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

Sitecore Video Training

Sitecore USA is piloting a program to provide training through a video conferencing system provided by one of our customers, SetFocus. Video training provides all of the benefits of remote training – such as flexible scheduling and reduced costs – while still providing a connection to a real-time instructor. The training includes 100% of the curriculum, lab exercises and certification provided by in-person training. An instructor is present for the entire training and can share their desktop as well as viewing individual student workstations.

In addition to cost savings, one of the major benefits of video conferencing is scheduling. Imagine your developers are currently involved in a project but also have an immediate need for Sitecore training. In-person training requires that students be available for at least two eight-hour days to complete the SCD1 training. With video training, however, students can sign up for four four-hour days and still have the flexibility to spend half of the work day on other projects. This means that your developers can be trained in Sitecore while still completing necessary business activities.

How does it work? Trainees are sent a video conferencing unit which connects to any standard television and internet connection. The television displays an image of the instructor as well as each of the remote training classrooms. Desktop sharing is done through web conferencing software, currently GoToMeeting.

If you are interested in this format for training, contact your sales person or partner manager for more information. I will continue to post updates regarding as the program transitions from pilot to launch.

The Sitecore Certified Developer Exam

To become a Sitecore Certified Developer, you must attend an SCD1 training and pass the Sitecore Certified Developer exam. The exam consists of forty questions designed to test your knowledge of the basic Sitecore framework and administrative activities covered in SCD1. The exam is pass/no-pass, meaning that you can score a 68% and still consider yourself a certified developer.

The content of the test draws from four major subject areas and presents a random set of ten questions from each. Each student will have a different mix of questions presented in a different order.

The format of the test is multiple guess, meaning that the system presents each question along with several possible answers. Students choose the most correct answer and proceed to the next question. The test is forward-only. As such, students have no way of returning to questions they have already answered.

The difficulty level of the test will vary on a student-by-student perspective. In general, the more experience with CMS and ASP.NET, the greater the odds of passing the exam. We encourage students to read each question and answer carefully, as the answers are sometimes only slightly different from each other.

The results of the exam will typically be sent to you within 24 hours of the completion of the exam. Exam results vary greatly – some students score 100% on the test while others finish the exam without passing. The exam has important consequences for your relationship with Sitecore from both a marketing and support perspective. While you shouldn’t get too nervous about the exam, you should also try your hardest to follow the training carefully.

Completing the exam ends the theoretical component of your training – now real-world prototyping and project development begins. It is essential for the success of your project that you begin working with Sitecore very shortly after completing the SCD1 training. The training is packed with information and – as with all intensive trainings – the details start to dissipate quickly if the information isn’t applied.

SCD2 -- Is it for you?

There are two major differences between SCD1 and SCD2:

1) SCD1 includes substantial instructor-led discussion and step-by-step labs. SCD2, by contrast, focuses almost entirely on labs that challenge students to solve programming challenges using their own mettle.

2) SCD2 leans heavily on the student's ASP.NET background. If you aren't experienced with ASP.NET, the class simply isn't for you.

Does this mean that the class is a good match for experienced ASP.NET developers? Perhaps. Most of the significant topics in SCD2 are covered on the SDN site (SDN access required):

http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Reference/Field%20Reference.aspx
http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Snippets/Item%20Handling/Adding%20Items/Adding%20a%20new%20Item.aspx
http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Developer/Common%20API%20Classes.aspx
http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Articles/API/Using%20Events.aspx

If you are accustomed to learning through online documentation, the above references will familiarize you with the most important topics in the class.

If you are new to CMS, I recommend attending the SCD1 training and -- instead of SCD2 -- attending the Sitecore Day of Prototyping class. This class spends a day building a section of a basic website. The goals of the class are to revisit and reinforce the topics of SCD1 and provide useful code samples for common scenarios.

Getting Ready for Training

Developers come to Sitecore Certified Developer training with varying levels of experience. In general, we recommend the following guidelines for attendees:

1) At least 12 months’ experience with ASP.NET.
2) Be able to reference at least one in-production ASP.NET project.
3) Work with ASP.NET on a regular basis.

While the training itself doesn't include a deep discussion of Sitecore and ASP.NET, confidence with ASP.NET development practices is always a significant predictor of success.

There are exceptions to this rule. Many experienced Java developers have shown success in the training. A commonality between their experience and that of ASP.NET developers can be distilled into the following attributes:

1) Experience with OO concepts
2) Knowledge of web application architectures
3) Production-level experience with web application development and deployment

One other category of students have shown great success in SCD1: developers with experience implementing CMS systems. If you already have worked with other CMS's (and not just home-grown site administration tools), the Sitecore training will likely be easy for you.

What if you are new to .NET and/or new to CMS? The class will be a (hopefully fun) challenge. The key predictor of success in this case is the availability of time to practice using the CMS before and after the training. Sitecore has a steep, but short learning curve. The initial training may be challenging; but, with practice, the concepts will sink in and become obvious over time.

For those new to .NET and CMS, make sure your first project is either a prototype or a "phase I" implementation. Don't take on too much complexity out of the gate. Experience your growing pains in small-scale, low-stakes projects. If that is not an option, seek out professional services from an experienced partner or Sitecore to help you through your first implementation.

You may also be interested in "project review" services. Sitecore can provide architectural feedback on your initial architecture design. Talk to your sales person if you are interested in this option, as it is well worth it. Experienced partners can also offer this service.

Post-Training Resources

A little-known item on the Sitecore Developer Network is called "Post-Training Resources." We scoured the SDN site for some documentation that would be useful for recently certified developers. Find out information on creating a Visual Studio project, learning about the Sitecore API, multi-site management and much more. Enjoy!