Last time, I gave you a round-up of Visual FoxPro DevCon 99. But the incredible amount of material to cover forced me to omit one of the most interesting activities at this year's DevCon. Several people from Microsoft's Certification and Skills Assessment group were on hand to work with the VFP community to prepare certification exams for Visual FoxPro.
As I told you in the November '98 issue, Microsoft will include two Visual FoxPro exams, "Designing and Implementing Desktop Applications with Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0," and "Designing and Implementing Distributed Applications with Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0," as part of the Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer track. Each exam can be used as either a core exam or an elective. For more information on this track, check out http://www.microsoft.com/train_cert/.
The certification group ran several activities, most of them simultaneously. Training sessions were held to teach people how to design certification questions; attendance at one of these sessions was required before submitting questions. Unfortunately, due to other responsibilities, I was unable to attend any of these sessions, but a number of FoxPro Advisor contributing editors and writers did attend and submitted questions for the exam.
Following the initial training session, the certification lab was open all day, every day, to let people come in and work on their questions with the help of the certification staff. I came by several times and watched the process of honing an idea into something that could be tested on the exam.
Several machines in the room were dedicated to the "blueprint survey," an online questionnaire about the exam content and its distribution over the various subject areas.
I asked Barbara Decker, the Microsoft program manager who ran the DevCon activities, why she brought her team to DevCon. She explained that one of the main goals of her group is to ensure that certification exams reflect what people are really doing with products, rather than what Microsoft thinks they're doing or wants them to do. Coming to Visual FoxPro DevCon gave them access to the right target audience.
The group's goal at DevCon was to develop content for 60 percent of the two exams. They were able to more than meet that goal. Decker says they're quite pleased with the results.
She's also pleased with the number of people who took the blueprint survey. Normally, the survey is conducted on the Web, which means anyone can take it, whether or not they work seriously with the product. By offering it at DevCon, there was some assurance that those surveyed do VFP development, giving more accurate results.
The next step is for the certification group to complete the beta exams. The group expects to have them ready later this year. Then, the group needs the Visual FoxPro community's help. To make sure the exams reflect appropriate content, and to make sure the questions themselves really test what they're meant to test, requires lots of beta testers. Many names were collected at DevCon, but more are needed. If you're interested, begin checking the certification site (http://www.microsoft.com/mcp) in late September for news of the beta.
Decker said her group really appreciates the support they received at DevCon and returns the sentiment. "Certification is committed to the FoxPro community and that's why we made a push to get these done." Decker pointed out that it's a two-way street. Her team can't get the exams out unless FoxPro developers take the beta exam.
Decker felt that the community really stepped up at DevCon and showed that we're willing and able to do what's needed to make VFP certification happen. Now she needs us to take the beta test challenge. I'm game. How about you?
Washington’s Birthday Revisited
My friend Leslie Koorhan pointed out that my comments about George Washington's birthday in the August 1999 Editor's View were a little ambiguous, so I want to clarify. February 22, 1999 was the 267th anniversary of the day that Washington was born. Using the Gregorian calendar, he was born February 22, 1732. However, when Washington was born, the calendar in England and in the colonies that later became the United States read February 11, 1731. (It was 1731 because, at the time, the New Year started in March rather than January. That change also occurred in 1752.) When the change to the Gregorian calendar occurred in 1752, Washington adopted the later (correct) date. Sorry if I confused anyone.
Component Advisor Magazine
VFP developers have been among the first to understand the benefits of component-based development. As component technology spreads throughout the development world, there's a lot to learn and keep up with. In response we have a new magazine, COMPONENT ADVISOR. You'll find a special offer at http://www.Advisor.com/mdcFREE. Hurry and you might still get the Premiere Issue.