Study guide for Exam MS-721: Collaboration Communications Systems Engineer
Purpose of this document
This study guide should help you understand what to expect on the exam and includes a summary of the topics the exam might cover and links to additional resources. The information and materials in this document should help you focus your studies as you prepare for the exam.
| Useful links | Description |
|---|---|
| Review the skills measured as of July 22, 2024 | This list represents the skills measured AFTER the date provided. Study this list if you plan to take the exam AFTER that date. |
| Review the skills measured prior to July 22, 2024 | Study this list of skills if you take your exam PRIOR to the date provided. |
| Change log | You can go directly to the change log if you want to see the changes that will be made on the date provided. |
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Updates to the exam
Our exams are updated periodically to reflect skills that are required to perform a role. We have included two versions of the Skills Measured objectives depending on when you are taking the exam.
We always update the English language version of the exam first. Some exams are localized into other languages, and those are updated approximately eight weeks after the English version is updated. While Microsoft makes every effort to update localized versions as noted, there may be times when the localized versions of an exam are not updated on this schedule. Other available languages are listed in the Schedule Exam section of the Exam Details webpage. If the exam isn't available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes to complete the exam.
Note
The bullets that follow each of the skills measured are intended to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. Related topics may be covered in the exam.
Note
Most questions cover features that are general availability (GA). The exam may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.
Skills measured as of July 22, 2024
Audience profile
As a candidate for this exam, you’re responsible for planning, deploying, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting collaboration communication systems that include:
Microsoft Teams Phone
Microsoft Teams meetings
Microsoft Teams Premium
Microsoft Copilot in Teams
Microsoft Teams Rooms
Other certified and supported devices
As a collaboration communications systems engineer, you have a fundamental understanding of networking, telecommunications, audio/visual and meeting room technologies, and identity and access management. You’re proficient in managing collaboration and communications solutions by using:
Microsoft Teams admin center
Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal
PowerShell
Microsoft Call Quality Dashboard
You work with:
Microsoft Teams administrators
Microsoft identity and access administrators
Microsoft 365 administrators
Owners of other workloads, including facilities managers, network engineers, security engineers, device manufacturers, telephony providers, and Microsoft Certified solution providers
Skills at a glance
Plan and design collaboration communications systems (30–35%)
Configure and manage Teams meetings, webinars, and town halls (15–20%)
Configure and manage Teams Phone (25–30%)
Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices (25–30%)
Plan and design collaboration communications systems (30–35%)
Plan and design Teams meetings
Plan and design Teams meeting policies and settings
Plan for PSTN audio conferencing
Plan for Teams meetings, webinars, and town halls
Recommend when to use Teams Premium
Recommend when to use Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 in Teams
Recommend meeting types based on business requirements, including virtual appointments, webinars, town halls, and meetings
Recommend methods for assigning policies
Plan and design Teams policy packages
Plan and design Teams Phone and PSTN connectivity
Identify licensing requirements to enable Teams Phone for users, shared devices, and Teams resource accounts
Identify PSTN connectivity requirements
Recommend when to use Teams Phone Mobile
Plan for Operator Connect
Recommend an appropriate billing method for communications consumption
Plan for Shared Calling
Plan usage scenarios for service and user phone numbers
Plan for porting and/or acquiring phone numbers
Recommend devices for Teams Phone
