I had the honor attending the Beta session (rotation 2) of the Microsoft Certified Master SharePoint Server 2007 program this past month. R2, as it was affectionately called, was the first SharePoint MCM class that was open to people outside of Microsoft. The MCM certification class is 3 weeks long.

It is hard to imagine going to class for 3 weeks. In many ways, this was the single largest educational commitment that I’ve made since graduate school. First, I needed to be firmly convinced of my personal learning potential. Then, I needed to clear my schedule at work (let alone get buyoff). And, finally, I needed to clear my schedule at home. It’s pretty hard to tell folks that you are going to be unavailable for 3 weeks. This is a crucial point that I will dive into a little bit further down.

No matter how much planning and preparation you do, start dates always arrive faster than you anticipate. March 16th was no different.

The first hour of class was pretty standard stuff – intros, logistics, and class miscellany. From the intros, it was pretty clear that everyone in the room was a SharePoint expert, most with 4-5+ years of experience with SharePoint. My teammates practically came from far and near (Germany, Holland, India, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the US) and everyone brought a different set of skills. It was a good 50/50 mix of Microsoft and external candidates. The class was extremely diversified - we had developers, instructors, consultants, service providers, support engineers, architects. In all – 16 people, each bringing knowledge to the table.

Intros were the easiest part of the course... we dove into the first subject and from then on we were all chugging along at full steam.

The course material was excellent. The Alpha team (R1) did a great job of not only piecing together a very comprehensive set of topics but, in many cases, complimenting the class material with equally good lab sessions. Each day was packed with materials, labs, and general free-form discussions. Evenings were often occupied with studying and more free-form discussions. Weekends were reserved for group study, discussions, catching up on labs, and last second test prep. (My dog Asta came along during weekends – she loved the MCM vibe!)

Life on as a MCM candidate is interesting. You will spend most of those 3 weeks in the classroom. Class starts at 8am. Lunch is 45 minutes long. Class usually came to a close around 6pm. General studying, reading, and labs would tack on a few more hours. From my perspective, class was a full day’s worth of work + some more. I would start the day around 6am and finally hit the sack somewhere around 12:30 or 1:00am. If by any chance I had the committed to the wacky idea of “work 8 hours after class”, I would have failed miserably on both ends. I barely had enough time for the class, let alone trying to juggle other things. The MCM class requires your dedicated attention.

Is it all work and no play? No. We did go out to dinner a couple of times, we met with the product team one afternoon, and not all days were jammed pack. It was nice to socialize but when it came down to it, everyone was focused. The intensity comes from the desire to be successful. The instructors and the program provide a lot of valuable information. The instructors are there to help you both broaden and sharpen your skill set. They don’t teach to the tests themselves. Knowing this, everyone can easily see that it’s their responsibility to cover everything. It’s the 4,000+ pages of suggested pre-reading materials, it’s the slide decks, it’s the labs, it’s the conversations with the instructors and your fellow teammates… in short, you have a lot of information to cover in a short period...

What about the exams? There are 3 written exams and 1 qualification lab. The written exams were thorough and often times very draining. I felt sorry for the instructors that came in for the session immediately following an exam. The qual lab was the final exam designed to test your experience with the product from a very hands on perspective. The qual lab exam was the most intense exam I’ve taken since college (for the record, AE 473 Structural Dynamics lasted over 4 hours and will probably always hold the top spot). With the exception of bio breaks and fetching some water, I didn’t leave my seat. 12 hours of SharePoint hands on testing. Brutal, I tell ya. When the time limit was hit, I think we all put down our proverbial pencils and let out a sigh – it was somewhere between relief and exhaustion. It was a long hard 3 weeks and reaching the end of the qual lab was in itself a pretty monumental task if you look at everything that you had to do from start to finish. No matter what the final individual results, everyone had done a great job.

In many ways, what I’m driving at is the MCM program is not for the faint of heart. It’s not a place to learn about SharePoint. It’s not a boot camp. If you happen to believe this course would be a good way to get some fundamentals, you’re wasting your time and money. The class is about refining and building upon your experiences. If you’ve been around me long enough, I’m sure you’ve heard me say that SharePoint is more like an ecological system; it’s not just an application. It touches on so many pieces that are within your infrastructure and it can be utilized in million different ways. The Masters class will help you learn more about SharePoint, have no doubt. More importantly, though, you will learn how to clearly understand what you don’t know so that you can be smart about not blindly neglecting something or taking the time to explore that region. That’s what makes this certification program extremely valuable.

The master certification program is a great technical program. The MCM SharePoint team (the lead, the instructors, and support staff) did a fantastic job of putting together a solid set of instructors, topics, and labs. Yes, there were some beta hiccups, but they didn’t impact the overall delivery and success of the course. Well done and thank you!

Interested in becoming a SharePoint Master? I wanted to offer some tips to those considering MCM…

• You have to be confident in your talents across the wide spectrum that is SharePoint. This class is designed to touch on all aspects of the platform.
  
• The class requires dedication. Don’t think you are going to fly home on weekends. Don’t think you can do your full time job after class. At the start of the post I mentioned that you have to clear your personal and business schedule – live by that rule. You will need the “isolation” from other daily chores.
  
• Stay in a place that is close to campus. Eliminate the hassle of Seattle-area traffic.
  
• The last two bullets are seemingly unrelated but can be easily overlooked – especially if you live in the area or perhaps decide you want to stay in downtown Seattle. For example, I live in Seattle – not too far from the Redmond campus. Although I had the luxury of sleeping at home, it was truly hard to remove myself from common household duties (especially one particular weekend). After all, I was still at home and it’s super hard to say “just pretend I’m not here”. This is the one area where I felt the remote students had a clear advantage. If I had to do it over again, I probably would rent an apt and ask my family to bear with my absence. Sounds kind of harsh, but juggling family and an intense class was extremely challenging. And top of all of that… I had to deal with the 520 commute
  
• Work as a team with your classmates and enjoy the camaraderie. I have to say this was the one thing that really enjoyed about working with my classmates. Everyone was willing to help everyone else.
  
• Bring a mouse. This is simple a speed optimization that you can leverage when it comes to time take the qual lab. I wish I had one about midway through the day... :)
  
• If traveling across time zones, give yourself as much lead as possible to eliminate the jet lag. Once you dive into the deep technical stuff, it probably would be super helpful to not worry about jet lag.

It was a great experience. I’m glad to have taken the class and I have to thank my family and my teammates at ShareSquared – everyone pitched in one form or another so that I could concentrate on the MCM class free of (most) distractions.

-Maurice
Microsoft Certified Master for SharePoint 2007