said on May 14, 2007 7:03 AM:

I think it's normal that some versions of a line of product doesn't have a corresponding exam.  Examples are: .NET 1.1, .NET 3.0, VSTO2003, ISA2006, Visual Fox Pro 7.0 and above, IEAK6.0, IIS 5.0 and above, MOM2005.

For the WM5 exam, what I saw was a mixed test of selected topics from 536, 526 and 529.  Yes, there are some topics only available to .NET compact framework and SQL CE compact mobile anywhere edition, but that's just a small part.  

We asked 536+526 for .NET 2.0 Windows Dev MCTS, 536+528 for .NET 2.0 Web Dev MCTS, 536+529 for .NET 2.0 Distribute MCTS.  At the very beginning, why we didn't require 536+540 exam for an .NET 2.0 Windows Mobile Dev MCTS?  The version should be related to .NET compact framework instead of the WM OS.

# Meile Zetstra said on May 14, 2007 8:20 AM:

I think the move not to require 536 for the 540 was based on the fact that in the early days of these certifications the 536 was a MCTS on its own.

The idea though to relate the certification to the .NET Compact Framework (CF) and not the WM OS is a good one. Because IMHO it places the pin there where it belongs, and that's development on the CF. On the other hand, building on the CF for Windows Mobile is quite different from using it for Windows CE, so you still have no way to tell what skills one has with .NET CF on Windows Mobile.

To put it even further, my choice would have been the following: an MCTS for .NET CF 2.0, with 536 as a pre-requisite, as a base for further MCTS, like MCTS Windows Mobile Development (either 5.0 or 6.0), MCTS Windows CE Development, and ultimately an MCPD for .NET CF 2.0.

# Juan D. Gomez said on May 18, 2007 10:32 PM:

Hi Howard

You might remember me for being one of the guys how set the forums on FIRE with the whole Windows mobile exam deal… jejeje

Now I’m the MCT Technical Reviewer of the upcoming Windows Mobile 6 MOC Course. (I hope this doesn’t hurt my NDA but since I saw this (http://blogs.msdn.com/jeffhora/archive/2007/03/29/ilt-developer-roadmap-part-2.aspx) posted on Jeff Hora’s blog I thought it was OK to mention it, especially to set the stage for my comment)

When I read your post about not being a good idea to have a Windows Mobile 6 Exam I could only think of 4 words “GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER”

You know I love Microsoft Learning, I’m an MCT myself and I hold various Microsoft certification but from my prospective is incoherent that you got me and a bunch of people working hard on a MOC Courses for Windows Mobile 6, that would hopefully engage a lot of students, just to tell them at the end of the course “well now that you know everything about WM6 you can go and get Certified on WM5” I think it’s really not fair and it doesn’t makes sense because WM5 doesn’t even has a course of it’s own… If you want me to be sincere with you the WM5 exam was focused on framework stuff with almost no mention of the WM5 API’s like TAPI, MAPI, SMS, POOM and Camera just to name a few…

So I would vote for a WM6 exam deeply focused on the API’s and not just on the framework and that would be obviously in line with the upcoming course we are working on. I know WM5 exam it’s still very recent and I’m really not aware of how far ahead the WM team is on work for “Photon” (the upcoming successor of WM6) but I know the WM team is targeting a 1 year span between releases and I suggest Microsoft Learning adjusts to that because that’s how the mobile world works and for MSFT Certification to mean something in the mobile world they have to dance it’s accelerated tune.

Excuse the rant tone of this note/comment but as you imagine I say all this because I care and because I’m deeply involved working with you guys to deliver the best to people.

Thanks for your Time

Juan D. Gomez

Juan.gomez@ieee.org

# hdierking said on May 21, 2007 2:14 AM:

Thanks for your feedback Juan - the Windows Mobile exam had actually been in development long before I joined, so I'm not deeply intimate with the question-level detail.

If I could, I would like to poll some of the rest of you who have commented regarding Juan's comment that 70-540 focused more on the .NET Framework content (e.g. - 536 content) than it really did on the WM5 Platform (in a .NET context - I'm not looking at the unmanaged API here).  If so, then I will retract my statement about not wanting to build an exam for WM6 - not because of new capabilities between versions - but because we may have missed some testing opportunities in the WM5 exam.

Give me some feedback here please...

# Meile Zetstra said on May 21, 2007 3:09 AM:

Hi Howard

I'd agree on the fact that the content of the WM5 exam as I've taken it in Beta was quite close to the content of exam 536, apart from what Paul already mentioned in this thread on SQL CE and some .NET CF questions.

I'd disagree with Juan though on all the API's he mentions. I believe the development on Mobile should also revolve arround managed concepts, which means using .NET CF 2.0. But to get to your point, there might indeed have been some testing opportunities missed in the WM5 exam. I think in the WM5 exam it's not quite clear where the distinction is between .NET Framework 2.0 and .NET Compact Framework 2.0. Also like in exam 536 there is a clear goal to outline the new features of .NET 2.0 as compared to .NET 1.1, this should also be stated for .NET CF 2.0 compared to .NET CF 1.0.

And also I'd refer to my previous post in this thread with my thoughts on the matter.

Regards

Meile Zetstra

# Juan D. Gomez said on May 22, 2007 12:09 AM:

Guys just to set the record straight, the API’s I mentioned above (TAPI, MAPI, SMS, POOM and Camera) are all accessed through MANAGED CODE = Compact Framework (no P/invoke here!).

One example I show my students a lot is how you can intercept an SMS message with three lines of managed code as opposed to the almost two pages of C++ code I had to write before, all this thanks to the SMS API, you can even make phone calls from your .NET code with TAPI. (new Phone().Talk("4255551212");)

It’s also great how you can read a contact from Outlook Mobile into a .NET object and play around with its properties thanks to POOM (Pocket Outlook Object Model).

Those are all great features of the Windows Mobile Platform not covered by the WM5 exam…

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About hdierking

I am currently the Editor-in-Chief for MSDN Magazine. I joined Microsoft in 2006 as a product planner with the certification team at Microsoft Learning. Prior to that, I spent my career as a developer and later as an architect. My main technology passions include pretty much anything on language theory, agile development, and service-oriented architecture.
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