Plan for and recommend analog devices, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) handsets, and SIP devices
Recommend when to use Survivable Branch Appliances (SBAs)
Plan and design Direct Routing call flows
Recommend a Session Border Controller (SBC) solution based on PSTN connectivity
Identify an appropriate compliance recording solution
Identify an appropriate certified contact center solution
Plan and design Teams-certified device solutions
Recommend a room configuration based on the meeting space
Recommend a room configuration based on customer and business requirements
Choose between Teams Rooms Basic and Teams Rooms Pro
Recommend a Teams Rooms device platform, including Windows and Android
Recommend Teams-certified devices
Recommend Teams Rooms certified components
Recommend when to use Cloud Video Interop (CVI)
Recommend when to use Direct Guest Join
Recommend an update strategy for Teams Meeting Room devices
Identify the requirements for a Microsoft Teams Rooms resource account
Identify the enrollment requirements for Microsoft Intune
Plan for advanced features on shared devices
Prepare the network for Teams
Perform a network analysis by using the Microsoft Teams Network Assessment Tool
Determine network readiness for Teams
Recommend when to use Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN)
Specify the network configuration for certified devices
Determine network requirements by using the Network planner for Teams
Specify the optimal network architecture for Teams
Specify Teams Quality of Service (QoS) requirements and policies
Configure Teams for QoS
Configure Media Bit Rate (MBR)
Create and assign a network roaming policy
Configure the network topology
Configure tenant data upload for the Microsoft Call Quality Dashboard
Configure reporting labels for Call Analytics
Configure and manage Teams meetings, webinars, and town halls (15–20%)
Configure and manage Teams meetings
Create and manage meeting policies, including policy packages and group policy assignment
Configure meeting settings
Configure avatars for Teams meetings
Configure Microsoft Mesh meetings in Microsoft Teams
Configure and manage meeting features, including meeting apps, polls and forms, Q&A, breakout rooms, and Teams Premium features
Create and manage Teams meeting templates and meeting template policies
Configure controlled content meeting policies
Configure Cloud Video Interop policies
Configure meeting recording and transcription to support Copilot for Microsoft 365
Configure virtual appointments, including advanced features
Configure and manage audio conferencing
Configure audio conferencing for Teams
Configure a default audio conferencing bridge
Configure an audio conference bridge number
Configure a toll-free conference bridge number
Assign a specific audio conferencing number to a user
Configure toll-free audio conferencing
Configure the audio conferencing numbers included in meeting invitations
Configure and manage Teams webinars
Configure webinar roles and presenter and attendee experience
Manage access to scheduling Teams webinars
Configure policies for Teams webinars
Configure in-org vs public webinars
Configure advanced webinar features
Configure attendee interaction for webinars
Configure and manage Teams Town halls
Configure Town Hall settings
Configure a Microsoft eCDN for Town halls
Configure advanced Town hall features
Configure Town halls with Teams, Viva Engage, and Microsoft Stream
Configure and manage Teams Phone (25–30%)
Configure Teams Phone policies
Configure dial plans
Configure calling policies
Configure call park policies
Configure caller ID policies
Configure IP Phone policies
Configure mobility policies
Configure voicemail policies
Configure call hold policies
Configure outbound call restrictions
Configure inbound call blocking
Configure routing of unassigned numbers
Configure compliance recording policies
Configure auto attendants and call queues
Design call flows for auto attendants and call queues
Configure Teams Phone resource accounts
Assign licenses to resource accounts
Assign phone numbers to resource accounts, including toll-free phone numbers
Assign a resource account to an auto attendant or call queue
Choose an appropriate call queue routing method
Configure holidays for auto attendants and call queues
Configure custom Music on Hold (MoH)
Assign a dynamic caller ID policy for call queues
Configure voice applications policies for auto attendants and call queues
Configure dynamic emergency calling
