Microsoft has introduced a new way of renewing certifications recently (well, December 2020) in that you don’t have to retake the whole exam.
This is invaluable for those, like me, with limited time. In the past, you had to spend at least a couple of hours either virtually or in-person re-taking the whole exam. This change means you have to answer 20-25 questions and extend your certification by a year. Such a time-saving!
But, it means I have not re-visited my mind maps in light of the changes in the functionality that comes because Microsoft is investing and continually improving the products.
This became apparent when I did the re-take for MB-210 - Sales. I thought I would take the exam and failed (bruising my ego). The re-take was full of Customer Insights and Sales Insights topics, which I don’t remember when I took the exam. The focus on these topics has certainly increased since I took my exam, nearly 2 years ago, and this is clear if you take a look at the exam outline.
So, what I thought I would do was update my mind maps as I re-new my certifications. This will ensure I refresh my understanding, and hopefully will be of more help to those out there that like this type of aide-memoire for their learning.
Also, my use of Freeplane was limiting, you had to download a program to access, and in these days of everything being online, I have always been on the lookout for a (free) alternative. Coggle has given me just that. I can make as many public diagrams as I like.
As I update the mind-maps, I will post links here and some notes on the catchup exam.
MB-210: Sales
The re-take included a lot of Sales Insights and Customer Insights. Customer Insights is not mentioned that much in the exam outline, apart from the user case for it, so I assume the re-take has not caught up with it. New stuff for me was around the forecasting, which is much improved.
PL-600: Power Platform Solution Architect
This wasn’t a retake, rather the first time in a while I have sat an exam. I have done MB-600, the Dynamics CE equivalent, but have held back doing this one for various reasons, mostly finding the time.
To be honest, I found it very similar to MB-600. The content of the exam outline had very little link to the questions asked. You need to know a lot about the Power Platform - know enough about all the parts to be dangerous.
You won’t learn this in my mindmap above, it will be by being experienced, having hands-on experience with various aspects of the platform and doing the other exams which lead you to the PL-600. Matt Collins-Jones has a great audio description of the exam here so shout out to him.