Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Certifications Initial Discussions

Everybody knows that Visual Studio 2010 with .NET 4.0 is going to be released soon. That is going to have a new CLR also due to the introduction of the new language F#. So geeks there is one more reason to learn. But professionals are still confused about the certification. Mainly the grooming professionals. Till now MCTS 70-536 was the base for all the Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 MCTS and MCPD exams.

Now onwards, that is going to change. VS 2005 and 2008 had same CLR behind that. Due to that reason for VS 2005 and 2008, the foundation exam for certifications (MCTS 70-536) remained same. But, VS 2010 is going to have a diffrent CLR. This is due to the introduction of the much awaited language F# in VS 2010. So by that reason the certification exam structure is going to be changed in case of VS 2010. But as per the current discussions, it may decrease the number of exams as compared to the VS 2008. So here is a reason to get certified once VS 2010 is out for feel.

According to the recent discussions, the strucute of the VS 2010 certifications may be as follows though it is not the final word. The new .NET 4.0 exams will have what looks like 3 MCPDs and a number of MCTS certifications. To date the ones that have been announced (or passed the initial exam design stage with SMEs) are

• 70-511 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Windows Applications Development (WPF) - The Windows exam will cover both Windows Forms and WPF. This will also help to address the feedback over the Windows vs WPF requirements for MCPD Enterprise on .NET 3.5.  No, it doesn’t mean they are changing the 3.5 certs, It mean the new plan will not have seperate Forms/WPF issues.
• 70-515 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Web Applications Development - Web to cover some Silverlight. Silverlight is akin to nailing Jell-o to a wall.  The dev cycles are shorter than our exam dev cycle.
• 70-513 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Windows Communication Foundation Development
• 70-516 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 4, Accessing Data with ADO.NET
• 70-518 Pro: Designing and Developing Windows Applications Using Microsoft .NET 4
• 70-519 Pro: Designing and Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4

These exams have finished their initial exam design stage. Betas for these exams should be around March 30 maybe. For this information my courtesy is for Gerry O’Brie's blog on this.

Here are the other 50% definite exams:

• MCTS Windows Workflow Foundation .NET 4.0 - Workflow has some great changes and is an awesome technology but, they need to decide based on other factors.
• MCPD Enterprise Application Developer .NET 4.0 - MCPD Enterprise is still a non-defined audience. They need more market research into what an “Enterprise Professional Developer” really is.

For this also courtesy goes to his another blog. Keep watching patiently for more information about VS 2010 to catch it hot and fresh.

HOT UPDATE: Information about the Certifications in VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 Frameword you will get here.
 You can get the VS 2010 .NET 4.0 Certification Upgrade Path here.