SCD1 -- Beginning, Middle and End

When students sign up for SCD1 training, their focus is typically on the classroom experience. A successful training, however, consists of more than what happens in the structured days of training. I break the overall training experience into three phases:

Phase One: Installation and Introduction (8-16 hours, self-guided)

• Students will attend the pre-training orientation.
• Students will install Sitecore on their local machine.
• Students will read the "Fundamental Concepts" documentation provided by Sitecore.
• Students will complete the "Building a Basic Website" exercises.
• Students will familiarize themselves with the Sitecore user interfaces.
• Students will complete the prerequisite quiz.

Phase Two: Instruction and Labs (16 hours, instructor-led)

• Students will attend the instructor-led training and complete all assigned labs.
• Students will complete the Sitecore Certified Developer exam.

Phase Three: Prototyping (8-16 hours, self-guided)

• Students will read post-training documentation.
• Students will prototype a basic website.

For the purposes of this blog entry, I want to focus on Phase One and Phase Three.

Phase One involves installing Sitecore, reviewing the basic Sitecore concepts and taking the pre-training quiz. Installing Sitecore is typically an effortless experience -- simply run the installer and follow the prompts. For certain machine configurations, however, students may run into difficulty getting the standard installation to work on their machines. Always install Sitecore at least two business days before the training to give yourself time to address any possible installation problems with Sitecore support staff. Showing up at the training without Sitecore installed will mean that you will not be able to participate in the lab exercises. (Instructor time is not used for installing the software.)

Reviewing the basic concepts before the training is also essential. I always recommend that students treat the instructor-led training as their second exposure to Sitecore, not thier first. Preparing before the training is the best way to optimize your training experience.

The pre-training quiz is designed to test your knowledge of the basic Sitecore and ASP.NET concepts.

Phase Two of the training -- the instructor-led portion -- involves both instructor presentation and lab work. It is a fun, informative and intensive two days. Depending on the instructor and the classroom dynamics, the training runs for six to eight hours each day.

Phase Three of the training involves reinforcing what you have learned. Sitecore does not currently provide curriculum for this aspect of the training experience, but we highly recommend that you spend as much time practicing and prototyping as possible before you jump in to your first project.

Learning Sitecore is a rewarding and sometimes challenging experience, especially if you are new to CMS software. Make the most of your training by blocking out time in your work schedule to prepare, pay attention and reinforce.

Sitecore Certified Administrator training

There is often confusion around the intended audience and curriculum for the Sitecore Certified Administrator (SCA) training. Two misconceptions are common:

1) The training is for non-technical business users, typically Sitecore "power users."
2) The training is for technical IT staff, interested in system administrative topics.

The first misconception is based on the fact that none of the activities in SCA require knowledge of ASP.NET (or even HTML) coding.

While this is true, students with no technical background will certainly struggle with a number of concepts in SCA, particularly security, workflows and Sitecore architecture. While the coverage of security in SCA is presented in very basic terms, the curriculum still assumes familiarity with basic security concepts such as hierarchical inheritance. If you have never set NT security permissions, Sitecore security may seem daunting.

The second misconception interprets "administrator" as a traditional system administrator. Trainees expecting coverage of Sitecore deployment, database maintenance, network security and file permissions will be disappointed. For purposes of SCA, "administrator" refers to a user whose job responsibilities include basic content authoring, publishing, configuring of workflows and Sitecore security administration.

Who, then, is the ideal audience for this training? A business user who has on-the-job experience with Sitecore's editing interfaces and wants to dig more deeply into the product will likely learn new and valuable information from SCA. SCA can clarify how your existing Sitecore workflows and security permissions operate and how they might be tweaked as business requirements evolve.

A final note about this training: All of the topics in SCA are covered in-depth in SCD1. If you have taken SCD1, there is no need to take SCA.

For more information about administrative topics in Sitecore, check out the "End User" section of the SDN: http://sdn5.sitecore.net/End%20User.aspx