Preparation Guide for Exam 70-300

Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures

Updated: April 22, 2008

Exam news

Exam 70-300 became available in February 2003.

•	This exam is scheduled to retire in March 2009

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Audience profile

Candidates for this exam should have a minimum of two years of experience in the following areas:

•	Analyzing customer needs and creating documents that specify requirements for software solutions in multiple business domains.
•	Modeling processes, modeling data, designing components, and designing user interfaces.
•	Designing, developing, and implementing software solutions.
•	Integrating new applications into legacy environments.
•	Developing Microsoft Windows-based applications and Web applications by using Microsoft tools and technologies.

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Credit toward certification

When you pass Exam 70-300: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status.

•	Learn about Microsoft Certified Professional status

You also earn credit toward the following certifications:

•	Core credit toward Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) for Microsoft .NET certification

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Preparation tools and resources

In addition to your hands-on experience working with the product, Microsoft Learning recommends that you use the following tools and training to help you prepare for this exam. These training resources do not necessarily cover all of the topics listed in the "Skills measured" section.

Classroom training	Microsoft E-Learning	Microsoft Press books	Practice tests
Course 2710: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures	Course 2710: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures	MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures (Exam 70-300) MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Microsoft .NET Core Requirements, Exams 70-305/70-315, 70-306/70-316, 70-310/70-320, and 70-300	MeasureUp (Measureup.com) Self Test Software (Selftestsoftware.com)

Classroom training

Microsoft E-Learning

Microsoft Press books

Practice tests

Course 2710: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures

MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures (Exam 70-300)

MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Microsoft .NET Core Requirements, Exams 70-305/70-315, 70-306/70-316, 70-310/70-320, and 70-300

MeasureUp
(Measureup.com)

Self Test Software
(Selftestsoftware.com)

Microsoft online resources

•	Learning Plan: Get started with a step-by-step study guide that is based on recommended resources for this exam.
•	Microsoft Learning Community: Join newsgroups and visit community forums to connect with peers for suggestions on training resources and advice on your certification path and studies.
•	TechNet: Designed for IT professionals, this site includes how-to instructions, best practices, downloads, technical resources, newsgroups, and chats.
•	MSDN: Designed for developers, the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) features code samples, technical articles, downloads, newsgroups, and chats.

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Skills measured

This certification exam measures your ability to analyze requirements and define Microsoft .NET solution architectures. Before taking the exam, you should be proficient in the job skills in the following table.

KEY:

= The course provides a general introductory overview of this task. You will need to supplement the course with additional work

= The course includes some material to prepare you for this task. You will need to supplement the course with additional work

= The course includes material to prepare you for this task

Skills measured by Exam 70-300

Course 2710

Envisioning the Solution

Develop a solution concept.

Analyze the feasibility of the solution.

•	Analyze the business feasibility of the solution.
•	Analyze the technical feasibility of the solution.
•	Analyze available organizational skills and resources.

Analyze and refine the scope of the solution project.

Identify key project risks.

Gathering and Analyzing Business Requirements

Gather and analyze business requirements.

•

Analyze the current business state.

•	Analyze business processes.
•	Analyze the organizational structure, both current and projected.
•	Analyze vertical market position and industry position.
•	Analyze personnel and training needs.
•	Analyze the organizational political climate.
•	Analyze business reach or scope.
•	Analyze current and future regulatory requirements.

•

Analyze business requirements for the solution.

•	Identify business requirements.
•	Identify dependencies, both inside and outside the company.
•	Identify features of the solution.
•	Define design goals, such as extensibility requirements.
•	Define data requirements, types, and flows.
•	Create data flow diagrams.

Gather and analyze user requirements.

•	Identify use cases.
•	Identify usage scenarios for each use case.
•	Identify globalization requirements.
•	Identify localization requirements.
•	Identify accessibility requirements.

Gather and analyze operational requirements.

•	Identify maintainability requirements.
•	Identify scalability requirements.
•	Identify availability requirements.
•	Identify reliability requirements.
•	Identify deployment requirements.
•	Identify security requirements.

Gather and analyze requirements for hardware, software, and network infrastructure.

•	Identify integration requirements.
•	Analyze the IT environment, including current and projected applications and current and projected hardware, software, and network infrastructure.
•	Analyze the impact of the solution on the IT environment.

Developing Specifications

Transform requirements into functional specifications. Considerations include performance, maintainability, extensibility, scalability, availability, deployability, security, and accessibility.

Transform functional specifications into technical specifications. Considerations include performance, maintainability, extensibility, scalability, availability, deployability, security, and accessibility.

