Video summary
The video provides a comprehensive overview of Microsoft certifications, specifically focusing on the criteria used to evaluate candidates for the Microsoft 365 Certified Teams Application Developer Associate role. The core purpose of these certifications is to measure a candidate's knowledge and experience across specific workloads to determine their qualification level. Microsoft categorizes developer expertise into three distinct tiers: foundational, associate, and expert. The foundational level represents a junior developer or technical pre-sales professional who possesses mid-level hands-on experience and can discuss concepts but may lack the ability to independently implement complex solutions, typically involving less than four years of experience.
In contrast, the associate level is the specific target for this certification and signifies a practitioner with approximately four years of hands-on experience across all relevant technologies. Candidates at this level are expected to understand the technology deeply enough to design and implement solutions based on business requirements without needing external assistance. The third tier, the expert level, describes subject matter experts who possess deep knowledge and can teach others to advance from foundational skills to associate-level competence. While the current exam aims to validate associate-level proficiency, the speaker notes that in practice, most areas of Microsoft 365 require associate-level understanding, even if some specific topics like Microsoft Graph are tested at a slightly lighter depth.
The certification process itself has evolved significantly over time, moving from a requirement of multiple exams, such as the five needed for an MCDBA twenty years ago, to a streamlined approach where only a single exam, the MS-600, is required to achieve the associate designation. To pass this exam, candidates must score 70% or higher. Behind the scenes, creating this certification involves a rigorous lifecycle starting with job task analysis performed by a group of subject matter experts who identify all potential topics developers should know. This initial data is then refined by an objective design group to create a focused specification that defines exactly what will be tested on the exam.
This specification serves as the blueprint for generating the randomized questions found on the actual test, ensuring that every candidate receives a unique set of challenges. Furthermore, this same document drives the creation of instructor-led training courses for certified trainers and self-paced learning resources available on Microsoft Learn. By understanding how these workloads are segmented and how the certification ecosystem is built from job task analysis to final exam construction, candidates can better prepare themselves to demonstrate the necessary skills. The video concludes by emphasizing that while future certifications may dive deeper into specific areas like SharePoint or Teams, the current focus remains on validating the associate-level capabilities required for modern Microsoft 365 development.
Read the full video transcript
Hello and welcome back. In this lesson,
we're going to talk about the Microsoft
certifications with a specific focus on
understanding the what and the how of
the certification.
Now, the certification process is all
about measuring a candidate's knowledge
on a particular topic to determine if
[snorts] they are qualified to be
considered a certified Microsoft 365
Teams application developer associate.
You're being measured on a couple of
things. Specifically, you're being
measured on your experience with
different workloads or topics. In
Microsoft 365, there are a few workloads
that you're going to be tested on in the
exam. Microsoft wants to test you to
quantify what your experience level is.
And what do they mean by level? Great
question. What I need to do here is
explain how Microsoft learning measures
candidates because they look at
candidates based on three levels of
their experience.
The first level is called foundational
or fundamental level. This level
measures your understanding of the
technology and that you can understand
or design a high-level solution.
Developers with a foundational level of
knowledge on a topic, it means that you
have a mid-level kind of hands-on
experience with different workloads.
But maybe you can't implement a solution
all by yourself or maybe you have less
than 4 years of hands-on experience with
those different workloads.
This is the kind of candidate that I
think of as like a junior developer or a
technical pre-sales person.
Essentially, they can talk the talk but
they can't really walk the walk real
smoothly.
Now, the next level is an associate
level and the associate developer is
someone who understands the technology
and can design, implement a solution
based on a business requirement that a
customer has provided. Developers with
an associate level of knowledge, they
have the equivalent of 4 years of
hands-on experience with all the
different technologies. And I think that
these people are more like
practitioners. They're someone who knows
the stuff and that they can build a
solution all on their own without
needing any help from someone else.
Now, the third level is what they call
an expert. That's the expert level. And
an expert developer, they have a deep
understanding of the technology and
would be considered a subject matter
expert. Developers with an expert level
of knowledge on a topic, they're like
teachers. They can teach someone who is
at the fundamentals level or
foundational level to bring them up to
the associate level. And they're
absolute experts at these different
workloads.
For example, I'm teaching you this
stuff. I consider myself an expert at
Microsoft 365 technology. Specifically
in the different workloads covered by
the exam. Now, some of them I'm stronger
at than others, as you'll see when I
show you my exam score in just a few
minutes.
