Certificates

With certificates things look a bit different. To obtain any certificate you must pass the dedicated exam. Exam is paid and supervised by online tutor (unless you decided to pass the exam on site). There is also one recent change in how the exam looks like, as it is done now in “open book” mode. You are allowed to use Microsoft Learn portal during the exam.

Some time ago Microsoft changed the approach regarding certification, and they switched from tool-based to role-based approach. It has its own pros and cons. It’s harder to find all Power BI related exams, on the other hand, role-based approach provides additional context to you learning, that might be very valuable.

I tried to figure out why this change happened, and I think it is related to a general phenomenon we are dealing with on the labor market. Years ago, if you needed analytical solutions, you needed a CUBE. Who could build it? Only some serious tech guys, extremely rare and knowledgeable. If they needed a new tool to master, they could jump into tool-based learning and acquire the skill quickly. Nowadays, tools like Power BI make it a lot easier to create semantic models and deliver team, department or even enterprise level analytics. People like me, who started with Excel and then moved to Power BI, may be missing a very important context to do the job the right way. And without it, I believe that that best case scenario is that you can become relatively successful Citizen Developer. Which, don’t get me wrong, is still a great thing, as it allows you to begin a great journey with Power BI. But I am digressing a bit, let’s get back to the topic.

Certificate types

When you enter Microsoft Learn portal and go to “Browse Credentials”, you may select the filter at the very bottom “Credential Types” as “Certification”. And… the available list is quite big. On the top of the Filters Panel, you may search Certifications by “Product” (old tool-based approach) or by Roles. Some of the roles like “Functional Consultant” are a bit vague, as you may be Functional Consultant in many areas. Unless your goal is to be Functional Consultant in everything, which would be pretty ambitious. But there is one more “hidden” division, that you might notice when you look at the code of the Exam required to obtain specific certificate. These codes (like PL-300) of course have their meaning. Let’s look at some of them:

• MS – Microsoft 365
• MB – Dynamics 365
• AI – Speaks for itself 🙂
• PL – Power Platform
• DP – Data Platform

For us, the most important ones are the last two, as Power BI related certificates will fall into these two categories.

Certificate Levels

There are three levels available for certificates:

• ⭐ – Fundamentals
• ⭐⭐ – Associate
• ⭐⭐⭐ – Expert

Star system is visible in the badge you receive as a proof of being certified specialist. These levels differ significantly. Fundamentals are great place to start. Learning materials are limited, exams are not that hard to pass, and certificate doesn’t expire.

Associate level is much more difficult to get. Learning materials available are quite extensive. Exam involves Case Studies on top of regular questions, it lasts longer than Fundamentals Exam, and requires a lot of technical knowledge to pass, as questions are very detailed. There is one more important detail. Certification expires within a year since it was obtained. But there is also good news, Microsoft at least allows you to renew your certificate for free. Renewal exam is much shorter, as it focuses only on updates in the area, and is done in “open book” mode. The only requirement is that you renew your exam within the mentioned year. Renewal option opens 1 month before your certification expires.

Expert level, as you can imagine, is the hardest one to get. It is the only level that requires more than one exam to pass, it will be easier to see it on example of Power Platform Solution Architect Expert certification:

As you can see in the picture, it requires one of the given Associate level certifications to be able to take the exam. Therefore, you must pass two exams to get the Expert level certification.

Is it worth to be certified

Spoiler alert – yes. They are proof that you reached a certain level in mastering the tool. The only question is if that proof is important to anyone else beside you. And here is the tricky part. Companies suffer from talent shortages, not only on expert level, but also when it comes to managers that are supposed to lead the Power BI teams. Therefore, it is important to find not only the right company, but also the right team for your career development. Make sure that you work in a place where your efforts are appreciated. However, regardless of whether you will be able to “monetize” your knowledge in any way, learning new skills and applying them in daily work is something extremely satisfying. To conclude, whatever you learn, do it for yourself. Get certificate, share it within community, as there is a lot of people like me, who value learning the most, and cheer for others.

How to mitigate the cost of certification

As mentioned already, certifications are not free, there is a price for each exam you take. Even though the price is different per location, it might still be significant cost, especially for people in Central/East Europe and Asia. On the other hand, I completed 5 certification last year, 4 of them I did 100% for free, for last one I got 50% discount. How is it possible? Microsoft sometimes invites to events, where you can get exam vouchers or discounts as a reward. It happened that at beginning of 2023, there were series of Virtual Training Days that granted vouchers for Fundamental level exams. In June, there was a Cloud Skill Challenge, that allowed me to complete Associate level certification for free. With another challenge I got 50% discount for last Associate level cert.

So, stay active in the community, look for opportunities to make exams a bit cheaper. There are two main events during the year, where you might expect some nice gifts. Like Microsoft Build Conference in May or Microsoft Ignite in November. On top, if you think about learning Power Platform in general, Microsoft launched Power Up Program. I will cover it in another article, as I am close to complete this program, and I will take the opportunity to share some thoughts. Power Up Program, when completed, allows you to take PL-200 exam for free, to obtain Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate certification.

Which certificates are there for Power BI experts

We already have a lot to read, that’s why I decided to move the core part of this topic to next article. Today we will cover only briefly some “nice to have” and list the ones we will cover in next article. I will also clarify one important thing. I am talking about mandatory exams and certifications, but of course the most important part is the learning required to approach the exam, whether you take the last step or not is up to you. There are three Fundamental level certificates, that will help you connect the Microsoft solutions required for your daily work:

• Power Platform Fundamentals (Exam PL-900) – Learning path consists of 6 modules, 1 of them is related to Power BI. However, this will help you get an overview of entire Power Platform, that Power BI is a part of. Effort to complete the learning path is estimated for around 4 hours. It may of course take longer than that. Learning paths only highlight the areas that you should master for the exam, so you might be in need to go to standard learning portal and go through available documentation. You could expect that Fundamentals level exam will be easy, but Microsoft Certifications are known as quite hard to pass. For example, I got the question from Power BI, regarding setting up Cross-report drill through… I knew the answer, but I would never expect this question on Fundamental level exam, especially that it only partially covers Power BI. So, be prepared 🙂 Questions may surprise you.
• Azure Data Fundamentals (Exam DP-900) – There are 4 learning paths estimated for over 4 hours of learning. Power BI is covered only within 1 module of 1 learning path. What is the rest? This is exactly why it makes sense to complete the learning paths. It will provide you general overview of data related concepts, available technology for data storage in Azure, relational and non-relational databases, analytics solutions, and it’s even updated already with Fabric content. For me this is definitely a must have.
• Azure Fundamentals (Exam AZ-900) – This one I would categorize as “would be great to have”. It makes DP-900 content a lot easier to digest, as it provides general overview of Microsoft Azure services. It will introduce you to concepts of cloud computing, walk you through Azure architecture and services, and introduce governance and monitoring options. There are three learning paths included, for total estimated time around 6 hours of learning. Each module gets more technical and may not be very relevant for your daily work, especially if you don’t work with Azure on daily basis. However, I highly recommend focusing on first module, and read the others, just to have a generic overview. So, even if you don’t aim to get this certification, be sure to master the content of first module: Describe cloud concepts. It is only 52 minutes and provides a lot of useful information.

These are exactly three fundamental certificates I completed last year. Especially for DP-900 and AZ-900 it was a great experience. Completing these trainings opens the door to a world of completely new opportunities, and helps you position yourself as an enterprise level Data Analyst.