Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Tips for Certification in Microsoft Project 2010 (Exam 70-178)

This blog entry is a repeat and a  salute to those of you considering certification in Project 2010. There is no faster or better way to validate your product knowledge. Before you rush out to take the exam, I have a few tips and resources to help you pass it.
I have taken and passed the exam, so I am prohibited from giving out answers, but I can give you the topics that are covered in in the exam. Microsoft calls the exam topics the Objective Domain (O.D.). The O.D. serves as a study guide and helps you identify any weak product knowledge areas. The Microsoft Project User’s Group has the O.D. online here. Get it!
Here are a few tips to give you direction in your studies:
1. Understand Task Types. I don’t mean just identify them. Understand how they relate to each other and the impacts to a task’s work, duration, or resource assignments when one of these three variables changes. Do you know how the changes affect the project?
2. Understand the Fluid User Interface. You and I call it the Ribbon. Not all of Project’s commands are in the Ribbon. Do you know what they are, where they are, and how to get missing commands into the Ribbon?
3. Understand Scheduling Modes. Know the advantages and disadvantages of manual and automatic scheduling. Their settings in Project will affect how the modes work and are utilized by Project’s scheduling engine. Schedule Modes are a huge departure from the previous versions of Project. Can you describe scheduling scenarios affected by them?
4. Really understand how to baseline the project. Can you baseline a single task? Can you create a “phased” baseline? Do you know how to use Project’s baselining capabilities to conduct “what if” planning? If not, better study up on the subject!
Here is the best resource I can offer you: Take Versatile’s Microsoft Project training! You can sign up for it here. The “Mastering Microsoft Project 2010” course addresses every topic in the Objective Domain and has been validated and endorsed by Microsoft. Check it out! Click on the image below and look for it’s description.
70-178_ms_projects_highres clean
If you’d like more information on this, please call Jon Wagner at (206) 417-2295.