Microsoft 365: Managing Microsoft Teams (MS-700) Exam Prep Guide

This blog is part of a series. For more exam prep guides check back in the future

NOTE: This exam is currently in Beta and will not be GA for the next few months. During that time you can take it once, and the results will not be out until the end of the Beta period. More on participating in Beta Exams can be found here

Earlier in the year I predicted that many IT pros would opt to do MS-300 purely because of Teams. I also predicted that Teams would eventually go on to have an exam all of its own. And whilst, admittedly, it wasn’t MS-400 we now have MS-700 – Managing Microsoft Teams. Announced at Microsoft Ignite earlier this month, the delegate achieves the new role of Teams Administrator Associate should they pass the singular MS-700 exam.

I think it’s fair to say at this point that MS-700 will be one of the more sought after associate exams – either standalone or as the workload required for the Microsoft 365 Enterprise Admin Expert cert. Why? Because Teams is relevant. It’s an exciting application. It’s central to what Microsoft is doing. It resonates. It has a massive die-hard following. If you follow my blog, you know that I am not one for empty platitudes and superlatives so let’s take it back to what the numbers actually tell us – at Enterprise Connect (March) we saw that there there are over 500,000 organisations using Teams. 91% of the Fortune 500. 44 languages in 181 markets. At Inspire (July) we saw that it had topped 13 Million DAU and surpassed Slack with Microsoft expecting MAU to rise a whopping 275% by July 2020. Later that month, Microsoft was identified as a Leader in Unified Communications (UC) on the Gartner Magic Quadrant. At Ignite (November 2019) the trigger was pulled on a ton of long-awaited features including Private Channels, multi-window, live captions in meetings, the new files experience, a new task experience and channel pinning. Numbers which are now floating around put DAU within the 18-20 Million range

In short – lots and lots of us are going to be well up for this one

To understand MS-700 – have a read through the skills outline. There is one word which crops up time and time again. It is also in the title of the exam. It is the word manage. MS-700 is an exam designed for the all-up administrator. It’s not one aimed at the developer, nor is it one aimed at the voice or endpoint specialist. If it could be boiled down to an RBAC role then it would be the Teams Service Administrator who manages it in a typical mid-size business on a day-to-day basis. These administrators are fluent in the TAC, have performed a hands-on migration from Skype to Teams, have configured audio conferencing and calling, have read the weekly usage reports, have built policies, who understand the Teams lifecycle, the architecture, how to configure a Teams room system and how and when to use Powershell.

When taking it – and I actually waited until after Ignite when I was back in the solemn spartan meeting room I always use to take exams – the first thing I noticed is that, like MS-300, it’s very fair and well designed. I always like to shout out when an exam is clearly done by those who have experience based in reality. It’s not broad to the point of being unwieldy nor is it ridiculously deep and granular. No cheap questions. No questions out of left field. It doesn’t contain excessive amounts of Powershell. If you have truly engaged with and managed Teams for a period of 12 to 24 months you should be familiar with – or have likely touched – 90% of what is here and you will be well down the road for a shot at the prize. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t also add that I would strongly recommend experience with voice before you take it. A significant proportion of MS-700 is devoted to it. Perhaps as high as 40% when factoring in networking. If your management experience has been limited to a voice-less Teams instance then this could very well be a struggle. If you are a Microsoft partner then demos.microsoft.com is your friend – otherwise, time to trial out phone system, audio conferencing and those domestic and international call plans for a few months.

Fire up the network planner and go build those auto attendants and call queues.

Best of luck!

Link to Exam: Here
Released: 4th November 2019 (GA expected Jan/Feb 2020)
Practice Test: Available 2020
MOC Course: Available 2020

MS Learn: Modules available (does not currently cover the whole exam)

Important Note: this exam prep guide should be used to supplement your own resources and should not be used for the whole of your learning. Some of the resources may be not completely cover the requirements especially if the requirement is vague. If you find better articles than the ones below, please feel free to reach out and I’ll amend.

Status: Awaiting Beta Results

 

Plan and Configure a Microsoft Teams Environment (45-50%)

Upgrade from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams

Plan and configure network settings for Microsoft Teams

Implement Governance and Lifecycle Management for Microsoft Teams

Configure and manage guest access

Manage security and compliance

Deploy and manage Microsoft Teams endpoints

Monitor and analyze service usage

Manage Chat, Calling, and Meetings (30-35%)

Manage chat and collaboration experiences

Manage meeting experiences

Manage phone numbers

Manage Phone System

Manage Teams and App Policies (20-25%)

Manage a team

Manage membership in a team

Implement policies for Microsoft Teams apps