Perspectives on CCNP Exam Topics Related to Planning

Cisco introduced the Cisco Certified Networking Professional (CCNP) certification in 1998. Since that time, Cisco has revised the exams and related courses on several occasions. Each major revision adjusted the scope of topics by expanding and adding some topics while shrinking or removing other topics. At the same time, the depth of coverage has changed over time as well, with the depth of coverage for each topic either becoming deeper or shallower.

The version of CCNP announced by Cisco in January 2010, including the 642-902 exam about which this book is written, narrows the breadth of topics included in CCNP compared to the previous version of CCNP. Cisco removed several sizable topics from CCNP—notably Quality of Service (QoS), Wireless LANs (WLANs), and many security topics. The new CCNP squarely focuses on routing and switching, but with a deeper troubleshooting requirement, with a new TSHOOT (642-832) exam. These changes also reflect that CCNP now requires only three exams instead of the four exams formerly required.