Microsoft are retiring Teamwork Administrator certificate (exams MS-300 & MS-301). The announcement points people to the Teams Administrator (exam MS-700) instead. Having done both the Teams and Teamwork qualifications and with most of my training delivery focused on SharePoint and Teams, this concerns me concerns me on a number of levels.
- SharePoint administrators need to know more than just Teams.
SharePoint site administration, configuration, managed metadata, content type, content type publishing, hub sites, permissions, external sharing controls; to name but a few things that are still evolving in modern SharePoint and essential to many organisations using SharePoint Online. None of these are covered in MS700.
2. What about the other collaboration workloads
Yammer, Stream, Delve as well as OneDrive for Business administration was also covered in MS-300, but not addressed in MS-700.
3. Hybrid
Now, personally I am not confident enough in any kind of on-premises server to train MS-301 despite having passed the exam quite well. But for a lot of organisations, especially those with regulatory or other restrictions on storing data in the cloud, this knowledge and skillset is vital. None of this is addressed in MS-700.
4. Qualified Trainers
If there is no certification for SharePoint administration, how will trainers be able to validate/evidence their skills and knowledge? Appreciating you don’t have to hold a certification to have the knowledge, as Microsoft Certified Trainers we can (and should) only deliver training we hold suitable qualifications to deliver. This helps to ensure that your trainer has the knowledge needed to deliver the class. MS-700 certification does not demonstrate knowledge of SharePoint administration skills.
My Request
Personally, I am not sad that I won’t have to retake MS-301 (remember these certifications are only valid for 2 years). However I really hope that MS-300 & MS-301 exams and courses are replaced, perhaps with something along the lines of the exchange certification where MS-200: Planning and Configuring a Messaging Platform and MS-201: Implementing a Hybrid and Secure Messaging Platform are being consolidated into MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging.
So my request to Microsoft, we do still need a SharePoint Online Administrator course and exam, please don’t leave us without either!
