Microsoft has made fundamental changes to its certification program. The previous accolades MCSE and MCSD are back - but now they stand for something different.

Just as we were getting used to the current ladder of developer certifications, see Microsoft Developer Certifications Demystified for an overview, Microsoft has announced a new set.

The first to come on stream will be MCSE (now standing for Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert) Private Cloud and you can already buy vouchers with "special pricing" for the new exams that are expected to be available in June:

• Exam 246: Private Cloud Monitoring and Operations with System Center 2012
• Exam 247: Private Cloud Configuration and Deployment with System Center 2012

To earn the new MCSE you also need a chunk of the existing MCSA: Windows Server 2008 as Step 1 of the process.

For developers the new certification with be MCSD, Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer, which will be available with the next release of Visual Studio. Microsoft advises:

If you are a developer using Visual Studio 2010, we recommend earning a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) certification on Visual Studio 2010 today. In most cases, upgrade paths will be available that will shorten your path to the corresponding MCSD certification, once it is available.

So is this an incentive to tackle today's set of exams?

Some developers have been discouraged by the idea that as soon as they gain a certification (which involves effort and expense) it is already well through its shelf life.

Changing the certification title, even if it does hark back to a well known and well respected one, surely isn't helpful.

Microsoft seems to be in an era when it just doesn't seem to care if change upsets developers.

More Information

Microsoft Certification Overview

Related Articles

Microsoft Developer Certifications Demystified

Microsoft exams price rise

Microsoft Celebrates 20 Years of Certification

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