The Salesforce Certified System Architect Journey

As I noted in my earlier blog post, I started the journey on Salesforce this January (2020!). 

Little did I know how much I would learn, and appreciate the Salesforce landscape. It was a humbling experience indeed.  I had taken other certifications in the past (PMP, CSM, AWS etc), but this was a commitment to myself for a longer term. This was a marathon.

After 8 long months, I was able to get the System Architect certification. The work from home situation helped - it was a blessing in disguise.

I have chronicled all my experience is various posts as listed below:

Salesforce Certified Platform Developer 1 Exam

Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer Exam

Salesforce Certified Development Life cycle and Deployment Designer Exam

Salesforce Certified Identity and Access Management Designer Exam.

Hope these posts helps someone out there. 

How I passed the Salesforce Identity and Access Management Designer Certification

This exam was the one I dreaded most. 

Security - the one aspect we (app team) take for granted. The one which is taken care by someone we dont know. Every organization has a "Security Team" or a "Security guy/gal". The learning for this exam changed my perspective on so many levels regarding security. Now I respect the them even more. 

 I was warned by many (bloggers) about this exam. Even my mentor friend Rajeev Venkitaraman did. "Be careful," he said, "Study hard". After the easy Development Lifecycle exam, this was indeed a mountain to climb. 

As usual after scoping out what I needed to learn, and then scheduling the topics, I started the trailmix. Reading, reading and then lot of reading. :) 

 My initial attempt was to make myself comfortable and confident about the topic. By reading, and watching other related YouTube videos and blogs I was able to grasp the fundamentals. Meanwhile the trailmix had lot of good resources. 

The topics I concentrated on: 

1. SSO (You should be able to differentiate IdP (Identity Provider) initiated vs SP (Service Provider) Initiated authentication 
2. OAuth Flows (Identify what flow is best for the given scenario) 
3. Federated vs Delegated Authentication 
4. 2FA (Two Factor Authentication)
5. Identity Connect 
6. Licenses 

You need to practice all the flows (at least the SSO ones) and also the Security settings. Only if you practice you will be able to "get it". If you have a friend who works in this domain, call that dude up and remind that you are still a good friend :) 

Anyways, this was a lot for me, but do-abble. The last week of my study was a refresher, spending my time on the Ladies Be Architects study videos. They are a blessing indeed. 

 All the best. Send me a note if you want any help preparing. I will be glad to help you out.

How I passed Salesforce Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer Certification

To date, this was the easiest exam I have taken so far. I am dedicating all the "easiness" to my 2 decades of software development experience in the enterprise world. 

The preparation was easy and all the contents in trailmix got absorbed into my little brain like a sponge absorbs water. 

The trailmix had topics on "how-to" technical subjects - but the exam had more on governance than technical. 

As with any SF exam prep, I did the following:

1. Go thru the trailmix diligently and religiously

2. Watch videos in Youtube on Governance (there are tons) and Version Control strategies

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN90xnDh7_o&t=647s

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2y-3ea5SzY

3. Work on mock tests (Propofs and Quizlets)

The following experiences also helped me in preparing for the exam:

https://leadtheforce.blogspot.com/2017/12/i-passed-salesforce-certified.html

http://gemmablezard.com/salesforce-certified-development-lifecycle-deployment-designer-exam-tips

http://santanuboral.blogspot.com/2017/12/passing-Development-lifecycle.html

https://automationchampion.com/2017/11/08/how-to-become-development-lifecycle-and-deployment-designer-certification/

http://www.salesforcechris.com/development-lifecycle-and-deployment-designer-study-guide/

Again, the Ladies Be Architects videos come to help! Big thanks to Gemma and gang! They really rock!

Before closing in, couple of main topics that I hit on the exam:

1. Sandboxes (what and when)

2. Editions (which editions can do what)

3. Source Control strategies

4. Metadata API

5. Changeset Deployment

6. Governance

The following tables helped me understand the sandbox types and various types of changes in the ALM:

Good luck!

How I passed Salesforce Integration Architecture Designer Exam

As they say, "Success motivates action". After passing the Platform Developer 1 exam, I set out to attain the Integration Architecture Designer exam. 

By this time, I had a fair idea on the Salesforce ecosystem, but had many many questions (I still have). My friend Rajeev Venkitaraman came to help again, with his pointer that the Integration Pattern and Practices PDF is the bible for this certification. He was right, as he always is. :)

Before I even start studying the scope out the entire topic. The certification guide in the Salesforce trailhead comes to help here. This exercise gives me an idea on how long it will take me to study. I also went through the trailmix for this exam and authored a schedule. A month and a half - it seemed quite right - with my full time job and the summer approaching.

The next thing I do is set out to read the experiences of other exam takers. It also gives me a fair idea and some motivation. The following blogs gave me a good lead into my preparation:

https://leadtheforce.blogspot.com/2017/12/i-passed-salesforce-certified.html

http://gemmablezard.com/salesforce-certified-development-lifecycle-deployment-designer-exam-tips

http://santanuboral.blogspot.com/2017/12/passing-Development-lifecycle.html

https://automationchampion.com/2017/11/08/how-to-become-development-lifecycle-and-deployment-designer-certification/

http://www.salesforcechris.com/development-lifecycle-and-deployment-designer-study-guide/

Thanks a billion!

