New Microsoft Partner Competency is coming for custom development shops!
Many companies are deeply embedded in pure
Microsoft development such as thycotic but do
not necessarily use any of the Microsoft server products (MS CMS, BizTalk,
SharePoint) in their solutions. These shops are typically using custom
WinForm/ASP.NET, C#/VB.NET and a Microsoft SQL Server back end. This makes
the Integrated E-Business Solutions competency impossible to attain and most of
the others are not a good match either. Another option sounds
like the ISV competency but this doesn't always fit either ... do you build
a product to sell that can be tested? Often times the "product" is custom
software that you don't own and can't share with anyone.
The solution? (I didn't know about this
until I asked at the Microsoft Partner booth at PDC!) ... Microsoft has
introduced a new competency for Microsoft Partners that will go live in
late October 2005 - the Custom
Development Solutions competency.
This is a much needed competency and matches all those custom development
shops out there!
Requirements for the Custom Development Solutions
competency:
- 2 MCADs or MCSDs
(the website then talks
about 1 exam from the listed so maybe MCP is sufficient?)
- 3 customer references about implementations
using required technology
The competency also makes mention of 3
specializations (Application Infrastructure Development, Smart Client
Development, Web Development) but doesn't go into much detail on their
importance.
Jonathan Cogley is the CEO and founder of
thycotic, a .NET consulting company and ISV in Washington DC. Our product,
myclockwatcher.com is a time and expense tracking system specialized for
billable professionals built on ASP.NET, C# and SQL Server using Test Driven
Development.