Certification on LinkeD365 Blog

AZ-900 - Azure Fundamentals

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As a Power Platform / D365 solution architect a lot of the time you are being asked to think about integrations and creating applications on the outside of the core platform. Azure, for the most part, is the place where we will go to host external integrations and apps and is a smorgasbord of services to assist in making great applications.

To keep myself progressing, I wanted to test my knowledge on Azure, and learn some of the fundamentals for the services or configurations that I have not come across (looking at you Azure Sphere).

As usual, I made a mind map. These visual representations are an aide-mémoire for me, forcing a commitment to memory by writing down key points and a quick way of reviewing before the exam. No guarantee of accuracy or completeness is inferred, if it triggers in you something that you didn’t know or forgotten, that is enough.

TL;DR

I did the Azure Fundamentals exam & made a mind map.

My Thoughts

For a fundamentals exam, I found the topic wide-reaching, touching every part of Azure. I assume that this is because of my lack of experience in various parts of the vast eco-system that is Azure. You do need to cover every aspect, as the questions are random. Getting a couple of questions on topics you are not familiar with maybe the difference between a pass and a fail.

The learning path is mostly excellent, though there were a few missing parts that I had to research myself, particularly around Azure Synapse, Databricks & HDInsight.

Updates to Mind Maps

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft has introduced a new way of renewing certifications recently (well, December 2020) in that you don’t have to retake the whole exam.

This is invaluable for those, like me, with limited time. In the past, you had to spend at least a couple of hours either virtually or in-person re-taking the whole exam. This change means you have to answer 20-25 questions and extend your certification by a year. Such a time-saving!

But, it means I have not re-visited my mind maps in light of the changes in the functionality that comes because Microsoft is investing and continually improving the products.

This became apparent when I did the re-take for MB-210 - Sales. I thought I would take the exam and failed (bruising my ego). The re-take was full of Customer Insights and Sales Insights topics, which I don’t remember when I took the exam. The focus on these topics has certainly increased since I took my exam, nearly 2 years ago, and this is clear if you take a look at the exam outline.

So, what I thought I would do was update my mind maps as I re-new my certifications. This will ensure I refresh my understanding, and hopefully will be of more help to those out there that like this type of aide-memoire for their learning.

Also, my use of Freeplane was limiting, you had to download a program to access, and in these days of everything being online, I have always been on the lookout for a (free) alternative. Coggle has given me just that. I can make as many public diagrams as I like.

As I update the mind-maps, I will post links here and some notes on the catchup exam.

MB-210: Sales

Mindmap

The re-take included a lot of Sales Insights and Customer Insights. Customer Insights is not mentioned that much in the exam outline, apart from the user case for it, so I assume the re-take has not caught up with it. New stuff for me was around the forecasting, which is much improved.

PL-600: Power Platform Solution Architect

Mindmap

This wasn’t a retake, rather the first time in a while I have sat an exam. I have done MB-600, the Dynamics CE equivalent, but have held back doing this one for various reasons, mostly finding the time.
To be honest, I found it very similar to MB-600. The content of the exam outline had very little link to the questions asked. You need to know a lot about the Power Platform - know enough about all the parts to be dangerous.
You won’t learn this in my mindmap above, it will be by being experienced, having hands-on experience with various aspects of the platform and doing the other exams which lead you to the PL-600. Matt Collins-Jones has a great audio description of the exam here so shout out to him.

PL-200 - Power Platform Functional Consultant

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I have finally got round to taking this exam, I have only just (well it feels like) passed MB-200 and so when this exam was announced, I was a bit “meh” about it.

Thankfully, the amazing Julian Sharp asked for people to review his new book Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant: PL-200 Exam Guide and I jumped at the opportunity.

As ever, I used Mind Maps to assist me in remembering key facts, the one for PL-200 can be found here.

The Exam

It is a wide-ranging exam, from canvas app button functionality to recommended data repositories and AI builder techniques and everything in-between. I found my selection of questions focused on Business Process Flows quite a lot as well as Power Virtual agents.

Basically, ensure you read the exam outline and know the fundamentals of each area.

The Book

Julian has done a wonderful job bringing all the aspects of the exam in one readable volume. His understanding of the intricacies of the Power Platform shines through strong with every page.

