If one thing taking exams 70-667 and 70-668 has proven over the last week, its that my SharePoint 2010 knowledge has an awful lot of gaps! On the positive side, I passed them both after around six months of study and completing a 7-day accelerated training course paid for by work, encompassing the recommended MS courses.
My thoughts?
1) I still think SharePoint 2010 is huge and can be very, very complex depending on the size of the implementation, version in use and its role(s) and objectives within an organization. Seriously, I think I would need to dedicate my working weeks for the next several years full-time for me to consider being a professional, never mind an expert. I've setup countless environments in preparation and completed a lot of lab work, but even so I still feel like I skimmed the surface rather than really getting to grips with the product. I have a new found appreciation for skilled SP admins, developers and architects for sure.
2) I found the exams pretty difficult. I'm not sure whether this was down to my lack of understanding and experience in some areas. The skills list on the MS web site was an accurate measure of what to expect on the exams.
3) I have a solid background in IIS and SQL Server and this really helped throughout my learning experience and the intense nature of the course I attended. If you are beginning with SharePoint, get some IIS/SQL fundamentals and experience down first. Even if there are dedicated DBA's in your environment, you need to be able to speak to those guys and help lay down whats needed to get SharePoint singing rather than spluttering and crippling your implementation - and reputation.
4) I found the 70-667 (MCTS) to be the easier of the exams which is what I expected. I think stopping here would have been more than enough for me based on what I'll be expected to do with SP2010 in my current role, but work wanted us to do the full MCITP path. I'm glad I did - 70-668 (PRO) was a more difficult exam - but I got an awful lot out of the corresponding design course (see below).
5) PowerShell is your friend. You really need to use cmdlets rather than Central Administration (which is still annoying in places in SP2010 for the most part), even though stsadm has been carried through for backwards compatibility, its being deprecated. So, if you are a PowerShell novice, read up on the basics before you attempt the SP2010 track. I guess this applies to most MS tracks these days.
Books Used;
Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration by Wrox (Todd Klint, Shane Young, Steve Caravajal) - Excellent resource and proved a huge help.
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administrator's Companion (Bill English, Brian Alderman, Mark Ferraz) - Another superb resource, I used and enjoyed this the most and will keep it handy!
SharePoint 2010 Administrators Pocket Companion on the iPhone - useful when on the train, easy to read a quick chapter or two.
I had a decent sized farm set up on our dev VM estate in work and frequently used the TechNet articles, which was vital. I didn't do any SP2007 to SP2010 upgrades though apart from the MS training course lab - whilst this would help for the exams (and in the real world for SharePoint heroes) I won't be expected to do this at work and since I don't intend on marketing myself as a SharePoint Admin just yet thought it a good one to let slip whilst I concentrated on other topics (though make sure you read and understand the process thoroughly!). I've got a whole list of TechNet articles I collated along the way, if I get chance I'll add them to a SP2010 Admin resources thread.
I also got shipped to a 7-day intensive course. Work requested and paid for it all, the MS course content was OK (some of the labs were below-par which has been my experience with MS courses in the past), the trainer was great and knowledgeable, the training centre environment was decent with good food at meal times and I got all the MS SharePoint 2010 course materials - but I'm no fan of accelerated/bootcamp style training at the best of times. It was essentially the ten days worth of Microsoft course material mentioned below and several 13-14hour days in a classroom with further reading to do each night. There were 14 of us in the class and by the end we were all going a little bit strange........
Courses;
Configuring and Administering Microsoft SharePoint 2010Designing a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Infrastructure
We got MeasureUp logons as part of the course and they were useful exam practice. However, at the end of the day without my prior study and experience I'm sure I would have failed the exams miserably and not got anything out of the course. I would not recommend this style of course unless you've got prior experience, staying power, a need for an endless supply of caffeine (its going to take a while to come down......) , and a good sense of humour. Laughter with your classmates is important when you're under stress, tired, and missing home comforts.
On that note, I've just got home after a speedy *cough* 170 mile drive home and wanted to knock this post out whilst still on a high before I spent the next couple of days sleeping, letting my brain cool-off and spending some time with the missus. Then I need to learn how to interact with the general public again..........
I hope this benefits someone and don't let my negative views about accelerated courses affect your enthusiasm. SharePoint didn't float my boat in many ways before I started on the journey, but after months of learning, experimenting and the benefits it can have if designed and implemented according to the business needs, I actually respect it, heck, even like it. I wasn't expecting to feel this enthusiastic at the end of such a long and demanding week - however the combination of a few months of self study, the course (particularly the design elements) led by a good instructor and the fact that SP seemingly sits so well on top of some of my other skills and experience has left me energised and wondering if I should pursue this further...........hmmmmmm. Any SharePoint folks out there with opinions?
Cheers
bertieb
