I was recently contracted by Microsoft Sweden to hold two custom certification preparation classes for the MB2-704 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Application and MB2-707 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customization and Configuration.
One of the things that struck me during the preparation of this course was that Microsoft have changed the names of the certifications. Previous certifications, for instance the matching certification for CRM 2013 Application is named “MB2-700 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Application”. For those who need it to be spelled out, the version name is no longer in the name of the certification…”
As Microsoft have at the same time moved all Microsoft Official Curriculum Courses (MOC) from being normal classroom Courses to being eLearning Courses, one might wonder if there might be a significant pattern here.
The last but not least piece of the puzzel, is the now increased version cadance, one new version for CRM Online every 6 months and a new major version for both CRM Online and On-premise every year.
My conclusion is, that the version number indicates that they might be sticking to this for some time. Creating, and maintaining new certificates probably takes a lot of Resources from their end so this might be a way to manage the current version cadance.
A related subject is that for Dynamics NAV, all certifications have been dropped. There are no new certifications for NAV 2015 and the requirements for partners are being revised. I don’t Think this will spill over to Dynamics CRM, but it is none the less interesting.
I also tried taking the new MB2-707-OP, Online Proctored version of the exam, but I didn’t even get to Writing the certification as my full formal name is “Nils Gustaf Westerlund” and this is also what my ID says. However, the “Nils” part is never used and is for instance not on any of my credit cards. I had hence not used “Nils Gustaf” as my first name in the Microsoft account either and I have never had any issues with this earlier when Writing exams at any of the test centers, and I wanted to test the online proctored exam so that I could tell the attendees of the class I was holding about it so that they could know if it was useful or not. As you probably could imagine from my elaborations regarding my name, when I had to show my ID to the supervisor of the exam, I was informed that my name was wrong. I tried explaining that this is how names are written in Sweden, and even showed him several of my credit cards with Master Card, showing only “Gustaf Westerlund” but that did not help. He was about as flexible as a piece of Concrete. After a lot of complaining and phone calls to Pearson Vue, I finally got them to pay me back. I can only imagine the kind of trouble you can have if you have a Chinese or Russian name. I strongly suggest that Pearson Vue shape up their understanding of international naming standards. I signed up for a test at a local test center the day after and there was no problem there but I am Always flabbergasted at what I am not good at based on the test, this time it was forms. If anything, I am actually quite good at forms, and I do teach CRM 1.2 (not so much any more), 3.0, 4.0, 2013, 2015 and have worked with CRM for 10 years. But I passed, and I guess that is what counts.
Now, I have to go to bed, tomorrow is Innovation Challange here in Madrid, eXtreme CRM! I hope you are here, don’t be a stranger! I don’t bite.
Don’t miss George Doubinski’s and my “7 Sins of CRM Development” on Tuesday at 11:00 in room Bangkok if you are here in Madrid.
Gustaf Westerlund
MVP, CEO and owner at CRM-konsulterna AB
www.crmkonsulterna.se
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