This is not a mere “learn these facts to win” book, the reader is given a deep understanding of the platform. Starting with ensuring his readers get practical, hands-on experience by signing up a for a trail, he then guides them through what to expect from the exam. He also highlights some of the history, tools and initiatives in and around the platform to ensure the reader has a rounded understanding.

Each area of the exam outline is then documented to a great extent, with screenshots and steps to complete the task at hand. Each chapter has a series of questions to test your knowledge. As a seasoned Power Platform professional, some of these were tricky and ensured I had the knowledge required to pass.

Overall, a great book, which I highly encourage people to purchase if they are working towards this qualification.

MB-220 - Dynamics 365 Marketing

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft has 4 main functional exams, each focused on a separate application. Sales, Service and Field Service are all parts of the suite that I have worked in anger (deployed at a client) but the fourth in the series, Marketing is an application that I never have had much involvement with.

Yes, I know what it is capable of, as a Technical or Solution Architect, you are expected to at least know the concepts of every application, but the stars never lined up to give me an exposure of it in a real-world situation.

TLDR;

Short description of my experience of the D365 Marketing exam and links to my Mind Map.

Exam Content

Microsoft has changed the content to include Customer Voice rather than Forms Pro recently, so make sure you are looking at the correct version.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/certifications/exams/mb-220

Like all the new exam, Marketing starts with some scenarios. Each lengthy scenario discusses a project you, as the Marketing Functional consultant is to be part of, then asks you various questions on the aspects of the project. I have found that some are relevant, and some are just fluff, like the person who wrote the question was paid by the word. As I gain experience in these exams, I skim each of the pages describing the project before digging into the questions. The questions sometimes just have a tenuous link to the project, others you need to rely on the content provided, to determine the customer’s views on compliance, for example.

The rest of the questions do cover the whole remit of marketing. You work through creating segments, sending out emails, creating events, defining subscription centres and generating leads. I didn’t receive anything on the GPDR constraints available, though that might be because of the exam is global rather than EU focused or just the luck of the draw.

I didn’t get any content block questions or advanced template creation topics either. They are in the outline, so again, luck of the draw.

Like the rest of my exams, I created a Mind Map for Marketing, which is the way I process content to ensure I have covered everything and a quick revision aid hours before the exam. This is available here.

PL-100 - Microsoft Power Platform App Maker

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

One of the newest exams on the block is PL-100 Power Platform App Maker. This exam is targeted at individuals who are currently making apps for their company and want to certify their talents. I saw this exam similar to the MB-200 exam, which is soon to be replaced with PL-200, but I was wrong.

The qualification associated with this exam is Power Platform App Maker Associate. The exam is still in beta, so hopefully I will add this qualification to my list when it comes out of beta.

PL-100 is really an exam for the citizen developer, a doer. It delves deep into several areas, beyond a functional consultant role and more into the nitty-gritty of developing across the Power Platform. It is still CDS (or whatever it is called today) heavy, with no mention of SharePoint apart from in one of the scenarios.

It also covers everything, unlike EY when he took it with only a few questions on the topic, I got several Power BI questions. This is definitely not in my comfort zone, so I am glad I did some research on it before I took the exam.

One thing it didn’t really cover, even though it says in the Skills Outline that it is 10-15% of the exam was the soft skills. Nothing really on high-level design, components, or functional skills. May have been the random set of questions I got. Like EY didn’t get Power BI, maybe I was “lucky” not to get questions on these.

Like the rest of my exams, I did a Mind Map to help me ensure I have covered all the basis for the exam, driven by the skills outline. The Mind Map for PL-100 is here.

MB-400: Power Apps + Dynamics 365 Developer Associate Exam

Sat, 18 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This week, I am on holiday, meant to be in Egypt watching the kids swim in the Red Sea, drinking as much beer as I can & getting pink. As this didn’t happen, I decided to fit in an exam instead. Why not get another qualification instead?

MB-400, the new developer exam, was the one I was dreading, more so than MB-600 I did a couple of weeks back, as my hands-on development has really ground to a halt in the last couple of years, as I move towards the design / architecting side of Power Apps. I know the capabilities, but the syntax was something I had to revise, a lot.

My mind maps for this one are listed with the others here.

