Readers of Understanding BizTalk Server 2006 are expected to already have knowledge of EAI technologies and the general challenges of heterogeneous application integration.
The prerequisite skills and knowledge required for various roles is detailed below.

Prerequisites for Developers
A developer of BizTalk solutions must be at least moderately experienced with the use of
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Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and the development of .NET solutions
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Programming with the .NET Framework
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Extensible Markup Language (XML)
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Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT)
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XML Schema Definition Language (XSD)
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Web Service use and development

Prerequisites for IT Professionals
The following table shows the areas of proficiency expected for a system administrator or IT professional.
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System administrator task
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Prerequisite knowledge
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Design the deployment infrastructure
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An understanding of reliability, availability, security, performance, compatibility, networking, and hardware and software management concepts.
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Deploy the infrastructure
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Must know how to:
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Deploy Windows Server 2003 SP1
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Manage user and group accounts in Windows domains
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Configure networking and connectivity
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Implement network and file security in a Windows network environment
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Deploy Microsoft SQL Server
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Deploy Windows SharePoint Services
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Deploy a larger installation
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Must know how to configure SQL Server clustering and understand load balancing technologies.
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Deploy and manage a BizTalk application
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Must know how to manage server applications in a Windows Server 2003 SP1 environment and understand how to create and manage Web sites and virtual directories.
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An IT Pro responsible for the deployment of BizTalk solutions must be at least moderately experienced with the use of the following:
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Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI)
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Windows Server 2003 SP 1
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SQL Server
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Windows SharePoint Services
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Performance monitoring and optimization techniques
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Back and restore concepts and techniques

Prerequisites for Business Analysts
Business Analysts responsible for encoding business rules, managing trading partners, or monitoring business activity must be at least moderately experienced with the use of
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Microsoft Excel
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Microsoft Access
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OLAP tools/programs for running reports
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Microsoft Visio
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Microsoft Project
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Microsoft PowerPoint
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Microsoft Word
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Microsoft Outlook
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Boolean logic