Design a solution for dynamic emergency calling
Configure emergency calling locations
Configure emergency call routing policies
Configure emergency calling policies
Configure networks and locations (Location Information Service (LIS))
Validate emergency address and emergency calling from Teams clients
Troubleshoot dynamic emergency address
Configure and manage users for Teams Phone
Assign a Teams Phone Standard license
Assign a Teams Calling Plan
Assign user dial plans
Assign phone numbers to users by using the Microsoft Teams admin center
Assign phone number in bulk by using PowerShell
Assign a verified emergency address location
Assign a calling policy to a user
Assign a Shared Calling policy to a user
Assign a private line to a user
Assign a voice routing policy to a Direct Routing user
Configure and manage calling features for Teams Phone
Configure voicemail
Configure group call pickup
Configure Call Forwarding
Configure Simultaneous Ring
Configure call delegation
Configure audio conferencing for a user
Assign a Dial-out from meetings policy for a user
Assign a call hold policy
Configure Shared Calling
Configure and manage Direct Routing for Teams Phone
Configure connectivity for Teams Phone to a SBC
Create and configure a PSTN gateway
Create PSTN usage records
Create and configure voice routes
Create and configure voice routing policies
Validate Direct Routing SBC connectivity
Troubleshoot Direct Routing by using the Teams admin center
Design and configure Location-Based Routing (LBR)
Design and configure Local Media Optimization (LMO)
Configure trunk translation rules
Configure on-network conferencing for Direct Routing
Configure SBA policies
Manage emergency call routing policies for Direct Routing
Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices (25–30%)
Manage and maintain Teams Rooms and devices
Configure device settings
Configure local network settings
Configure device updates
Recommend Conditional Access Policy MFA exceptions for Resource accounts
Configure meeting room settings by using the Microsoft Teams admin center or the local Teams application settings
Manage Teams Rooms from the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal
Specify Intune configuration requirements for Teams devices
Deploy common area phones, user phones, conference phones
Create and manage Teams device tags
Configure SIP Gateway and provision SIP devices
Manage and monitor shared space rooms that include bring-your-own devices
Monitor Teams device health
Troubleshoot authentication issues
Troubleshoot update issues
Troubleshoot remote provisioning issues
Troubleshoot Bluetooth beaconing
Configure and manage Teams Android devices
Configure IP phone policies
Create and configure device configuration profiles for Android based devices
Enable hotline for shared space devices
Deploy Android devices remotely
Configure and manage Teams Windows devices
Specify domain group policy exclusions for Teams Rooms on Windows
Configure custom displays for Teams Rooms on Windows
Customize meeting room settings by using XML files on Windows
Configure settings for peripherals for Teams Room on Windows
Configure optional features for Teams Rooms and devices
Configure HDMI ingest and options
Configure a content camera
Configure Teams casting
Configure proximity join
Configure room remote
Configure Direct Guest Join
Configure hot desking on Teams shared devices
Configure AI-enabled voice and video capabilities for shared space devices
Study resources
We recommend that you train and get hands-on experience before you take the exam. We offer self-study options and classroom training as well as links to documentation, community sites, and videos.
| Study resources | Links to learning and documentation |
|---|---|
| Get trained | Choose from self-paced learning paths and modules or take an instructor-led course |
| Find documentation | Microsoft Teams admin documentation Microsoft 365 documentation |
| Ask a question | Microsoft Q&A | Microsoft Docs |
| Get community support | Microsoft Teams Microsoft 365 - Microsoft Tech Community |
| Follow Microsoft Learn | Microsoft Learn - Microsoft Tech Community |
| Find a video | Exam Readiness Zone |
Change log
Key to understanding the table: The topic groups (also known as functional groups) are in bold typeface followed by the objectives within each group. The table is a comparison between the two versions of the exam skills measured and the third column describes the extent of the changes.