But for the most part, I feel strong
enough to say that I'm an expert in
these different areas. So, now that you
know what these different levels mean,
let's put this into some context. In
this Microsoft 365 certification, how
are you being measured? You're being
measured to see that you're at the
associate level, not the expert level,
not the fundamentals or foundational
level, but the associate level. That
means that you've got the equivalent of
4 years of experience across all the
workloads that the the exam is going to
measure you on. Now, let's talk about
the different topics. Microsoft calls
these topics workloads. And a workload
is an area of Office 365 or Microsoft
365 that you need to know. When
Microsoft first started developing this
certification, they identified these are
the different areas that you need to
know at these different levels that we
just talked about. For example, they
would tell you that for Microsoft Teams,
Microsoft Identity, Azure AD, and
Microsoft Graph, you need to know things
at the associate level because those are
across every single one of the workloads
in Microsoft 365.
However, they said that for other areas
like SharePoint or Microsoft Graph or
app development, you only need to know
these at the fundamentals level. And in
reality though, I found that everything
is really at the associate level. If
anything, Microsoft might be a little
bit lighter and on Microsoft Graph and
Microsoft Identity, but they're still
there. Now, I bring this up only for one
reason. You may see other Microsoft 365
certifications in the future that go
deeper on a specific workload like
Microsoft Teams or SharePoint. And in
fact, I would expect I would expect
that, but today it's only just about
this one developer exam. Now, how does
Microsoft go about creating a
certification? Understanding how
Microsoft creates a certification is
going to help you in understanding how
the different workloads come together.
Now, you may have taken a previous
certification like the one that I took
nearly 20 years ago to become a
Microsoft Certified Database
Administrator or MCDBA.
That certification process required me
to take five exams, and these days it's
more common to have one exam that you
have to pass or maybe two or three.
The Microsoft Teams application
developer associate certification only
requires you to pass a single exam, the
MS-600.
To become a Microsoft 365 Certified
Teams Developer Associate, you just have
to pass the MS-600 exam as I just said.
A passing grade, that's 70% or higher on
the exam.
Now, let's talk about the process of
creating the exam.
The first step in the life cycle is the
the job task analysis. That's performed
by the JTA group. This group is is a
group of subject matter experts who have
come up with the universe of all the
different topics that developers could
know in the different subject areas. And
this is all about the possible content
that you could have to know
to be a certified Microsoft Teams
application developer.
The JTA process is going to result in a
gigantic spreadsheet that contains all
the the items from the working uh group
that segmented into different workloads.
Things like Microsoft identity,
Microsoft Graph, Microsoft Teams,
SharePoint, as well as different
development, testing, and monitoring of
your Microsoft 365 apps.
Now, that spreadsheet is generated from
the JTA process. That's given to another
group called the objective design group
or the OD group. This group is a much
smaller group of people who take the
work from the JTA group and they refine
the list down to things that people
really need to be tested on to ensure
that these candidates
they are who they say they are and they
can actually do the things that they say
they can do.
And the output of the objective domain
group, that's another gigantic
spreadsheet where each row in the
spreadsheet represents a different topic
that developers should know.
So, at this point, we've got two
spreadsheets, the JTA spreadsheet and
the OD spreadsheet. Now, the OD
spreadsheet, that contains a subset of
all the stuff from the JTA spreadsheet
and it represents the things that you
might find on the exam.
Now, the OD spreadsheet is the spec for
what Microsoft wants to call a Microsoft
365 certified Microsoft Teams
application developer associate. This
spreadsheet is the foundation for
creating the ecosystem for the
certification.
Now, there's some professional exam
question writers who are going to write
all the questions to test the developer
knowledge on these specific topics. They
use the OD spreadsheet as a spec or a
design doc. They create a bank of
questions for each line item and they
throw them into the bucket for that
workload.
The questions you get on the exam are
randomized. So, your exam may be
different than someone else's exam.
Now, the OD spreadsheet is also given to
another group of people who build
instructor-led exam prep uh courses.
This course is provided to vendors and
Microsoft certified trainers to offer to
their customers. These customers are
prospective developers like you who are
planning to take the exam.
And then finally, they give the OD
spreadsheet to another group of people
who use it to create self-paced learning
resources on Microsoft Learning's
website, as well. Microsoft Learn has a
bunch of resources that you can use to
learn at your own pace for free.
Okay, that wraps up our discussion on
how Microsoft creates the different
certifications. In a future lesson, I'll
explain how I was involved in this
process and why you can trust me to
successfully get you prepared using this
course for the exam. Now, let's head to
the next lesson and talk more about the
exam, as that's what this course is all
about. So, I'll see you in the next
lesson.