This exam, I owe a lot to Joe Griffin, the CRM Chap, his blog is here https://crmchap.co.uk/. He is writing a whole series of articles on this and it has just been announced, along with the legend Julian Sharp that he is creating a series of webinars to help people with the exam. Joe’s articles were a thorough revision set for me and opened some long-forgotten parts of the abundance which is the D365 dev landscape.

Also, Ivan Ficko, his blog https://dynamicsninja.blog/ was a great help when I was down a the dirty end, working out how to set up Webhooks.

Finally, the learning paths on Microsoft are pretty good, especially for Power Apps. The Exam has several listed here but I would advise working through all the Power Apps ones you can find, and practice.

This is one of the exams that you need experience, get out your trial environment, visual studio code & create a Javascript, PCF control and all the other parts.

Exam Content

There was a few surprises in the exam, most notably, the inclusion of F & O questions. You need to have a basic understanding of their capabilities.

PowerApps formulas were also in there and stumped me. Casting values was something I had not come across, as more of an old school Customer Engagement guy.

Ribbon Workbench also had a couple of questions and stretched my knowledge somewhat. There were the now usual groups of questions related to the scenario as well, all digging into aspects across the whole dev ecosystem.

Security, solutions, model driven, canvas, client scripting, PCF, Flow, BPFs all had at least one question as well.

Overall, it was tough. Tested my knowledge anyway, as a lay developer.

MB-600 : Microsoft Power Apps + Dynamics 365 Solution Architect (beta)

Sat, 04 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I sat the MB-600 exam, which for any aspiring Solution Architect in our world is the pinnacle qualification. Still in beta, so not sure how I got on, but thought I would share my thoughts while I still remember.

As part of my learning, I create mindmaps, it helps me focus my understanding and is quicker for me to review later for last-minute cramming sessions.

With the rest of the maps I have created, you can see them here.

These mind maps were based on the skills outline that is available here. Skills outlines with the other exams are a great resource for understanding what is in the exam, this is not the case for MB-600. The outline effectively gives you an understanding of the soft skills required.

The questions on the exam also covered most applications across the PowerPlatform. As a Solution Architect, you should have a generic view across all the platform and this is taken for granted in this exam. Even outside of the application is tested. Below is my memory of the areas that were covered, not going to be complete, but gives you an idea of the scope.

Power Platform
- Security
- Field level security
- Business Units
- Controls
- Development
  - How could you complete a simple dev exercise to complete a custom task
- Solutions and patches - This had a couple of questions, so worth understanding
- Data Import tools
Power Apps
- User cases
- Usage
D365 Customer Service
- Scenarios on its usage
- What is included OOTB
D365 Sales
- Scenarios for usage
- OOTB functionality
Other
- Marketing
- Gamification (This surprised me the most)

MS Certifications - Sharing my Mind Maps

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Over the last 3 years, I have completed 11 Microsoft certifications and have used various sources on the internet to get me through.

My method of remembering facts relies on completing a mind map. This way, I note down the key points (key to me anyway) for a subject and link them together, serving as a quick refresher on the day but forces me to fill out my knowledge as I research the content and develop my understanding.

Please don’t think that memorising these maps will be all you need to do to pass any of the exams. I share them to assist you in getting that certificate and maybe trigger something that you don’t understand so you can research that area more effectively. I also don’t guarantee that they are all accurate. The vagaries of time and my ineptitude will ensure they are not.

It goes without saying that practice is the best way of ensuring you have the right understanding of the product, but I have found that there are always areas where you have not come across, even if you have been working on an application for years. Microsoft never stops developing.

I will keep this page up to date as I complete more exams with the mind map and any resources I used, with the exam I took most recently at the top.

All the mind maps can be found here. I use Freeplane as my mind mapping tool of choice, because it is open source, free for unlimited maps, allows tweaking of styles etc and is not trying to sell you it’s bigger brother. There are others out there which offer increased functionality, but this works for me. You can import Mindmap files into most other services

PL-200 - Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant

Mind Map

This is the bigger brother, supposedly, of the PL-100 but I found them on the same level. More emphasis on the non-technical aspects but still covers a wide range of subjects, from Power BI to AI similar to PL-100. Full review & review of Julian Sharps excellent book which stimulated my learning is here.

