Back in the old good days, Microsoft Learning used to have some practice tests for the Dynamics CRM 4.0 certification exams. For a long time they were a staple of the CRM 4.0 training & certification bootcamps I ran for Microsoft: at the end of one of the classes I’d walk through them, ask the students what the answers were, make it an interactive learning session. It was fun and I think many of the students learned from it. As I always told my students, the exams were not awesome, but they were good. There were some typos and a few bad questions, but all in all a lot better having something than nothing…and there are still no purchasable practice tests!

Recently I started experimenting with a test authoring tool included in an Adobe app called Captivate. Here’s my first public unveiling of some practice test content for the Dynamics CRM certification exams. I’m not very good yet at the test authoring tool, but I think the content is good, in the sense of being close to what the actual test questions are like.

Links to all of the practice tests can be found on the new Certification Prep page hosted on www.IMGinc.net

Let me know what you think!

It’s been a while since I posted an “all-up CRM 4 training and certification” article, so without further ado, here it is, starting with the core skills areas:

Applications

• Course: Applications in Dynamics CRM 4.0
• Link to MS course page: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/syllabi/8913b.aspx
• Certification exam: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/dynamics/632.mspx
• Editorial comments:  The Applications class is quite good (if you get a good instructor!), but it is not sufficient to prepare you for the Applications exam, which in my opinion is the hardest of the three core exams to pass! You will need a lot of Dynamics CRM experience, and you will need to know the web and Outlook UI’s very well to pass the exam.
• Here’s an article I wrote on this exam that a lot of people tell me they’ve found helpful.
• Links to all of the practice tests can be found on the new Certification Prep page hosted on www.IMGinc.net

Customization

• Course: Customization and Configuration in Dynamics CRM 4.0
• Link to MS course page: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/syllabi/8912a.aspx
• Certification exam: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/dynamics/631.mspx
• Editorial comments: The Customization and Configuration exam is an excellent exam, in my opinion: it’s relatively difficult, but it’s well-written and it tests concepts that you actually need to know to be an effective customizer and configurator (if that’s how you’d say it). The Configuration part is what’s new in the 4.0 exam compared to the 3.0 version: to pass this exam, you need to understand business units and security, system settings, and multi-currency and multi-lingual issues (in addition to the core customization topics).  
• Here’s an article I posted recently specifically on The Dynamics CRM Customization Platform and Exam 30-631. (But be forwarned: I reveal my true inner geek in the videos linked to from the article) 
• Links to all of the practice tests can be found on the new Certification Prep page hosted on www.IMGinc.net

Installation

• Course: Installation and Deployment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
• Link to MS course page: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/syllabi/8911B.aspx
• Certification exam: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/dynamics/633.mspx
• Editorial comments: Installation and Deployment is an OK exam – not fantastic but not terrible either. The trick about this exam is preparing for it. I always emphasize to students that the single best resource for preparing for this exam is the Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide – not the Microsoft Official Curriculum course. Memorize the Planning and Installing chapters and you will get at least a 40% on the exam (of course, you need another 30 points to pass it!)
• Here’s an article I wrote specifically on preparing for the Installation and Deployment exam.  
• Links to all of the practice tests can be found on the new Certification Prep page hosted on www.IMGinc.net

Dynamics CRM 4.0 is a great CRM. It’s got great integration with Outlook, is available in both hosted and on-premise versions, and has excellent out of the box support for the primary “CRM” scenarios: sales, marketing, service management, service scheduling. The hosted (”CRM Online”) version even has a very nice new implementation of Internet Marketing features!

In my opinion, however, the most exciting role for Dynamics CRM is as a “customization platform”. Recently we’ve started to see people referring to it as “XRM”, with the “X” indicating its adaptibility to any line of business application area. Essentially, if you need to build a database application and use the Internet as your delivery platform, you should consider Dynamics CRM as your app foundation.  

I’m excited about the next release; I think Microsoft is really going to push this XRM concept, and make the platform both easier and more powerfully extensible. But in the meantime, we’ve got the 4.0 release, and if you are new to customizing CRM, or if you need to pass the Dynamics CRM 4.0 Customization and Configuration exam (30-631), you might want to watch some of my videos on the topic.

A note on these recordings: some of them were made as part of the Partner Readiness CRM Certification Bootcamps I ran for Microsoft in 2007 and 2008.  But don’t be put off by the exam-specific discussion even if you don’t give a hoot about passing an exam. The customization exam for crm 4 is very good, in the sense that it tests things customizers REALLY DO need to know. So the topics covered in these certification-centric recordings I made are important whether you care about certification or not.

Watch this video for Dynamics CRM 4.0 core customization concepts. This is a good 30-minute (or so) overview of the various ways you can customize Dynamics CRM: form and view customizations, entity and attribute customizations, entity relationships and mappings, workflows, .NET extensions.

Here’s a detailed (and longer!) video that covers configuration topics (security roles, business units, system settings). Even though they aren’t really customization topics, per se, you really do need to understand them to be an effective customizer of Dynamics CRM. The first 10 minutes covers program-related information, so you can skip that if you want to go directly to the meat of the content!

Here’s the rest of the content for the full-blown training sessions from the partner readiness sessions, all in the detailed (and long) format similar to the configuration recording above:

Session 2: Organizational Settings
Session 3: Customization Overview, Forms and Views, Entities and Attributes
Session 4: Entity Relationships, Mappings, Deployment Manager, Translating and Renaming Entities 

 And finally, if you really DO want to take the exam, click this link for a walk-through of a 631 practice test, with commentary (from me). These practice tests were posted on Microsoft.com/learning for a while, but I think they took them down — at least I can’t find them. (If you ever find them, please let me know where they are! )

I hope you found this useful; and if you do take the exam, good luck!

Richard