Upcoming MS Exam Retirements for H1 2016

In keeping with Microsoft's stated policy of informing the certified population about planned cert exam and credential retirements, MS Learning's Liberty Munson shared planned retirements for the first half of 2016 recently. Actually, the announcements go through July 31, 2016 so we get an extra month's worth of coverage from this round of information.

I'm going to reproduce the information that's highlighted in her 11/18 blog post entitled "Updates on Retiring Exams and Certification" along with the details from the latest MS Exam Retirement Page (feel free to consult the original sources for more information, if you like). I guess the big news is the planned retirement of the MSCA: Windows 7 on January 31, 2016, as the upgrade exams for that credential also retire (the current cert exams for that credential will remain live through July 31, 2016, but will confer Specialist status after the MCSA goes dark).

Microsoft Dynamics

Retiring on January 31, 2016

MB2-866: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization and Configuration MB2-867: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Installation and Deployment MB2-868: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Applications MB2-876: Extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

Exchange and Exchange Server

Retiring on January 31, 2016

70-662: TS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuring 70-663: PRO: Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange

Lync

Retiring on March 30, 2016

74-335: Lync Network Readiness Assessment

74-338: Lync 2013 Depth Support Engineer

70-336: Core Solutions of Microsoft Lync Server 2013

70-337: Enterprise Voice & Online Services with Microsoft Lync Server 2013

Sharepoint

Retiring on July 31, 2016

70-573: TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development 70-576: PRO: Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Applications 70-667: TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring 70-668: PRO: Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administrator

SQL Server
Retiring on January 31, 2016

70-459: Transition Your MCITP: Database Administrator 2008 or MCITP: Database Developer 2008 to MCSE: Data Platform

70-460: Transition Your MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer 2008 to MCSE: Business Intelligence

Retiring on July 31, 2016

70-432: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance

70-448: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance

70-457: Transition Your MCTS on SQL Server 2008 to MCSA: SQL Server 2012, Part 1

70-458: Transition Your MCTS on SQL Server 2008 to MCSA: SQL Server 2012, Part 2

Visual Studio and .NET

Retiring on July 31, 2016

70-490: Recertification for MCSD: Windows Store Apps Using HTML5 70-491: Recertification for MCSD: Windows Store Apps Using C# 70-511: TS: Windows Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 70-513: TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 70-515: TS: Web Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 70-516: TS: Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 98-379: Software Testing Fundamentals

Windows

Retiring on January 31, 2016	70-689: Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows 8 70-692: Upgrading Your Windows XP Skills to MCSA Windows 8
Retiring on July 31, 2016	70-687: Configuring Windows 8.1 70-688: Supporting Windows 8.1

Windows Server

Retiring on January 31, 2016	70-415: Implementing a Desktop Infrastructure 70-416: Implementing Desktop Application Environments
Retiring on July 31, 2016	98-365: Windows Server Administration Fundamentals 98-367: Security Fundamentals

Other

Retiring on July 31, 2016

70-673: TS: Designing, Assessing, and Optimizing Software Asset Management (SAM)

Quite a bit of upcoming retirement action, as you might expect in the six-month period following the release of a new major desktop OS version -- namely, Windows 10 (which made its official debut on 7/29/2015).