Voice of the DBA

Tag: mcm

  • The MCM Saga

    There was a comment posted on my Connect item for Open Sourcing the MCM. It said:

    “I have been able to contact the MS Learning team and they have given me some information about the content. My restatement of that, is that the ownership of the content is a bit complex. Some content is owned by other groups at Microsoft and is being repurposed for delivery in other workshops. In some cases the content is canibalized into a substantially different form. In some cases content was paid for and licensed content for a specific use, and it can’t just be reissued. At any rate, Microsoft doesn’t want to waste the money spent on it, and efforts are being made to use it in some manner. But you won’t see a consistent publishing pattern.”

    That’s reasonable, and I’m sure it’s true. I know multiple people worked on the project, and perhaps there is IP from some people that they don’t want released. I understand that, though I don’t like it.

    I made my case for this, and while plenty of MCMs disagreed, I was looking at this as a way to improve the community’s knowledge in building applications. Having specific scenarios to work through could help administrators and developers understand what types of real world problems they may face, or even introduce in their designs.

    It’s easy to say there’s all this information out there, but it’s incredibly unorganized. I’ve started to try and organize my content, build shorter, smaller posts that lead through a solution. I’m trying to help people (and myself) grow knowledge in a targeted way. Too much of the stuff out there doesn’t do that.

  • Open Source the MCM

    It’s over. There’s no more MCM program or certification from Microsoft. The last MCM test was given last year and no upgrades are planned for SQL Server 2012 or SQL Server 2014. That’s a little sad, though there are quite a few of our SQL Server professionals that can still proudly wear the MCM title for the rest of their careers.

    The MCM tests were designed differently than all the other MCP type tests, requiring more thought and deduction, as well as practical skills. The lab in particular was daunting to many of the MCMs, most of whom would tell you about the difficulties in getting through the scenarios in the limited time alloted. All of the people I’ve talked to found the challenge refreshing and also informative, enabling them to learn a few things about their knowledge, even from the problems they didn’t complete.

    Since that chapter in Microsoft Learning is complete, and the tasks likely out of date, I’d ask that Microsoft Learning release the questions and scenarios to the world as an open source project. Unlike the other certifications and exams, these questions aren’t going to be re-used anytime soon and the knowledge could help many people learn to build better solutions.

    This would be a great move, allowing many DBAs to challenge themselves with the questions and scenarios in practice labs. The types of scenarios could be used in interviews for new employees, either as they are written or modified for a particular environment. Professionals using the SQL Server platform would get an idea of not only the broad level of knowledge that MCMs have, but they’d also have a way to test themselves and direct their own learning to become better rounded SQL Server developers and administrators.

    I doubt it would happen, but I’d think Microsoft could help the community, generate some goodwill, and help improve the overall quality of people working on their platform.

    Update: I have opened a Connect item for this. Please vote

    Podcast: http://traffic.libsyn.com/voiceofthedba/mcmoss_58_v1063.mp3

  • No More MCM

    This is part 1 of a 3 part series of thoughts on certification and Microsoft technologies.

    I’ve heard that Friday afternoon is the best time to fire someone. People are leaving early, the office is quiet, and you can let people go quickly and get yourself away. It also gives the remaining employees some time to grieve, and hopefully, come back to work Monday without some of the shock they initially experienced. At least, that’s what they say. Personally I think there’s no good day, and productivity always suffers somewhat whenever there’s surprising, upsetting news.

    Recently, just before the US Labor Day holiday, late on a Friday, I saw a number of announcements on Twitter that the MCM program had been discontinued. Since I was on holiday, I thought I’d missed something, but apparently not. It was late on a Friday that the an email was sent to all MCMs and MCAs notifying them of the change. It was a brief email, noted here, and didn’t include some of the reasons of that were given as a comment in a Connect item filed to save the program (the comment was from Tim Sneath at 1:32pm). There’s been a variety of coverage and blogs around the Internet as well.

    We aren’t being told the whole truth, nor do I expect to be told the whole truth. This is Microsoft’s program, and as such, we follow along and adjust, or choose to ignore it. In this case, I can’t believe that this was anything other than a cost based issue, designed to reduce expenses and raise profits. In all likelihood, someone(s) bonus depended on internal Microsoft Learning metrics being met (probably revenue or profit numbers), which the MCM/MCA program were reducing. In an effort to look better, the program was chopped, without a lot of input, communication, or discussion with the people actually working to better the program. I expect Tim Sneath and others were caught off guard with the decision and told to deal with it. They did so poorly, extremely poorly. In hindsight, I’m sure someone wishes they’d composed a better message and delayed sending it for a couple days.

