PerformancePoint Certification Exam
Posted by Alan on March 28, 2008
So I passed my Microsoft certification exam today for PerformancePoint Server. The exam consisted of 44 questions with 700 points out of a possible 1000 being a pass. The questions were weighted heavily (and I do mean heavily) towards the Planning components of the system. What did I get? Well that is a secret, but I am very happy with the results.
My primary study books were The Rational Guide to Planning With Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 and The Rational Guide to Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007.
Time to congratulate myself with a nice frosty cold beer.
Neeta Patil said
I am also planning for PPS Certication. Can you please help for getting study material.
Would be glad if you can guide me for the same and share your experience about exam.
Thanks,
Neeta
Alan said
Neeta,
A few things I can suggest:
1. Right now Microsoft has a program going on where if you take an exam once and fail it you can take it again at no additional charge. I don’t know if that is valid for all areas of the world. But taking the exam once in real life will also help you prepare. You might think about studying for it and then taking the exam and plan to re-take it if you don’t pass about 3 or 4 days later (after studying some more). More information on the Second Chance program can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/secondshot/default.mspx.
2. Get the 2 books I reference in my post. They are excellent.
3. Learn about rules and how they operate. Learn about the different type of models and what they are for.
4. Make sure you know Planning/Modeling. About 75% of the exam is this with only about 25% being the Monitoring/Analysis.
5. Don’t sweat the exam. It is difficult and asks some obscure questions. But we are lucky now that PPS is still new and they have not had time to turn this into an exam the likes of SQL Server or the like.
Good luck with it.
Alan
Ajay Singh said
Hi Allan,
I just passed Microsoft certification exam for PerformancePoint Server.
Can you please suggest other certifications that will be good from career perspective along with the PPS Certification?
Thanks,
Ajay
Alan said
That is a tough thing for me to answer without knowing where you want to be. If your career goals involve doing PPS implementations, then I would also look at the Data Visualization certification and some certifications involving Analysis Services and SQL Server and SharePoint. Good luck.