Microsoft Partner Program fails to recognise upgraded MCPD

I currently work for a Microsoft Certified Partner and have found myself in a
situation where my MCPD qualification has not been properly recognised.

As part of the Partner Program, we're looking to achieve the Web Development
Specialisation as part of the Custom Development Solutions Competency. The
requirements for this include having to employ 2 MCPD or MCTS Web developers.
Full details of the requirements are here
(https://partner.microsoft.com/40020232)

Currently, I'm "MCPD Enterprise Application Developer (Visual Studio 2005)"
certified and achieved this in June 2008. The route that I followed was to
pass the MCSD upgrade exams 70-553 and 70-554.

When I originally did my MCSD in 2003, I took exam "70-305 Developing and
Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .Net". It turns out
that this exam has now been retired.

The retirement of this exam has effectively 'voided' my MCPD because the
partner program fails to recognise that I've superseded the retired exam with
the upgrade exam.

Our contact at the Microsoft Partner program has told us that there is
nothing that he can do because it is a problem with the implementation of the
MCP system, hence my posting here.

The only available option is for me is to redo the "MCTS .Net Framework Web
Applications certification" and it seems crazy for me to have to do this
given that I already hold a higher qualification.

Looking to the future, the natural progression is to upgrade my current MCPD
to "MCPD Enterprise Application Development 3.5 (Visual Studio 2008)" by
taking exams 70-568 and 70-569. However, this again would be a fruitless
exercise because neither of these upgrade exams are recognised by the partner
program either.

We've also spoken to our Microsoft Account Manager who hasn't been able to
offer us any more apart from providing us with a discount for the MCTS exams.

Would anyone here be able to help me or put me in touch with someone who
could? Alternatively, would anyone here be willing to support me in putting
together a case to Microsoft to request that the Partner Program properly
recognises the MCP upgrade exams?

Many thanks,
Tim

 

Contact your Regional Service Center -- they are the authoritative source
for all things related to certification support services.

Another option is to use the Certification Planner on the MCP Secure Site
and see what it says you're "missing".

Retirement of exams in the MCSA/MSCE/MCAD/MCSD certification tracks has
never "voided" a certification. Those exams are good for credit for
completion in perpetuity.

Also, you need to understand that the Microsoft Partner Program has nothing
to do with certifications, except to use their existence as a marker for
partner program advancement.

The "official" fact is, of course, that you don't have the cert until it
shows up on your transcript -- and I make a point of ensuring that every
exam I take shows up on my transcript within 3-5 business days. Your first
objective is to get the *exams* listed correctly on your transcript. Once
the *exams* are listed on the transcript, the recognition of the
certification is done by automated logic. If the exams are listed correctly,
and the cert is not appearing, perhaps you've not actually met the
requirements of the certification.

Otherwise, if you'd like another pair of eyes to evaluate whether you've
properly interpreted your earning of the certification, please list the
actual exams you've taken (or share your MCP transcript with me and I'll go
look at the actual transcript) and we'll see if you've met the criteria.




--
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2009)

My Blog: http://onsitechsolutions.spaces.live.com
Microsoft WSUS Website: http://www.microsoft.com/wsus
My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

 

Hi Lawrence,

Many thanks for your reply - I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I've emailed the Regional Service Centre to see whether or not they can
assist me.

I agree with you that the partner program and certifications are separate.

However, the partner program are reticent to take responsibility and claim
that this a a problem with MCP system. Apart from offering us discounted
exams, our Microsoft account manager isn't able to help us either. Hence, the
reason for me posting here is because there are no other avenues left for me
to pursue.

I'm certain that there isn't a problem with the listing of exams on my
transcript. The problem is that 70-305 is listed on my transcript and this is
what https://partner.microsoft.com/40020232 says about that exam.

So despite me having the MCPD certification, having 70-305 on my transcript
has made me ineligible for the web development specialisation because 70-553
and 70-554 are not recognised by the partner program. Had I achieved the
identical MCPD certification by taking the 5 requisite exams (70-536, 70-526,
70-528, 70-529, 70-549) I wouldn't have this problem.

On my actual transcript, I already have "MCTS .Net Framework 2.0 Web
Applications" listed. So it seems crazy that I have to sit an exam (70-528)
counting towards a certification that I already have just to be able to
satisfy the partner program.

As things stand, my "MCPD Enterprise Application Developer" isn't of any
benefit to my company. The majority of companies where I live employ MCP's
for the partner points so the qualification that I have isn't of much benefit
to these companies either. I'm in a situation where colleagues who have
chosen the simpler route of doing just an MCTS are actually more valuable to
the business. So what's the point of me having invested my time into doing an
MCPD?

The thing that would help me would be for you to judge independently :

- Whether or not you think this situation is fair

- Hypothetically, if you were charge of the 'Web Development Specialisation'
competency track (https://partner.microsoft.com/40020232), would you accept
my certifications as being adequate or would you still insist that I do one
of the MCTS exams, despite me already having the MCTS certification?

The exams that I would naturally want to take next are the upgrade exams
(70-568 and 70-569) which would take me to 3.5 version of MCPD Enterprise
Application Developer. But again, what's the point of me doing these exams if
they won't count towards the partner competency?

I think the system is broken and I don't believe that the partner program
fully understands Microsoft certifications. The chances are, I'll end up
doing the MCTS exams even although I don't think that this is right.

The ultimate aim of this post is to gather the opinions of the MCP community
so that I can go back to the partner program and ask them to review their
requirments. I think that this is important because there must be hundreds
out there that are also affected by this.

