Prerequisite
I’m sure all of you know that the prerequisites for VCDX are VCP and both VCAPs. I started the process of trying to achieve the VCDX certification back in October 2013, when I passed the VCAP-DCD and then two months later in December 2013 I achieved VCAP-DCA status.
I didn’t keep a log for the effort I put into the VCAP-DCA, but I believe it was approximately one month of study time, to get to a point where I felt I had a chance of passing.
Family Life
Why have I mentioned ‘family life’ in this blog post? Seems kinda irrelevant? Well I would say it’s probably the most important part of the VCDX Submission process.
This point is crucial, do not underestimate how hard it is not spending time with your family (I have two children 2 and 6), you will be giving up your weekends, ability to attend family functions, time with your friends and doing the things you enjoy outside of work.
In December 2013 and January 2014, it was holiday season and I wanted to spend time with my family and to see if my better half would commit to the VCDX process, as I knew it would be grueling on the both of us. My amazing wife said yes and it was time to find a design.
I was conversing with Paul Meehan @PaulPMeehan on twitter about the virtues of VCDX and he mentioned that the word VCDX had taken pride of place next to ‘Voldemort’ in things that should not be mentioned in the Meehan household.
Design
Finding a design which meets the design qualities for VCDX Submission is hard work, not every customer you work with has a design that meets the required standard for Availability, Manageability, Performance, Recoverability, Security.
I was pretty new to my current role, four months in and even though I had designed a number of upgrades and solutions, I didn’t believe any of them ‘cut the mustard’ in terms of design qualities. I was working with a number of clients and knew I had something in the pipeline, but you are never sure if you will be the Lead Architect on the design or whether the clients circumstances would change.
So in the end, I decided to use a design I had done for a customer back in 2012!
The bad news was that it was going to take me sometime to get back up to speed on the design, but the good news was it ticked every one of the design qualities.
VCDX Submission
The VCDX Submission is broken down into the following key areas:
- Architecture Design
- Installation Guide
- Validation Test
- Implementation Plan
- Operational Procedures
- Application Form
So how long has it taken me to get to a point of being able to submit for VCDX?
Overall Total
267 Hours
68 days
Average 4 Hours per day
equivalent to 5 weeks annual leave and every bank holiday throughout the year!
Architecture Design
177 Hours
41 Days
4 Hours 20 Minute Average
239 Pages
112 Tables
34 Diagrams
To complete the first draft took from 1st February 2014 to 9th March 2014 and consisted of 34 days and 149 hours of effort. The remaining time of 28 hours was reviewing and tweeking.
equivalent to a working month at 40 hours per week over four and a half weeks
Installation Guide & Operational Procedures
I decided to combine the installation guide and operational procedures as it made sense.
76 Hours
21 Days
3 Hours 40 Minute Average
141 Pages
14 Tables
57 Diagrams
To complete the first draft took from 10th March 2014 to 31st March 2014 and consisted of 17 days and 70 hours of effort. The remaining time of 6 hours was reviewing and tweeking.
equivalent to two weeks annual vacation for someone who works 38 hours per week
Test Plan
6 Hours
2 Days
3 Hours Average
124 Tests
Implementation Plan
5 Hours
2 Days
2 Hours 30 Minutes Average
182 Project Line Items
Application
3 Hours
2 Days
1 Hours 30 Minutes Average
Peer Review
Not added to the list is a review of my VCDX Architecture Design by colleague and all round good ‘egg’ Steve Wenban @stevewenban79
414 Minutes
178 Comments
7 instances of vCentre corrected
1 big thumbs up
VMFocus 
Respect!!
Great article, very honest and insightful. Are you ready for submission now? Hat’s off to you. (And of-course, to Mrs Kilborn).
Thanks Craig, ready for submission, believe I have the same amount of effort to get ready for the defense.
Love the overview and measurement of the effort; I didn’t track it to that level but there was effort almost everyday for a long time. I find it to be very accurate based on my experience. Key point is that preparing the design is just the beginning in getting ready for your defense. Can’t stress the impact of getting family support enough. Well done, I look forward to seeing you be successful.
These numbers are tracking with what I have been working with also. In actually it may be a low estimate of the hours involved.
Everyone’s process is going to be different, some requiring less time if the design is done in work hours and some requiring more time.
I wanted to share my experience in getting to this stage, as I had seen lots of posts on defense but not on what was required to submit.
Hope you found the post enjoyable.