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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.

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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 April 30, 2025

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, webinars, and town halls

  • Microsoft Teams Premium

  • Microsoft 365 Copilot

  • Microsoft Teams Rooms

  • Other certified and supported devices

  • Flexible workplaces

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 (20–25%)

  • Configure and manage Teams meetings, webinars, and town halls (15–20%)

  • Configure and manage Teams Phone (30–35%)

  • Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices (20–25%)

Plan and design collaboration communications systems (20–25%)

Plan and design Teams meetings

  • Plan for Teams meetings, webinars, and town halls

  • Plan and design Teams meeting policies and settings

  • Plan for PSTN audio conferencing

  • Recommend when to use Teams Premium, including Microsoft 365 Copilot

  • 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, including domestic, international, and pay-as-you-go (PAYG)

  • Plan for Shared Calling

  • Plan usage scenarios for service and user phone numbers

  • Plan for porting and/or acquiring phone numbers

  • Design call flows for auto attendants and call queues

  • Design a solution for dynamic emergency calling

  • 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

  • Recommend a Session Border Controller (SBC) solution based on PSTN connectivity

  • Identify an appropriate compliance recording solution

  • Identify use cases for certified contact center solutions

  • Identify use cases for the Queues App

Plan and design Teams-certified device solutions

  • Recommend a room configuration based on the meeting space, including Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

  • 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 an interoperability solution for Microsoft Teams Rooms, including Cloud Video Interop (CVI), Direct Guest Join, and SIP Join via CVI

  • Identify the requirements for a Microsoft Teams Rooms resource account

  • Identify the enrollment requirements for Microsoft Intune

  • Identify the enrollment requirements for Android Open Source Project (AOSP) device management

  • Plan for advanced features on shared devices

Prepare the network for Teams

  • Evaluate network readiness by using the Microsoft Teams Network Assessment Tool

  • 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

  • Configure meeting settings

  • Configure avatars for Teams meetings

  • 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 Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams Premium

  • Configure virtual appointments and advanced virtual appointment 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 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

Implement and configure Teams Phone (30–35%)

Create and configure Teams Phone policies

  • Create and configure dial plans

  • Create and configure calling policies

  • Create and configure call park policies

  • Create and configure caller ID policies

  • Create and configure IP Phone policies

  • Create and configure mobility policies

  • Create and configure voicemail policies

  • Create and configure call hold policies

  • Create and configure outbound call restrictions

  • Create and configure inbound call blocking

  • Create and configure routing of unassigned numbers

  • Create and configure compliance recording policies

  • Create and configure Shared Calling policies

Create and configure auto attendants and call queues

  • Create and 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

  • Create and configure voice applications policies for auto attendants and call queues

  • Implement callback for call queues

  • Configure the Queues App

Configure emergency calling

  • Create and 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

  • Assign a verified emergency address location

  • Troubleshoot dynamic emergency address

Assign Teams Phone licenses, phone numbers, and policies

  • Assign a Teams Phone Standard license

  • Assign a Teams Calling Plan

  • Assign phone numbers to users by using the Microsoft Teams admin center

  • Assign phone numbers in bulk by using PowerShell

  • Assign Teams Phone policies to a specific user

  • Create and assign policy packages

  • Configure and assign Teams Phone policies by using group policy

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

  • Configure private lines

Configure and manage Direct Routing for Teams Phone

  • Configure connectivity for Teams Phone to an 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

  • Identify use cases for Location-Based Routing (LBR)

  • Identify use cases for 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 phone number inventory for Direct Routing

  • Troubleshoot Direct Routing by using the Teams admin center

Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices (20–25%)

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, and conference phones

  • Create and manage Teams device tags

  • Configure SIP Gateway and provision SIP devices

  • Monitor Teams device health

  • Troubleshoot authentication issues

  • Troubleshoot update issues

  • Troubleshoot remote provisioning issues

  • Troubleshoot proximity join issues

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 custom displays for Teams Rooms on Android and Teams panels

  • Specify Intune configuration requirements for AOSP and Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP) devices

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

Configure BYOD spaces and bookable desks

  • Create and publish room types

  • Manage inventory, including discovery of or import of hardware

  • Assign devices to room types

  • Set up and configure bookable desks

  • Manage and monitor shared space rooms that include bring-your-own 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

The table below summarizes the changes between the current and previous version of the skills measured. The functional groups are in bold typeface followed by the objectives within each group. The table is a comparison between the previous and current version of the exam skills measured and the third column describes the extent of the changes.

Skill area prior to April 30, 2025 Skill area as of April 30, 2025 Change
Audience profile Minor
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 Minor
Plan and design Teams certified device solutions Plan and design Teams-certified device solutions Major
Prepare the network for Teams Prepare the network for Teams Minor
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 Teams Phone Implement and configure Teams Phone % of the exam increased
Configure Teams Phone policies Create and configure Teams Phone policies Minor
Configure auto attendants and call queues Create and configure auto attendants and call queues Major
Configure dynamic emergency calling Configure emergency calling Minor
Configure and manage users for Teams Phone Assign Teams Phone licenses, phone numbers, and policies Major
Configure and manage calling features for Teams Phone Configure and manage calling features for Teams Phone Major
Configure and manage Direct Routing for Teams Phone Configure and manage Direct Routing for Teams Phone Minor
Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices Configure and manage Teams Rooms and devices % of the exam decreased
Manage and maintain Teams Rooms and devices Manage and maintain Teams Rooms and devices Minor
Configure and manage Teams Android devices Configure and manage Teams Android devices Minor
Configure BYOD spaces and bookable desks New