PL-100 - Microsoft Power Platform App Maker

Mind Map

This is more than a functional exam, delves deep into the making experience and complexity of Canvas Apps. Includes a wide breadth of Power Platform technology from Power BI to AI Builder functionality. Full views are on a separate post here.

MB-400 - Microsoft Power Apps + Dynamics Developer

Mind Map

This is the developer exam, an extension of MB2-716 for modern times and covers all aspects of that exam and more. CRM Chap, Joe Griffin has a great series of posts about this one for you to revise with. My views on this are in a separate post here

MB-600 - Microsoft Power Apps + Dynamics 365 Solution Architect (beta)

Mind Map

This exam is the pinnacle of certifications for D365 / Power Platform at the moment. My views on this are shared in a separate post here

Resources for this one are rare, none that I found are a good representation of the exam I faced. It is still in beta, so as more people do it, and official training/courses become available I would expect this to improve.

MB-210 - Sales

Mind Map

Sales is my bread and butter, with lots of experience in what the life-cycle is etc, but the new parts, Sales Insights was new.

Again, I used Neil’s blog. Great insight, though I would also get an understanding of the minimum requirements for some services, which I wasn’t ready for.

The scenarios are full on too, though the advise is to read it through before tackling a question and re-read the sections before giving your answer

MB-240 - Field Service

Mind Map

Field service was a stretch goal for me, as I have never used it in anger on a client site. It is a relatively new product in the suite, but one that is getting a lot of traction in the D365 community.

I went into this exam thinking I was not prepared, but managed a decent pass with my learning. The exam itself is quite short, but did stretch my understanding.

My first resource, as always was Neil Parkhurst. He has a great series of posts on this exams predecessor, MB2-718 Whilst being slightly dated, it is still relevant.

Further, I went through the Microsoft Learn topics on Field Service here

MB-200 - Customer Engagement Core

As I have been working with D365 a while, I was very lazy when going into this one. I just assumed I knew it all, brushed up on the new stuff and went for it. Thankfully, this didn’t bite me in the ass.

I didn’t do a map for this one, but I reviewed the map for MB2-716 here.

I also review Neil’s posts on this one and @NZ365Guy videos on the subject on the OpenEdx course which are a great, particularly for the new stuff in the application, like Flows.

AZ-203 - Developing Solutions for Azure

Mind Map

I consider myself to be a lapsed developer. I love coding, but my career has taken myself into more of an advisor and designer than a “coder”. This exam was proof to myself that I could still run with the cool kids and also exposed me to a lot of the azure stack that I did not know.

As I was preparing for this exam back in January, to get an Azure Developer Associate certification, it swapped from 2 exams to 1, AZ-200 being the first, that is why they references to AZ-200 linger.

For this exam I was indebted to the course by Pluralsight which I am thankful that I had access to.

From a D365 developer point of view, this was a tough one. It was a step above and beyond what I expected. There is so much content, each area to a decent understanding level it really taxed me. This is the first exam to push the time I had available to complete it, with a large number of questions and a lot of deliberation.

MB2-718 - D365 for Customer Service

Mind Map

This was the last of the older exams I took before Microsoft revamped the exams. Neil Parkhurst has an excellent blog on this one, which was my source. I have been doing service for quite a while, but the intricacies around SLAs and Queues were something that I had to learn. It also contained Unified Service Desk and Voice of the Customer, both subjects I had not come across.

MB2-716 - Customisation & Configuration

Mind Map

Another old exam, and something I take pride in as it is my bread and butter. This was another re-cap of my understanding, particularly around the bits where I would just Google when I came across it in my day job. Neil Parkhurst again provided the detail which saw me through. Bits on auditing and configuring email etc. were items that I knew the fundamentals, but Microsoft has a knack of slightly tweaking the wording giving a separate answer, so it is vital you know your stuff.

MB2-715 - D365 Online Deployment

Mind Map

I am fortunate to have come to D365 after online was the chosen deployment method. I have not got nightmares like some older community members around installing and configuring on-premise solutions. This is another exam that is part of my day-to-day role so it was just a matter of brushing up on where I did not have enough knowledge.

Neil Parkhurst (who doesn’t owe Neil a beer?) has it covered again. There is a lot you take for granted here, that you need to get to grips with, such as licensing, what you need to do in the Office Admin portal vs D365 admin, Email configuration and integration with other apps like SharePoint.