# 06 certification pathway

*Document code: LES-ROAD-001 v3.8 | Phase 0 | May 2026*

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Certifications are pursued where they add genuine knowledge value and professional credibility. They are sequenced to align with what is being built at each phase — not collected as vanity metrics.

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## Certification Map

| Certification                      | Issuing Body | Phase   | Rationale                                                                     |
| ---------------------------------- | ------------ | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals          | Microsoft    | Phase 0 | Cloud literacy foundation. Essential before touching any Azure resource.      |
| GitHub Foundations                 | GitHub       | Phase 0 | Understanding the tool used every day for five years.                         |
| DP-900 Data Fundamentals           | Microsoft    | Phase 1 | Data literacy — genuinely foundational before building a data architecture.   |
| AZ-104 Azure Administrator         | Microsoft    | Phase 1 | Infrastructure depth — managing what was deployed.                            |
| AZ-204 Azure Developer Associate   | Microsoft    | Phase 2 | Building on Azure — APIs, Functions, Logic Apps.                              |
| DP-600 Fabric Analytics Engineer   | Microsoft    | Phase 3 | Intelligence layer — Microsoft Fabric and advanced analytics.                 |
| AI-900 Azure AI Fundamentals       | Microsoft    | Phase 3 | Gateway to understanding the AI layer before building it.                     |
| AI-102 Azure AI Engineer Associate | Microsoft    | Phase 4 | Agent development — the technical foundation for LES-AGT.                     |
| AZ-305 Solutions Architect Expert  | Microsoft    | Phase 5 | The flagship certification — earned after building a production-grade system. |

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## Finance Domain Certifications

Finance domain certifications are managed through the parallel formal education programme and are not listed here. They are documented separately in the LES-EDU module.

The dual learning track — technology and finance developed simultaneously — is the core of the Finance Transformation Architect profile.

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## Study Resources

* **Microsoft Learn:** learn.microsoft.com — free official preparation for all Microsoft certifications
* **GitHub Learn:** learn.github.com — official GitHub Foundations preparation
* **Microsoft Virtual Training Days:** Free exam vouchers available for AZ-900 and other fundamentals certifications

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*Developed by* [*NikiDigitals*](https://nikidigitals.com/)


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