For months you have heard me complaining about Microsoft's Small Business Specialist Certification. I have been telling anyone who will listen that the exam is too easy, and the certification is meaningless unless it requires a level of technical expertise to pass.
As an IT Professional I have dedicated a good portion of the last ten years of my life to learing not only my profession, but also the tools and processes that differentiate me from a simple technician. I have taken courses and certification exams in desktop and server operating systems, management and administration of network environments, and in general how to implement technologies for my clients to get the best from their systems, first with Windows NT, then Windows 2000, and now Windows 2003. The certificates I have are not mere pieces of paper, they are testimonies that I am competent at what I do. Couple that with thousands of hours in front of clients and their infrastructure and that is in my mind what qualifies me as an IT Professional.
A year ago Microsoft asked me what I would like to see them offer to help small business consultants, and I told them there should be a special certification for that level - SMB Certified for example. This developed into the Small Business Specialist Certification that from what I can tell currently requires an applicant to have a pulse.
Small Business Server is the amalgamation of several different server packages that are no different than they are for large enterprises, except for that they will work together in a single box, and that you are limited to 75 CALs. So why then would a simple exam (70-282) which is really geared towards marketing rather than the technical of SBS make anyone more qualified to install and service SBS than someone who hasn't? The truth is that with minimal studying anyone can pass 70-282 and call himself SBSC. He can then go into a client for $50 less per hour and say 'Well Mitch may be a MCSA, but as you can see I am SBSC, which makes me equally qualified on this platform as he is.'
Well of course the answer is no he is not. The truth is that SBS is a relatively simple product to install, but when things go wrong you had better know what you are doing, or you had better have the phone number handy of someone who does. I have a number of SBS clients that I lost to competitors who undercut me, but when their Exchange database corrupted, or they lose Internet connectivity through ISA, or their web sites stop publishing they call me because as an MCSA I have taken the courses and passed the exams qualifying me to handle problems such as these, and not just a marketing exam.
In discussions recently with Harry Brelsford, the leading authority on Small Business Server, I explained my position and he agreed, and asked what I would do if I could fix it. I told him I would take the following steps:
- Make the exam a lot more difficult; and
- Make the certification an add-on to an existing cert, after the model of the MCSA+Security or MCSA+Messaging.
Harry agreed that what I was saying made sense, and he promised to take what I said back to the SBS team in Redmond. That was a month ago. What has happenned since? I am proud to say that beginning Tuesday Microsoft is releasing a beta exam to replace the 70-282 with something a little more challenging, and those of us who are lucky enough to participate in the beta will have a hand in making the certification that much more difficult to obtain, resulting in a safer climate in which our clients can know that at last the little blue logo we get really means something.
Of course my second idea was a little difficult, as the MCSE certification is about to be retired, but I would much rather see Microsoft take baby steps forward than sit and stagnate under the guise of 'it's good enough.' Besides, as a friend and colleague to whom I look up to said today 'If you want to eat an elephant, you have to start by taking a single bite.' Thanks Rick!