Self-Assessment

You should be able to quickly assess your readiness for the exam by taking the practice exams available in this book or a practice exam provided by a third-party provider. (Links to these companies are provided later in this chapter.) At the end of each chapter are some sample questions that will help you rate yourself on your knowledge of the subject matter presented in the prior chapter. However, only a few questions are presented at the end of each chapter and they do not cover the breadth or depth of material that you will be required to know to pass the exams. Therefore, the sample exams are provided on CD to give you a more accurate assessment of your knowledge and likelihood of passing the exams. Nevertheless, these are only practice exams, and although you may see similar questions on the exams, they will be markedly different. Consequently, the questions provided should be used as guides to delineate areas where you need to focus more of your study time. For example, if you have trouble answering a few of the questions that cover new functions and commands available with Lotus Notes/Domino 6, be sure to study all the new functions and commands, not just the functions or commands that deal with the questions you had trouble with. By focusing on areas where you are the weakest, you can make the best use of your time and better position yourself to pass the exam(s) the first time, with flying colors!

If you are an experienced developer and have been working with Lotus Notes and Domino for several months or years, you probably have a good grasp of the basic and more challenging aspects of Lotus Notes and Domino (for example, the security model or replication). Therefore, you can focus more of your time on the new capabilities made available with the latest release. You may find that many of the questions appear very simple (because they cover more basic material than you have been working with for some time), whereas others seem more difficult (because they cover new material or material that you seldom use). Studying the material in this book and taking the practice exams will help you understand which areas are troublesome and, more importantly, help you learn what you need to learn to pass the certification exams and prove your expertise!

Notes/Domino 6 Certification in the Real World

According to statistics posted on Lotus's Web site, the IBM Certified Application Developer—Lotus Notes and Domino 6 (previously titled the CLP) certification has grown to over 75,000 certified global professionals since its inception in 1992.

The Certified Lotus Professional program has integrated its certification titles Certified Lotus Specialist (CLS), Certified Lotus Professional (CLP), Principal Certified Lotus Professional (PCLP), and Certified Lotus Instructor (CLEI, CLI and PCLI) over to the new IBM Software Group Certification titles. Consequently, Lotus Notes/Domino has joined Websphere, Tivoli, and DB2 in forming a single, unified IBM Certified Professional program. According to Lotus, the new combined program will “simplify certification skill levels across all four brands while taking advantage of the combined marketing power of IBM plus each of the individual software brands.” To all certified Lotus/Domino Application Developers, this is a great thing!

The IBM Certified Professional program is divided into three categories:

• IBM Certified Associate (entry level)

• IBM Certified Professional (intermediate level)

• IBM Certified Advanced Professional (advanced level)

In addition, IBM uses six job roles to further categorize certifications. They are:

• Administrator (Database and System)

• Developer (Application and Solution)

• Designer

• Implementer/Integrator (Deployment Professional)

• Instructor

• Advisor (Sales)

The existing Lotus/Domino certifications will be mapped to new IBM certifications as displayed in Table 1.1 below:

For a complete list of the new certifications under the IBM Certified Professional Program, go to http://www.lotus.com/services/education.nsf/35ed29d961be6ad0852566da004c5cbb/
af0260977a3cdc8185256d05004da486?OpenDocument.

Confused? Don't be. There is more information available online. Visit http://www.lotus.com/certification for more information.

The Ideal Notes/Domino 6 Certification Candidate

Why get certified? In today's job market, you hardly have a choice. Although no certification guarantees technical knowledge or capability, it is a common, global benchmark between you and your fellow developers. There is no question that certifications help identify your technical expertise, job-related skill, and your skill level. The new IBM Certified Professional program helps developers strengthen their skills and income potential.

Put Yourself to the Test

The following items are points to consider before pursuing the IBM Certified Professional certification.

Education Background

• Have you taken any classes or computer-based training on Lotus Notes/Domino 6?

  If yes, then you are well ahead of the curve. Classroom training and computer-based training puts you in great shape to begin your path toward certification. Classroom materials and computer-based training cover exam material with remarkable similarity, so any learning in those environments is especially applicable.

  Currently, IBM Software Services for Lotus Education and NETg (part of the Thompson Company) are offering a jointly developed Lotus Notes and Domino 6 upgrade curriculum in computer-based training. They offer training specifically designed for administrators, designers, and both.

