Once upon a time life was simple, you just had a career in computers.

Later you called yourself a developer or a programmer.

Now with .NET, Microsoft has formalised and extended the different career paths open to developers to give a total of 20 different development career paths and job roles! See attached table we have nicknamed 'Lord of the D-Rings' (D-Rings = Developer Rings).

Oh for the simple life! but we all know that all of us 'mature' developers were in jack 'jack of all trades' and covered the whole rainbow of different developer skills.

Today, the reality is that, as the complexity and scope of development continues to increase, the range of skills required is far greater than any individual can master.

Therefore, while we may feel that identifying 20 types of Microsoft developer is going over the top, we should all recognise some or many of the skills sets outlined for each of the job roles will be very important for building future solutions.   

For each of these job roles, Microsoft has outlined the different skill sets you need to acquire and training routes you need to take to achieve you objectives.

According to Microsoft there are 4 categories of developers:

• Smart Clients

• Data Services

• XML Web Services and Server Components

• Enterprise Solutions

For more information on the four steps to .NET development skills, visit www.microsoft.com/traincert/vsnet

For a comprehensive content list for Microsoft .NET Developer Career Skills Roadmap, visit www.microsoft.com/netdevroadmap

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