| Skill area prior to July 22, 2024 | Skill area as of July 22, 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Audience profile | Major | |
| Plan and design collaboration communications systems | Plan and design collaboration communications systems | % of the exam decreased |
| Plan and design Teams meetings | Plan and design Teams meetings | Minor |
| Plan and design Teams Phone and PSTN connectivity | Plan and design Teams Phone and PSTN connectivity | Major |
| Plan and design Teams-certified device solutions | Plan and design Teams certified device solutions | Major |
| Prepare the network for the deployment of Teams | Prepare the network for Teams | Major |
| Troubleshoot call failures and session quality | Deleted | |
| Configure and manage Teams meetings, webinars and town halls | Configure and manage Teams meetings, Webinars, and Town halls | No change |
| Configure and manage Teams meetings | Configure and manage Teams meetings | Major |
| Configure and manage audio conferencing | Configure and manage audio conferencing | Minor |
| Configure and manage live events, webinars, and town halls | Configure and manage Teams webinars | Major |
| Configure and manage Teams Town halls | New | |
| Configure and manage Teams Phone | Configure and manage Teams Phone | No change |
| Configure Teams Phone policies | Configure Teams Phone policies | Major |
| Configure auto attendants and call queues | Configure auto attendants and call queues | Major |
| Configure dynamic emergency calling | Configure dynamic emergency calling | Major |
| Configure and manage users for Teams Phone | Configure and manage users for Teams Phone | Major |
| Configure and manage calling features for Teams Phone | Configure and manage calling features for Teams Phone | Minor |
| Configure and manage Direct Routing for Teams Phone | Configure and manage Direct Routing for Teams Phone | Major |
| Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices | Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices | No change |
| Maintain Teams Rooms and devices | Manage and maintain Teams Rooms and devices | Minor |
| Configure and manage Teams Rooms on a Surface Hub or Windows | Configure and manage Teams Windows devices | Major |
| Configure optional features for Teams Rooms and devices | Configure optional features for Teams Rooms and devices | Major |
| Configure and manage Teams Android devices | Added |
Skills measured prior to July 22, 2024
Audience profile
As a candidate for this exam, you’re responsible for planning, deploying, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting:
Microsoft Teams Phone
Meetings
Personal and shared space devices, including Teams Rooms and Microsoft Surface Hub
As a collaboration communications systems engineer, you have a fundamental understanding of networking, telecommunications, audio/visual and meeting room technologies, and identity and access management. You’re proficient in managing and monitoring Teams Phone, meetings, and certified devices by using:
Microsoft Teams admin center
PowerShell
Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal
Microsoft Call Quality Dashboard
You deploy and configure Teams Phone with Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) connectivity through:
Teams Calling Plans
Operator Connect
Teams Phone Mobile
Direct Routing
You work with:
Teams administrators
Microsoft identity and access administrators
Microsoft 365 administrators
Owners of other workloads, including facilities managers, network engineers, security engineers, device manufacturers, telephony providers, and Microsoft Certified solution providers
Skills at a glance
Plan and design collaboration communications systems (25–30%)
Configure and manage Teams meetings, webinars, and town halls (15–20%)
Configure and manage Teams Phone (25–30%)
Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices (25–30%)
Plan and design collaboration communications systems (25–30%)
Plan and design Teams meetings
Plan and design Teams meeting policies and settings
Plan for PSTN audio conferencing
Plan for Teams webinars, live events, and town halls
Compare capabilities and features of Teams Core and Teams Premium
Recommend meeting types based on business requirements (virtual appointments, webinars, live events, town halls and Teams meetings)
Design Teams policy packages (includes meeting policies, calling policies, and live events policies)
Recommend methods for assigning policies
Plan and design Teams Phone and PSTN connectivity
Identify licensing requirements to enable Teams Phone for users, shared devices, and Teams resource accounts
Identify PSTN connectivity requirements
Plan for Teams Phone Mobile
Plan for Operator Connect
Plan for Communication Credits or pay-as-you-go calling subscriptions
Plan for Shared Calling
Plan usage scenarios for service and user phone numbers
Choose between porting and acquiring phone numbers
Plan a solution to acquire or port phone numbers based on PSTN connectivity method (DR, OC, TPM, Teams Calling Plans)
Recommend Teams Phone devices
Plan for and recommend analog devices, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) handsets, and SIP devices
Recommend when to use Survivable Branch Appliances (SBAs)
Plan and design Direct Routing call flows
Recommend a Session Border Controller (SBC) solution based on PSTN connectivity
Identify an appropriate compliance recording solution
Identify an appropriate certified contact center solution
Plan for SBC and SBA updates
Plan and design Teams-certified device solutions
Recommend a room configuration based on the meeting space
Recommend a room configuration based on customer and business requirements
Compare capabilities and features of Teams Rooms Basic and Teams Rooms Pro
Recommend a Teams Rooms device platform (Android vs. Windows vs. Surface Hub)
Recommend Teams-certified devices
Recommend Teams Rooms certified components
Recommend when to use coordinated meetings
Recommend when to use Cloud Video Interop (CVI) or Direct Guest Join
Recommend an update strategy for Teams Meeting Room devices
Identify the requirements for a Microsoft Exchange Online resource account
Identify the enrollment requirements for Microsoft Intune
Plan for advanced features on shared devices
Prepare the network for the deployment of Teams
Perform a network analysis by using the Microsoft Teams Network Assessment Tool
Determine network readiness for Teams
Determine Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN) requirements for Teams live events and town halls.