    I attempted the first part of the MCM early on, with a voucher. I didn’t pass, but I learned how hard the exam was, realized it was within my capabilities, but that it would require some serious study. I didn’t proceed further because of other commitments, but I’ve watched more and more people work through the MCM process, usually over months or years as they learn, struggle, research, and drive themselves forward.

    Ultimately the achievement isn’t the certification, but the journey. The efforts candidates go through, the knowledge they acquire from study and hard work, and perhaps more importantly, the skills they build to teach themselves new techniques. I wouldn’t hire an MCM because I was sure they necessarily knew everything about my environment. I’d hire them because I would be 100% confident they could find the problem and fix it, no matter whether they used old knowledge or acquired new proficiency on the spot.

    That was the real value of someone who completed, or even seriously worked towards, an MCM.

    Steve Jones

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  • Close, but no MCM Cigar

    I failed.

    There’s no other way to say it, but I’m not really disappointed or discouraged. I’m actually fairly upbeat about it. I went into the Microsoft Certified Master test thinking that I’d fail because it aims to be a high end certification. I felt like I had a huge knowledge gap going through the study resources on the SQLskills MCM page.

    I plugged away, and learned a lot. I listened to content on long car trips and airplane rides. I read white papers at night and while waiting for kids at various events. I practiced working through some of the code examples, and came up with new ideas along the way. And I got a lot of notes, so many notes that I didn’t even review half of them as the test got closer.

    And I was surprised. As I wrote about my test experience, I think I was well prepared, and I knew more than I thought. Every question made me think and made me deduce some solution, but very few of them had me throwing up my hands and feeling like a complete idiot.

    My score was close to passing. It wasn’t the single digits I joked about on Twitter, nor was it the low 200-300 score I was thinking I might end up with. The passing score is 700, though it isn’t clear if that’s out of 1000 or 800 or 743. We don’t know how the exam is scored, and I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, but that’s a separate blog.

    In my case, I got a 620 with bar graphs that listed my relative strength in a few areas. I scored highest in Scalability and Availability, with my graphs about 8/10 of the way across. In Recoverability and Managability I had about 7/10 of the total distance. That’s not surprising since I think those administrative areas are my strongest skills.

    In security I was about 6/10, which is a little surprising. I thought I knew SQL Server security very well, but I’ve always been a “practical” security guy, and not necessarily conforming to what the MCM might see as the best way to implement security. Definitely need to work on this area a little more. In Performance, I was about halfway, which is probably true. Without spending a lot of time on this in a practical sense in recent years, I’m relying on my memory in studying and not using field-skills.

    Developer Support, which I assume means XML, Spatial, CLR, and other similar code oriented areas I was the lowest, about a 4/10. That’s not surprising since I don’t write a lot of code and really haven’t spent much time in those areas. They feel to be a little outside of the core of what I really enjoy in SQL Server, and I’m sure I didn’t focus here all that well. I know I listened to the SQL CLR prep four or five times and was still slightly confused as to what was covered.

    There were no areas that were incredibly weak, but a few that need improvement, and I know that I have a few things in the manageability to work on after the test. I won’t go into specific areas, but suffice it to say that one particular topic had 3 or 4 questions and I struggled with them talking about a certain implementation of the technology that I hadn’t spent much time on.

    Moving On

    What do I do from here? I was thinking this was a one-shot deal for me and I’d get an assessment of where I stood. I definitely got that, and the results seem to mirror what I would have thought were my strengths and weaknesses. My higher-than-expected score has me wondering a little about which of these is true:

    · I know more than I thought

    · The exam doesn’t test real world skills as much as I thought

    It’s hard to know which is true. I don’t do a lot of real world work, but I read a lot, and I talk with many people about what real world problems and solutions they use. So I have a wide set of knowledge, but not necessarily deep in places. The exam can only test me on the areas it tests me, and with a limited time, there is only so much it can test.

    I have the chance to take the exam again as there are still vouchers available and I think I will. I’d like to try again to pass it since I have a little competitiveness left in me and I thought I was close after taking the exam. If I can improve in a few areas, I’d think I would do better, though I expect different questions and would need to review all the material again.

    The lab? That’s a whole ‘nother story. The lack of practice in some areas might have me fumbling around more than I could afford in a limited time frame. I have less confidence I would pass that, though more than I would have had a few months ago. That’s if I could sit still for 6 hours and focus on SQL Server that long.