Microsoft Learning has announced a certification exam for Windows Phone 7 platform. This exam is designed to test the candidate’s knowledge and skills on designing and developing applications for the Windows Phone 7 platform.

Candidates for Exam 70-599 are typically independent software vendors (ISVs) or developers who work in an organization designing and developing consumer applications (commercial software) for the Windows Phone 7 platform.

This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam.

• Designing Data Access Strategies (19%)
• Send and receive data.
• Design a data storage strategy.
• Plan for bandwidth limitations and implement network connectivity detection.
• Designing and Implementing Notification Strategies (17%)
• Plan for and implement push notifications in the application.
• Plan for and implement push notifications on the server.
• Create and update live tiles.
• Working with Platform APIs, Tasks, and Choosers (21%)
• Design and implement sensor interaction.
• Plan for and implement the use of Tasks and Choosers.
• Plan for and implement multitouch and gestures.
• Design and implement application navigation.
• Designing the Application Architecture (21%)
• Design for threading.
• Monitor and tune performance.
• Manage the application life cycle.
• Prepare the application to meet Windows Phone 7 marketplace requirements.
• Designing the User Interface and User Experience (23%)
• Design for separation of concerns.
• Design Windows Phone 7 control usage.
• Recommend keyboard layout for a given situation.
• Design for system themes, accent color, and screen orientation.

The exam is currently in development and is expected to be published on July 14, 2011. At this moment, there is no training, Microsoft Press books, or practice tests that are currently made available. However, these should be available around the time the exam is published.

Exam 70-599