My View: Project 2010 & Project Server 2010 Certifications

This post was long been pending from my side, recently i have passed the following Project 2010 and Project Server 2010 exams and would like to share my experience and tips to prepare for the exams:

• TS: Project 2010, Managing Projects
• TS: Project Server 2010, Configurations

Although i was slightly late to attempt for these exams, but i always appriciate the benefit of being certified in the practising technology and domain. And i belive that being certified helps you gains employer confidence, and validate, your product knowledge.

So few tips for anyone of you out there who wants to attempt for the exam. There are certain knowledge areas related to each of the above mentioned exams, and if you validate your knowledge against those topics can help you pass the exam. For me Project 2010, Managing Projects were relatively more diffcult than Project Server 2010 exam, but for you it could be other way around. So here are few points you can consider while preparing For Project 2010, Managing Projects:

1. Expect lot of questions related to the new features of Project 2010. Trust me if you know this good, more chances are that you pass the exam.
2. Understand the positions of features and options on a new Office Ribbon User Interface.
3. Knows the use of the new and old features of Project 2010 well. Now this is important, if you do not use Project in your everyday routine you might face some difficulty in this area.
4. Understand the Task Types and their impact to a task's work, duration and resource assignment when one of these changes.

The way i have practised and prepared for the exams was: i have looked into the domain areas of the exam mentioned on the Microsoft Learning site under this particular exam page and verified my knowledge related to these skills. And i have used this book to study, Microsoft Project 2010 Step by Step. Its an easy to read and good to start with if you are beginner user of Project 2010. You might can find training classes or material based on the area you are located.

The Project Server 2010 exam, 70-177, covers the configuration areas of the product. You can also get scneario based question and asked for your expert opinion about the next step you should take. Unlike Project 2010 exam there are no such area from where you get the most of the questions. The best way to prepare for this exam is to go through the official skills measure page of the exam and verify your preparation. The number of questions from each skill area is based on the percentage mentioned for that area, and that is almost equal.

Please feel free to ask for any help related to the exams, be aware that these are the only two exams released so far for EPM 2010. For those who are planning to attempt the exam, I wish you good luck.

Posted in: Misc