11th MVP Award Rewarded

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I am actually on vacation, but as I sit here under the summer sun, toes in the pool and a cold drink within reach, I have been waiting for that email confirming that I’ve been awarded my 11th Microsoft MVP Award! As last year, I am being awarded in both the Teams and Copilot category. To say I’m humbled would be an understatement. Being part of the global Microsoft MVP community for over a decade now has been an incredible journey, filled with learning, sharing, speaking, and connecting with passionate technologists from every corner of the world. What is the Microsoft MVP Award? The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award is given to technology experts who share their knowledge and real-world expertise with communities. With fewer than 4,000 MVPs worldwide, it’s an honor to be part of such a vibrant and dedicated group. MVPs contribute through speaking engagements, writing, open-source contributions, and helping others online and offline. You can learn more about the progra...

A thought or two on the upcoming 74-322 exam

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I made the "mistake" of registring for the 74-322 Microsoft Lync Server 2010 – Advanced Design and Deployment exam this week. And I probably have to retake it when it is released. Yes, you heard me, I probably have to retake it. I am a bit disappointed in my test center, because I asked if it was in release code or still beta. The told me it was released, so I wasn't ready for the beta setting at all.

It was a very good exam, and I was under the impression it will measure the right kind of knowledge (which I thought I had) for Gold competency partnership with Microsoft unified communication.

So why did I fail, was it too hard? Was I not prepared? Well, to be honest, The latter might be the answer. The reason I think I failed was the sheer time pressure I was under during the test. The test is still under Beta, and it has obviously not been adjusted for the amount of questions, nor was I given the extra 30 minutes we usually get when the exam is not in our native language.

The exam is supposed to test your advanced understanding of a Lync deployment, and I was given a lot of questions with a lot to read. I just didn't have enough time to read absolutely everything thorough enough to get the proper understanding of the questions. Non of the questions were too hard, and in a real life scenario it would be easy to find the answers to the customers questions just by going through the Technet Library on Lync.

I am not going to break any NDA's so I won't go into any details, but be prepared to be tested in advanced and detailed understanding of your Lync deployments. Take a good look on the advanced configuration scenarios on Technet and understand them. Then you will be on your way to passing this exam as well.

There is a lesson or two I learned in this though: I will obviously think twice about taking a Beta exam again, and I also know which gaps to fill to pass the exam once it is released.