I've emailed you a copy of my transcript but for those interested, the list
of exams that I've done are as follows: (70-541, 70-450, 70-554, 70-620,
70-431, 70-553, 70-300, 70-310, 70-306, 70-305, 70-229, 70-228, 70-216,
70-215)

Many thanks,
Tim

 

And yet, having reviewed your transcript, I see that there is *no* issue at
all with the transcript.

Not on the page I'm looking at! Note also that the 70-305 *and* 70-553 *and*
70-554 are listed as qualifying exams.

============================================================
In addition, each of the qualifying Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs)
must pass at least one of the following Microsoft exams:
Exam 70-503: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 —Windows Communication
Foundation Application Development
Exam 70-504: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 —Windows Workflow Foundation
Application Development
Exam 70-529: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 —Distributed Application
Development
Exam 70-536: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 —Application Development
Foundation
Exam 70-541: TS: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 —Application
Development
Exam 70-549 : PRO: Designing and Developing Enterprise Applications by Using
the Microsoft .NET Framework
Exam 70-553 : UPGRADE: MCSD Microsoft .NET Skills to MCPD Enterprise
Application Developer by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework: Part 1
Exam 70-554 : UPGRADE: MCSD Microsoft .NET Skills to MCPD Enterprise
Application Developer by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework: Part 2
Exam 70-561 : TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ADO.NET Application
Development
Exam 70-565 : PRO: Designing and Developing Enterprise Applications by Using
the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

Retired Exams
Investing in the most recent and relevant exams helps you to retain your
most talented employees and win more business with your customers. For this
reason, the following exams have been retired and are no longer valid toward
attaining this specialization:
Exam 70-300: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution
Architectures
Exam 70-330: Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual
Basic .NET
Exam 70-340: Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual C#
..NET
============================================================

And, yet, the list above says they are.


--
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2009)

My Blog: http://onsitechsolutions.spaces.live.com
Microsoft WSUS Website: http://www.microsoft.com/wsus
My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

 

Hi Lawrence,

On that particular page, I think you need to click on the olive green banner
heading that says 'Web Development Specialisation'. The middle of the page
then refreshes itself and displays the following content which excludes the
70-553 and 70-554 exams.

So just to paraphrase, the MCAD upgrade exam (70-551) is acceptable for this
competency and yet the MCSD upgrade exam that I've passed (70-553) isn't!

Would you not agree that the above system is unfair to those that upgraded
from MCSDs (which I feel is a higher qualification) rather than MCADs?

Until the partner program see this point, it'll be pointless me talking to
them.

So at the moment, I'm just looking for some support to enable me to make a
stronger case to Microsoft to review their requirments for this competency.

Many thanks,
Tim


============================================================
You must employ or contract with at least two individuals who have each
passed the advanced certifications MCPD: Web Developer or MCTS. In addition,
each of the qualifying MCPs must pass one of the following Microsoft exams:
Exam 70-528: TS: Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 - Web-Based Client Development
Exam 70-536: TS: Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 - Application Development
Foundation
Exam 70-542: TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Application
Development
Exam 70-547: PRO: Designing and Developing Web-Based Applications by Using
the Microsoft.NET Framework
Exam 70-551: UPGRADE: MCAD Skills to MCPD Web Developer by Using the
Microsoft.NET Framework
Exam 70-561: TS: Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development
Exam 70-562: TS: Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development
Exam 70-564: PRO: Designing and Developing ASP.NET Applications by Using the
Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5
Exam 70-565: PRO: Designing and Developing Enterprise Applications by Using
the Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5


Retired Certifications and Exams
Investing in the most recent and relevant certifications and exams helps you
to retain your most talented employees and win more business with your
customers. For this reason, the following certifications and exams have been
retired are no longer valid toward attaining this specialisation:
MCSD
MCAD
Exam 70-300: Analysing Requirements and Defining Microsoft.NET Solution
Architectures
Exam 70-305: Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft
Visual Basic.NET and Microsoft Visual Studio.NET
Exam 70-315: Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft
Visual C#.NET and Microsoft Visual Studio.NET
Exam 70-330: Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual
Basic.NET
Exam 70-340: Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual
C#.NET
============================================================

 

Hi

It looks like most of us that have followed MS upgrade programs have the
same problems. My company need to upgrade two MCP`s to get the Hosting
Solution partner status and I upgraded my MCSE2000 to MCSE2003 through the
two upgrade exams 70-292 and 70-296. My colleague is a MCSA and he took the
regular path.
Even though he has a lower certification than me he qualifies for more
requirements inside the partner program than me which I find very strange,
being a MCSE since NT4.0

Also; to upgrade my MCSE 2003 to MCITP - Enterprise Administrator I need to
do the 70-649, 70-620/70-624 and 70-647. The 70-649 exam gives me three MCTS
certifications including "W2k8 Application Platform Configuration".
The "W2k8 Application Platform Configuration" is given by taking the 70-643
exam which is among the requirements for Hosting Solution partner, but 70-649
is not!!! Unbelieveable. You actually gets the MCTS certification through
70-649 but not the partner status. Why?

On top of it all, the 70-643 is actually in the MCSA to MCITP - Enterprise
Administrator upgrade path so my colleague can take the exam and benefit both
in his certification AND in the partner program whilst I must take an extra
exam to get acknowledged in the partner program.

Strange indeed, seems to me that the two divisions are not communicating
very well.

 

The fundamental issue seems to be that the compentency requires EXAMS rather than QUALIFICATIONS.

Which means that someone in the partner program :withstup: needs a smack around the head.

Is it REALLY that hard to run a simulation with a few thousand real transcripts? Especially since Microsoft have done this sort of "upgrade" several times already?