Specify the network configuration for certified devices
Determine network requirements by using the Network planner for Teams
Specify the optimal network architecture for Teams
Specify Teams Quality of Service (QoS) requirements and policies
Validate local internet breakout strategy for client media optimization
Validate VPN split tunneling
Validate DNS resolves to the nearest point of entry in Microsoft 365
Configure Teams for QoS
Configure Media Bit Rate (MBR)
Create and assign a network roaming policy
Configure the network topology
Configure tenant data upload for the Microsoft Call Quality Dashboard
Configure Microsoft Power BI reports for the Microsoft Call Quality Dashboard
Configure reporting labels for Call Analytics
Troubleshoot call failures and session quality
Troubleshoot a missing dial pad
Troubleshoot voice & meeting issues by using self-help diagnostics in the Microsoft 365 admin center
Troubleshoot Entra ID sign-in issues for Teams phones
Interpret Teams media flows
Troubleshoot tenant dial plans by using regular expressions and PowerShell
Interpret E.164 normalization rules to resolve dialing issues
Interpret reverse number lookup to resolve caller ID issues
Diagnose call failures
Troubleshoot dynamic emergency address by using client debug logs
Troubleshoot Teams client media issues by using the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer for Teams
Troubleshoot calls by using Advanced Call Analytics
Troubleshoot calls by using the Microsoft Call Quality Dashboard
Inspect PSTN usage reports for SIP call failures
Configure and manage Teams meetings, webinars, and town halls (15–20%)
Configure and manage Teams meetings
Create and manage meeting policies
Configure meeting settings
Configure and manage Teams webinars
Configure avatars for Teams meetings
Configure immersive spaces for Teams meetings
Configure and manage Teams Premium meeting features
Create and manage Teams meeting templates and policies
Configure and manage audio conferencing
Configure audio conferencing for Teams
Configure a default audio conferencing bridge
Configure an audio conference bridge number
Configure a toll-free conference bridge number
Assign a specific audio conferencing number to a user
Configure toll-free audio conferencing
Configure the audio conferencing numbers included in meeting invitations
Configure and manage live events, webinars, and town halls
Configure the Live events settings
Create and manage live events policies
Configure meeting and event roles
Configure live events and town halls with Teams, Viva Engage, and Microsoft Stream
Configure in-org vs public town halls
Configure town halls with Teams Premium
Manage access to scheduling Teams webinars
Configure policies for Teams webinars
Configure in-org vs public webinars
Configure webinars with Teams Premium
Configure attendee interaction for webinars
Configure and manage Teams Phone (25–30%)
Configure Teams Phone policies
Create a dial plan
Configure calling policies
Configure call park policies
Configure caller ID policies
Configure call hold policies for users
Configure outbound call restrictions
Configure inbound call blocking
Configure routing of unassigned numbers
Assign voice policies through policy packages
Configure compliance recording policies
Configure auto attendants and call queues
Design call flows for auto attendants and call queues
Configure auto attendants and call queues
Deploy channel-based call queues
Configure resource accounts
Assign licenses to resource accounts
Assign phone number to resource accounts
Assign a resource account to an auto attendant or call queue
Configure Microsoft 365 groups for voicemail
Interpret call queue conference mode
Interpret call queue routing methods
Configure holidays for auto attendants and call queues
Configure custom Music on Hold (MoH)
Assign a dynamic caller ID policy for call queues
Configure voice applications policies for auto attendants and call queues
