The beginning of a new year is good time to re-appraise your goals and make some concious effort to identify how best to achieve them. Since I passed 70-536 I've been looking forward to taking others and have considered that a 3-4 month period should be sufficient time to prepare and pass each one, whilst giving a reasonable break before starting the next one. Also, I want to cover other areas outside of the exam criteria to broaden my knowledge-base.

I think 3 exams in 2008 is an achievable target but needs commitment and planning. first up being 70-528. So it's my intention to crack on with the ASP.NET v2.0 and I'm targeting early March to take the exam. I'm also aware of the AJAX phenomenon and how many opportunities nowadays seem to include AJAX as a pre-requisite. Although 70-528 does not include the use of AJAX, it's part of v3.5, and also inevitably part of what users will expect in their interactions with web applications now and in the future. Definitely time to future-proof the skill-set and I've got this eBook which Scott Guthrie recommends amongst others.

Once I complete 70-528, I am turning my attention towards the SQL Server exams. Whether I opt for the 2000 or 2005 version depends upon which I'm using by then. At the moment it would be 2000, but at work I may soon be leveraging Reporting Services on the 2005 platform. There seems few universally recommended books on SSRS out there so the tutorials on MSDN may be the best option to start with. Before the year end I may look at MCPD in web apps and go the whole hog on the web apps route.

As part of these lofty ambitions (!) I've tried to be realistic and have nominally allocated a minimum 2 nights through the week reading between 1-2 hours. Then I will follow up with 1 blog post per week looking at a relevant real-world aspect of what I've learned. Also, there are a number of work-related developments which should push me towards other areas (e.g. web services) and where noteworthy I will blog on technical aspects which is something I have yet to use this blog for.

Some evolutions as well as resolutions then.