I previously wrote about upgrading my Microsoft MCSD Certification to a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) and Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD):

I am a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD.) Seeing as some of the folks at work are looking to get their certifications, I spent some time today reviewing possible tracks to upgrade my credential to Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) or Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD.)  I was happy to discover that I am eligible to upgrade my MCSD credential with the option of one or two exams.

After further review, I opted down a different path.  Rather than working towards a non-specialized MCPD: Enterprise Applications Developer on Visual Studio 2005, this month, I took the Web Developer track and became a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) by passing Exam 70-536 and 70-528 and then a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) by passing Exam 70-547. I took the Web Developer track since it provided some level of specialization and it was basically the path of least resistance for me. 

Though I am proud of my recent accomplishment, I have mixed feelings as I recognize “being certified” comes with some negative connotations.

Primarily, there’s talk about the value of the exams.  Simply put, is it really possible to determine a developer’s competency/worth via their ability to pass a multiple-choice exam?  After all, in a field where problems can be solved dozens and dozens of ways, it seems likely that any real-world problem can have only one correct answer.  So, doesn’t that mean the exams would be limited to only the most trivial or obscure questions?

I think basic opinions have already been formed already.  Some feel (due to the point above) that the certification exams are worthless and thus only an unreasonable developer would waste their time and money pursuing certification.  For some, it is not too big of a stretch to think, “If you are certified, you are a developer who makes bad decisions.”

Finally, as you know, the “M” in MCTS and MCPD stands for Microsoft.  Though I work with a good deal of Microsoft products and technologies, I am not Microsoft-Only.  However, I think my certifications could be interpreted as such. I also think the mere mention of “Microsoft” puts a bad taste in the mouths of some…

At this point, you may be asking, “So, why did you pursue your certification then?”  Three reasons:

• The company I work for is pursuing membership in the Microsoft Partner Program.  To become a partner, a company needs to demonstrate competency through such things as customer references and employment of Certified Professionals.  Since my company picked up the cost of the exams/study materials, allotted time to study and was very encouraging, I had to jump at the opportunity as offers like that don’t come up very often.  As I see it, both the company and I won.
• I made a shift from development manager to full-time developer about a year ago.  As manager, I simply was unable to keep up with the ins and outs of .NET.  Over the last year, I have played a lot of catch up and I merely wanted to formally prove to myself that I am back on track. Of course, the tests focused on .NET 2.0 whereas I had been working with .NET 3* for the past 6 months, but I still feel validated.
• I’ve been sitting on a MCSD in VB/SQL since 2001.  As you can imagine, the dated certification was starting to smell really bad.

Again, I am proud of my accomplishment.  If I could do it all again, I would without hesitation, but we’ll just have to see if the certifications do me more harm than good in the future. 

I’m happy to hear your thoughts.  And if you have any questions, feel free to ping me.

I am a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD.) Seeing as some of the folks at work are looking to get their certifications, I spent some time today reviewing possible tracks to upgrade my credential to Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) or Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD.)  I was happy to discover that I am eligible to upgrade my MCSD credential with the option of one or two exams.

If you (like me) are an MCSD, you can earn certifications in MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications, MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications, MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications, and MCPD: Enterprise Applications Developer on Visual Studio 2005 by passing Exam 70–554 and Exam 70–553. 

Alternatively, you can receive your MCPD: Enterprise Applications Developer by passing a single exam, Exam 70–554, but you will need to earn your MCPD: Web Developer and MCPD: Windows Developer certifications first. This option is certainly the faster track if you have already satisfied the two prerequisite certifications (which I have not.) 

You will note the exams called out above are geared around Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0.  There are also equivalent MCTS and MCPD certifications for Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5.  I’ve been inside of VS 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 for some time now so I may just test my skills against the latest and greatest.  It seemed to make sense but you never know.

It’s been over 4 years since I last tested.  If anyone has advice or feedback, I would love to hear it — even if it’s merely “good luck.”

I don’t remember the exact quote.  Actually, I don’t know if she actually said it aloud, or I could just read it in her eyes, but my wife recently let me know (in her own special way) that I spend a heck of a lot of time on my computer with very little to show for it.  I’m sure I’m completely over-simplifying it, but I think it boils down to this:

I’m doing something software related roughly 100% of the time I’m on the computer.  Since software development is my livelihood, one could reasonably deduce my time spent on the computer is time spent working.  Since most people get paid for their work, it isn’t such a stretch to think I should be compensated for my time on the computer.

I’m sure that some of you are ready to get into a shouting match with my wife.  Now, let’s not judge her quite yet.  She does understand that a good number of coders (including her husband) have a love affair with their work.  Software development may pay our bills, but we also eat, sleep and breathe code and my wife knows it.  She also knows that we need to spend some of our spare time keeping up the Joneses –  learning, experimenting, creating, reading, playing outside of office hours.  She totally gets it.  She really does.  All the same, I do tend to spend an exorbitant amount of time “online” and my wife does have good reason to give me the stink-eye more often than I wish to admit.  

[ Off on a tangent, I have another blog entry in the works.  It's about the importance of choosing an appropriate development estimator.  In the process of writing the article, I considered how estimation plays into our daily lives. For example, when my wife asks "What time are you coming home from the office today, Honey?" I tend to be overly optimistic.  When I arrive home a few hours later than expected, the stink-eye comes out.  Perhaps you have seen it as well? ]

Most recently, my wife asked why a coder would contribute to an open source project.  I fell back on the the obvious answers:  learning and enjoyment.  I knew what she was thinking, ”Well, that’s fine, but what you are really doing is coding and giving the product away for free.”  She was blunt, but she was right.  It is a little different than just goofing around on the computer “learning” and “having fun” on my spare time.  This was contributing to a legitimate development effort … for nothing.  I did mention that it was also good for networking (meeting other developers, finding future work) but I don’t think I appropriately made my point and the conversation died a quick, yet terrible, death.

Since our talk,  I have been thinking about all the other times I’ve done work for nothing. 

As I mentioned, there’s open source project contributions which, I admit, I haven’t been very involved with in the past.  There’s the dozen or so websites I’ve put together for friends and family over the years.  There’s the handful of sites for the good cause and non-profit organizations.  In some of these cases, I didn’t only do the coding, I also purchased the domain and the hosting.  There were also a couple of savvy business people who promised to make us gazillions of dollars in exchange for a beta version of the software to show the venture capitalists they have lined up.  Finally, I suppose JohnnyCoder.com could be added to to the list of “work I do for nothing” as well. 

Well, there’s a lot of debate on whether or not you can measure software development productivity.  If productivity is a measure of what you get for what you give, I guess, on a personal note, I haven’t always been productive over the years.  Now, I’m not saying it is good or bad, but I would like some additional justification for going about my “business” the way I do. 

Any thoughts?