•

Select a development strategy.

•	Select strategies for auditing and logging.
•	Select strategies for error handling.
•	Select strategies for integration.
•	Select strategies for globalization.
•	Select strategies for localization.
•	Select strategies for data storage.
•	Select strategies for state management.
•	Include constraints in the development plan to support business rules. Constraints include data validation.

•

Select a deployment strategy.

•	Select strategies for deployment, such as coexistence strategies.
•	Select strategies for licensing.
•	Select strategies for data migration.

•

Select a security strategy.

•	Select strategies to help ensure data privacy, such as encryption, signing, and sealing.
•	Select strategies to help ensure secure access.

•

Select an operations strategy.

•	Select strategies for data archiving and data purging.
•	Select strategies for upgrades.
•	Create a support plan.

•

Create a test plan.

•

Create a user education plan.

Creating the Conceptual Design

Create a conceptual model of business requirements or data requirements. Methods include Object Role Modeling (ORM).

•	Transform external information into elementary facts.
•	Apply a population check to fact types.
•	Identify primitive entity types in the conceptual model.
•	Apply uniqueness constraints to the conceptual model.
•	Apply mandatory role constraints to the conceptual model.
•	Add value constraints, set-comparison constraints, and subtype constraints to the conceptual model.
•	Add ring constraints to the conceptual model.

Validate the conceptual design.

Creating the Logical Design

Create the logical design for the solution.

•

Create the logical design for auditing and logging.

•

Create the logical design for error handling.

•	Create the logical design for exception handling.

•

Create the logical design for integration.

•

Create the logical design for globalization.

•

Create the logical design for localization.

•

Create the logical design for security.

•	Create the logical design for data privacy. Options include encryption, signing, and sealing.

•

Include constraints in the logical design to support business rules.

•

Create the logical design for the presentation layer, including the user interface (UI).

•

Create the logical design for services and components.

•

Create the logical design for state management.

•

Create the logical design for synchronous or asynchronous architecture.

Create the logical data model.

•	Define tables and columns.
•	Normalize tables.
•	Define relationships.
•	Define primary and foreign keys.
•	Define the XML schema.

Validate the proposed logical design.

•	Review the effectiveness of the proposed logical design in meeting business requirements. Business requirements include performance, maintainability, extensibility, scalability, availability, deployability, security, and accessibility.
•	Validate the proposed logical design against usage scenarios.
•	Create a proof of concept for the proposed logical design.

Creating the Physical Design

Select the appropriate technologies for the physical design of the solution.

Create the physical design for the solution.

•

Create specifications for auditing and logging.

•

Create specifications for error handling.

•

Create specifications for physical integration.

•

Create specifications for security.

•	Specifications can apply to strategies for physical data privacy, such as encryption, signing, and sealing.

•

Include constraints in the physical design to support business rules.

•

Design the presentation layer, including the UI and online user assistance.

•

Design services and components.

•	Design the data flow between services

•

Design state management.

•	Define the look-up data and the configuration data used by the application.

Create the physical design for deployment.

•	Create deployment specifications, which can include coexistence and distribution.
•	Create licensing specifications.
•	Create data migration specifications.
•	Design the upgrade path.

Create the physical design for maintenance.

•	Design application monitoring.

Create the physical design for the data model.

•	Create an indexing specification.
•	Partition data.
•	Denormalize tables.

Validate the physical design.

•	Review the effectiveness of the proposed physical design in meeting the business requirements. Business requirements include performance, maintainability, extensibility, scalability, availability, deployability, security, and accessibility.
•	Validate use cases, scenario walk-throughs, and sequence diagrams.
•	Create a proof of concept for the proposed physical design.

Creating Standards and Processes

Establish standards. Standards can apply to development documentation, coding, code review, UI, and testing.

Establish processes. Processes include reviewing development documentation, reviewing code, creating builds, tracking issues, managing source code, managing change, managing release, and establishing maintenance tasks. Methods include Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Templates.

Establish quality and performance metrics to evaluate project control, organizational performance, and return on investment.

Note This preparation guide is subject to change at any time without prior notice and at the sole discretion of Microsoft. Microsoft exams might include adaptive testing technology and simulation items. Microsoft does not identify the format in which exams are presented. Please use this preparation guide to prepare for the exam, regardless of its format.

•	Learn more and download samples

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Preparation Guide for Exam 70-300

Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures

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On This Page

Exam news

Audience profile

Credit toward certification

Preparation tools and resources

Microsoft online resources

Skills measured