Configure dynamic emergency calling
Design dynamic emergency calling scenarios
Configure emergency calling locations
Configure emergency calling policies
Configure networks and locations (Location Information Service (LIS))
Validate emergency address and emergency calling from Teams clients
Enable external location lookup mode
Configure and manage users for Teams Phone
Assign a Teams Phone Standard license
Assign a Teams Calling Plan
Assign user dial plans
Assign phone numbers to users by using the Microsoft Teams admin center
Assign phone number to users by using PowerShell
Assign a verified emergency address location
Assign a calling policy to a user
Assign a voice routing policy to a Direct Routing user
Configure and manage calling features for Teams Phone
Configure voicemail for users
Configure group call pickup for users
Configure Call Forwarding
Configure Simultaneous Ring
Configure call delegation for users
Enable and configure audio conferencing for a user
Assign a Dial-out from meetings policy for a user
Assign a call hold policy for a user
Configure Shared Calling
Configure and manage Direct Routing for Teams Phone
Configure connectivity for Teams Phone to a SBC
Create and configure an online PSTN gateway
Create PSTN usage records
Create and configure a voice route
Create and configure voice routing policies
Validate Direct Routing SBC connectivity
Troubleshoot firewall issues for Direct Routing
Troubleshoot certificate issues for Direct Routing
Troubleshoot Direct Routing SBC connectivity
Troubleshoot SIP option issues for Direct Routing
Investigate and diagnose calling issues by using an SBC SIP trace
Design and configure Location-Based Routing (LBR)
Design and configure Local Media Optimization (LMO)
Configure trunk translation rules
Configure on-network conferencing for Direct Routing
Configure an SBA
Manage emergency call routing policies for Direct Routing
Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices (25–30%)
Maintain Teams Rooms and devices
Configure device settings
Configure IP phone policies
Configure local network settings
Configure security and updates
Configure Conditional Access Policy MFA exception for Resource accounts
Configure meeting room settings by using the Microsoft Teams admin center or the local Teams application settings
Create and configure device configuration profiles for Android based devices
Manage Teams Rooms from the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal
Configure Intune policies for Teams devices
Configure Intune Configuration profiles (for Windows MTRs)
Enable advanced voice capabilities for shared space devices
Enable hotline for shared space devices
Configure Virtual frontdesk
Deploy common area phones, user phones, conference phones
Create and manage Teams device tags
Deploy Android devices remotely
Configure SIP Gateway
Monitor Teams device health
Troubleshoot authentication issues
Troubleshoot update issues
Troubleshoot remote provisioning issues
Troubleshoot Bluetooth beaconing
Configure and manage Teams Rooms on a Surface Hub or Windows
Configure the authentication type during a Surface Hub out-of-box-experience (OOBE) setup
Configure meeting room settings on a Surface Hub device
Create and validate a Surface Hub provisioning package
Assign a provisioning package to a Surface Hub
Specify domain group policy exclusions for Teams Rooms on Windows
Configure custom displays for Teams Rooms on Windows
Customize meeting room settings by using XML files on Windows
Configure settings for peripherals for Teams Room on Windows
Monitor Surface Hub health with Azure Monitor
Manage Surface Hub Updates via Update Rings
Configure optional features for Teams Rooms and devices
Configure HDMI ingest and options
Configure a content camera
Configure Teams casting
Auto accept a proximity join
Allow room remote
Configure an intelligent speaker
Configure Direct Guest Join
Configure hot desking on Teams shared devices
Configure Hotline phones