MCP.Program.Changes

Looks like there will be some interesting changes to the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) program after the release of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 at the end of this year. They will now categorize candidates into IT Professionals and Professional Developers. From there, candidates can choose from a range of specializations to pursue.



The database track has been split into 3 specializations - Database Administrator, Database Developer and Business Intelligence Developer. So there is no longer a Pao-Kar-Liow MCDBA who is expected to know everything from database backups to data-mining. And the same applies for the developer track. There will now be a Windows Developer, Web Developer and Enterprise Application Developer specialization.

The windows track has yet to be formalize pending the release of Longhorn. Read all about the news here.

Of course, if you ask me, the mother of all the certifications will definitely be the Microsoft Certified Architect program which is conducted in a much different manner. You can read about it here.

I guessed it will be a challenge for me to upgrade my certs. Looking at the following chart, I need to go through atleast 4 exams (or maybe 6).



Whatever it is, I hope they will give some free/discount vouchers (like what they did to MCSDs last time) for existing certified professionals to upgrade their certifications. ;)