The MCSD Save IT scheme has been dis-continued, however, the individual courses are still offered, many of which still qualify for standard Save IT scheme


Microsoft Certified Solution Developer

The MCSD Certification is aimed at developers who will analyze and design solutions with Microsoft technologies and platforms.. They will be experienced developers and will be responsible for the whole development cycle from analysis requirements through to defining and developing the solution.

There are two tracks for MCSD for .NET:

Visual Basic .NET

C# .NET

Some of the exams and courses are generic, but some will be specific to the chosen development environment/language.

Certification can be achieved by attending between 33 and 35 days of training depending upon which elective exam is to be taken, and assuming that the MCSD Pre-requisites are already met.

Candidate Experience

Candidates for the MCSD Certification should have at least 2 years experience in developing and maintaining solutions and applications.

Candidates should also meet certain pre-requisite skill levels before attending the MCSD courses.

Pre-Requisites To MCSD Courses
The following skills are pre-requisite skills to the MCSD Courses that lead to certification:

HTML

VB.NET Programming

SQL Data Manipulation

XML Schemas and XSLT

The Exams

To become a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) for .NET, delegates need to pass five separate examinations, 4 core (Web, Windows & XML Web Services Application Development, and Solution Architecture) examinations and one elective examination.

Core Exams:

Web Application Development (Choose between a VB.NET or C# .NET route):

70-305    Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

70-315    Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

Windows Application Development (Choose between a VB.NET or C# .NET route):

70-306    Developing and Implementing Windows-based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

70-316    Developing and Implementing Windows-based Applications with Microsoft C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

XML Web Services and Server Components Development (Choose between a VB.NET or C# .NET route):

70-310    Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

70-320    Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

Windows Application Development (Choose between a VB.NET or C# .NET route):

70-300    Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures

Elective Exams:
There are six possible electives for the MCSD certification.

One of the following:

70-229    Designing & Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition

70-230    Designing & Implementing Solutions With Biztalk Server 2000 Enterprise Edition

70-234    Designing & Implementing solutions with Microsoft Commerce Server

70-301    Managing, Organising, and Delivering IT Projects by Using Microsoft Solutions Framework 3.0

70-330    Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET

70-340    Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft C# .NET

PTR Courses

Pre-Requisite Skills
The pre-requisite skills to MCSD Courses can be achieved by attending the following PTR courses:

HTML Web Authoring (2 Days)

Fundamentals of VB.NET Level 1 (2 Days) and Programming VB.NET Level 2 (3 Days)

SQL For Microsoft SQL Server (2 Days)

XML Fundamentals (2 Days)

Advanced XML: Schema Design (1 Day)

Advanced XML: XSLT (3 Days)

MCSD Courses
The following PTR Courses are available to lead to MCSD Certification.

ASP.NET & The .NET Framework Level 1 (2 Days)

ASP.NET: Web Pages & Web Services Level 2 (3 Days)

ASP.NET: Building & Deploying Web Applications Level 3 (3 Days)

ADO.NET Using VB.NET (3 Days)

Developing Microsoft .NET Applications for Windows (VB.NET) (3 Days)

Developing Microsoft .NET Applications for Windows (C#.NET) (3 Days)

XML Parsing Using VB.NET & .NET

Web Services Using VB.NET & ASP.NET

Enterprise Development In VB.NET

Analyzing Requirements & Defining Microsoft .NET Solutions Architectures (5 Days)

SQL Server 2000: Database Design (5 Days)

Deploying and Managing Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 (2 Days)

Fundamentals of Developing a Business-to-Consumer Solution with Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 (4 Days)

Microsoft Solutions Framework Essentials (3 Days)

Implementing Security For Applications (5 Days)