  The current offerings for the IBM Lotus Domino Designer 6: New Features Curriculum (which has a suggested retail price of $299, order part number: AH0HYNA) are

  • IBM Lotus Domino Designer 6 for Release 5 Developers, Part 1: New Features

  • IBM Lotus Domino Designer 6 for Release 5 Developers, Part 2: Enhancements

  • IBM Lotus Domino Designer 6 for Release 5 Developers, Part 3: Tools

    Another offering from IBM is the IBM Lotus Domino Administrative & Development Bundle (which has a suggested retail price of $399, order part number: AH0HWNA). This program consists of the three titles listed previously as well as the following titles:

  • IBM Lotus Domino 6: Preparing Domino Release 4 Administrators

  • IBM Lotus Domino 6: Preparing Domino Release 4 Developers

    For the administrators, IBM is offering the IBM Lotus Domino 6: New Features Curriculum (which has a suggested retail price of $199, order part number: AH0HXNA). This program consists of the following titles:

  • IBM Lotus Domino 6 for Release 5 Administrators, Parts 1: Preparing

  • IBM Lotus Domino 6 for Release 5 Administrators, Parts 2: New Features

  For more information, visit IBM's Education site at https://education.lotus.com/rw/lewwschd.nsf/87FACC133CAA9B23852565C80048B8E1/
  D204002BFC21811085256B6000500BAD?OpenDocument

• Have you used any self-test software on Lotus Notes/Domino 6?

  If there was one tip that I could give to prepare you for taking the Lotus Notes/Domino 6 certification exams, it's to take practice exams as often as possible (after reading this book, of course).

  Lotus Education provides the following authorized courseware (go to the URL listed earlier for more information regarding these programs):

  • Electronic End User Courseware Licensing Program

  • Lotus End User courseware

  Some of the other companies that offer practice exams are

  • Self Test Software from KaplanIT— http://www.selftestsoftware.com

  • Advanced CLP— http://www.advancedclp.com

  • CertFX— http://www.certfx.com

  • Thomas Consulting— http://www.thomas-consulting.com

• Are you currently certified in Lotus Notes/Domino R5?

  If yes, you can become re-certified by taking Exam 601: Notes Domino 6 Application Development Update. This exam covers only new features made available in Notes/Domino 6 and is a much easier path to take to update your certification (one exam is much easier than three).

• Were you certified prior to R5?

  Although being certified in a release prior to 6 is helpful, you will find that a lot of new material has been added since R4 (and prior). A general knowledge of Notes is helpful and certainly shortens the learning curve, but you will have the disadvantage of having to learn the features made available in R5 as well as Notes/Domino 6.

• Are you certified as a Domino System Administrator?

  Having a certification as a Domino System Administrator is not a requirement to get certified as an Application Developer. In fact, for the most part, the competencies are quite distinct. Nevertheless, because certain aspects of Notes and Domino 6 are tightly integrated into system administrative capabilities (such as database access control and server document settings), additional knowledge in system administration is helpful.

Hands-On Experience

As previously mentioned, there is no substitute for experience. Ideally, the more experience you can accumulate prior to taking the exam, the better you will perform. If your experience in Notes/Domino 6 is limited but you have significant experience using previous releases, focus on the release notes and the “What's New” section of the Designer Help database.

Testing Your Exam Readiness

I cannot over-state the importance of taking practice exams until you can consistently score 90% or higher. Ideally, take the practice exams included in this book and on CD as well as any other practice exams that you can acquire (some links to companies that offer practice exams are listed previously in this chapter) until you score 100%. This thorough understanding of the exam question format and content will give you a solid chance at passing the real exam. Taking exams is not inexpensive. So do everything you can to pass the first time. Employers, customers, and peers won't know how many times you took an exam prior to passing, but the cost of exams can add up—not to mention the cost to taking time out of your day and adding more stress to your life.

Assessing Your Readiness for the Exams

After completing this book and taking the practice exams provided in Chapters 18–23, you are well on your way to becoming certified (or at the very least, certifiable). Take the practice exams and re-study material on which you are still unclear. Follow that up with third-party self-test software, if you can, and spend plenty of time using the Designer 6 client. That's what you should be doing anyhow! Good luck!