MCTS & MCITP Certifications for SQL Server 2008 BI

Last week I got the results of those beta exams (71-448, 71-452) and surprisingly, I passed both!

The surprise was because I passed them though I hadn't had a chance to work with SQL Server 2008 in a real project before, and that means there is something wrong with the exams that you can pass them based on your SQL Server 2005 experience and just reading about new features of the 2008 version.

But the good thing is that I've passed them and there is nothing to worry about till the next version! The next version of SQL Server code-named "Killimanjaro", will be released in the first half of 2010, according to Microsoft officials. The first tech preview test builds of Kilimanjaro are due in the first half of 2009. It will provide the foundation for Microsoft's first data warehouse appliance, code-named Madison, and a BI tool called Gemini that's being designed to bring a broader range of employees into the BI fold.

A feedback on 71-452 (70-452) exam: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

I sat on that beta exam yesterday and here are some points:

• There are 75 questions and the time is 3 hours which is a bit tight
• Unlike 70-446, there is no case scenario and all questions are standalone (not related to each other)
• Many data mining questions. Mostly about choosing the best algorithm.
• A few around upgrading and migration strategy
• Many questions about new features in SQL 2008, like CDC, MERGE, …
• From the name of exam, I expected to see more “Design” related questions, but there were many development questions which I think they could be moved to the TS exam (70-448)

As usual I recommend you to have a look at the topics here and work on those that you are not familiar with.

I must wait for few weeks to get the result. Fingers crossed!

A feedback on beta exam 71-448 (70-448)

I'm just coming back from MS beta exam 71-448 (TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance). There were too many questions (70!) and the time was around 3 hours which was more than enough.

It was a bit disappointing that not many questions were specifically related to SQL Server 2008 new features -not even 5 questions were specific to that!- so if you don't know much about the new features, don't worry!

SSAS: · many admin tasks · a few MDX · dimension settings · attribute properties · performance monitoring and tuning · using profiler for monitoring user roles · cube processing options · deployment options · setting permission

SSRS: · security · backup the SSRS database · setting parameters · assembly file · custom control · failover environment

SSIS: · a few questions around SSIS package configuration · transaction · a couple of Foreach loop (file)

Data Mining: · a few DMX questions

In total it was not tough if you have passed the 70-445 (SQL 2005) exam, you just need to review the topics from Microsoft website and play around the topics that you haven’t had chance to work on them.

Good luck!

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Exam 70-551: UPGRADE: MCAD Skills to MCPD Web Developer by Using the Microsoft® .NET Framework

Today I passed 70-551 (a tough one!) and upgraded my MCAD to MCPD. The exam was devided in 3 sections and each section was contained of 30 Questions:

• Section 1 - .NET Framework Fundamentals
• Section 2 - Core Web Application Development
• Section 3 - Application Development Advanced Topics

Time for each section was around 70 minutes which seems not to be enought.Once you finish one section, you can't go back to that section again. Passing score is 700.

The first section was specific to web applications and it has a bunch of question with mobile pages, web forms and new web controls like webparts, login, profiles, site map and master page as the main topics.

The second part of the exam was the hardest one, it was related to framework and types with security attributes, xml serialization attributes, class design and generics in its topics.

The third part was the architecture one and it was lot of logical questions about designing solutions, unit testing, code coverage and integration test and best practices.

Check out this links:

• http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-551.mspx
• http://www.mydemos.com/FlexWiki/default.aspx/MCSD.MCPDWebUpgradeExam
• http://blog.denoncourtassociates.com/CategoryView,category,Certifications.aspx

PPS 2007 MCTS Exam 70-556 Now Available

Prometric already listed the exam on its site.

The official preparation guide for the exam:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-556.mspx

MCITP – Business Intelligence Developer (Exam: 70-446)

Today I passed 70-446 exam. There were 6 scenarios and around 10 questions for each scenario and 30 minutes for each scenario. Not too hard and many straightforward questions if you have done a few projects and are familiar with concepts like: dimensional modeling, cube designing, SCD (especially type-2), data mining. There are only 183 MCITP -BI Developer all around the world up to now compare to 3,232 MCITP (DBA) or 148,244 MCDBA (SQL 2000), that's a very small number. Not sure if that means the MS BI is not popular or it is still young or because it’s a new exam or … (?)

• Number of Microsoft Certified Professionals Worldwide

I found these links very helpful:

• http://sqlrs.blogspot.com/2007/08/passed-70-446-bi-exam.html
• http://peterkol.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!68755AEAC31F9A6C!196.entry

Microsoft Office PPS 2007 - beta exam

A few weeks ago, I sat for a Microsoft beta exam 71-556 "TS: Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, Application Development".

Some exam topics from our memory (myself and my colleague Lisset):

• Refresh rate Interval - (PPSAddInforExcel.chm)
• Assignment rule, allocation rules - PEL Syntax
• Rule set types and rule types - (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• PSSAddinforExcel.dll
• Review all the help - (PPSAddInforExcel.chm) - is small and there are different questions about it. (e.g. parameters)
• Business Roles – administrative Roles. Very clear what to do which each one. Security and roles - (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Update member property - (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Current Time period - (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Association- (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Member set- (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Installing the PPS (Clean Installation)
• Building the Reports, defining filters, show the leaf members, link the reports in worksheet (PPSAddInforExcel.chm)
• Generic models, sub sites, Associations - (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Workflow, setup roles, modify the existing workflow - (PPSAddInforExcel.chm, PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Creating Data Sources, DSN
• Create an association to move data between models PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Assumption models - (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Defining a SCOPE statement - (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)
• Data Integration: Sync the staging DB, Loading data from staging to application database - (PPSPlanningBusinessModelerHelp.chm)