I set out to go thru the Trailhead. At the same time I also started reading the patterns and pratices pdf. It confused me the first time. But by the 3rd time it all started to make sense. As my friend Rajeev suggested, by the 4th time I got the entire picture and was able to connect the dots. 

Once I completed the Trailmix and reading the patterns document, I started watching videos on various topics. The Ladies Be Architects study group videos really helped me a lot. 

By the time I completed half of my preparation, I had already scheduled my exam on May 21st. 

My work experience helped me understand the topic conceptually, regarding various APIs. I just had to place those into Salesforce domain. I would not say it was easy. I took dedication and time.

I also had prepared charts and post-its (which I stuck on my wall) for easy reference. The one that really helped me get through most of the questions was this one:

The exam went without much trouble. The mock tests that I took from Propofs and various Quizlets helped in shape my foundation.

For those who are going to take the exam, work experience in an Enterprise setup will really help, but if you prepare well, you will be able to make it even without that. All the best!

How I passed Salesforce - Platform Developer 1 Cert Exam (SP20)

On the start of the year 2020, I decided to make some changes to my career development. I have been working in Microsoft technologies over two decades (you read it right - 20 years). I decided to delve into Salesforce. I was lured into, in fact. :). I also wanted to enhance my knowledge and be uncomfortable in a good way.

First and foremost, needless to say, I made Trailhead my best friend. I started reading trailhead and going through the Platform Developer1 trailmix. For the first few weeks, I got so confused that I almost decided to give up. Coming from a custom development background, it was very difficult to get the WHY of Salesforce ecosystem. My friend and mentor, Rajeev Venkitaraman, advised me to forget the WHY for now and continue. I did. I am glad I did. :)

After a while, things started making sense. I started studying in mid January. By February mid, I was feeling pretty comfortable. Since I had a rich programming experience, Apex was a no brainer. Triggers, Controllers, LWC, all made sense. Entering March, I scheduled the exam for April 2nd week. Once I completed the trailhead, I signed up for a Udemy course on the exam. It did help me solidify the concepts and boosted my confidence. I started gathering various resources and old questions to get a hang of the certification exam. Focusonforce.com really helped in this case. If you are hard-pressed on budget, you can also go through questions in propofs.com. But, the answers might be all wrong. Use you wits to gauge.

My exam was rescheduled to the first week of  June due to the COVID-19 situation. I could not wait and I rescheduled it back to April 2nd, changing it to OLP (Online Proctored) exam.

The night before I set all things ready - cleaned the desk, took off all the post-its from my wall, arranged my webcam (so that the proctor could see my face, my hands and my keyboard). Believe me, it was not fun - it took me around 30 minutes to adjust the webcam :)

On the day of exam, I took it easy - even though I was tensed a bit. After the test started, the proctor hindered (after 2 or 3 questions) and said he could not see me. I adjusted my camera again, and continued. But he hindered again and said the same. The real issue was not my webcam, but an instance of Skype which was running in the background. Switched it off, and things started sailing smooth.

There was only one question from Governor Limits (which is an important topic though), lot of SOQL and Apex questions. I was glad that I did Focusonforce, which helped me immensely. I reviewed all the answers one more time and finally hit the "SUBMIT" button. 

So, to summarize:

1. Go through trailhead.
   
2. Understand the Salesforce ecosystem (give some time - you will get it)
   
3. Do the trailmix
   
4. Schedule your exam (this will motivate you to keep going)
   
5. Do mock tests - Focusonforce.com (very reliable) or propofs.com (at your own risk)
   One thing to keep in mind - do not feel disheartened if you do not pass or get high scores in mock tests. GETTING HIGH SCORES IN MOCK TESTS SHOULD NOT BE OUR GOAL, CONTRARY TO WHAT MANY PEOPLE ADVISE. Our goal is to learn. Period. If you do not do good in a mock test, take that as an opportunity to learn and go read into those areas you did not do good. I enjoyed the aha moments during my mock test times.
   
6. Take the exam - FINISH STRONG!

Must read if this is your first attempt at a SF certification:
How to pass each Salesforce certification: The SFDC99 Method
https://www.sfdc99.com/2017/04/18/pass-salesforce-certification-sfdc99-method/
All the best!

PS: Did I say I passed the exam? I did. :)

What is NODE.JS doing in my UI stack?

Well, I have been doing client side development for a while. Knockout, jQuery, Bootstrap and alike.

Meanwhile I was learning Angular (the first version) too.

Then life happened, and I got busy in my day-to-day work.

I had heard about NODE.JS becoming popular among the JavaScript enthusiasts, as they could now write their favorite language for server side purposes. That sounded cool, but as I had .NET and C#, I never bothered.

Until now.

I picked up Angular 2 for including in my language cache, and I saw these plethora of client side libraries - Gulp, Bower, TypeScript, Node.js.

Wait a second! Node.js? Why? Isn't that for server side?

What is NODE.JS doing in my UI stack?

I started googling and binging around, and I got no answer that could quench my thirst. Finally, I turned to Jason Meckley. Jason is an Angular guru, who monthly presentations in our User Group got me excited to Angular in the first place.

And here is his reply to my email:

Node is a JavaScript engine. Its original intent was to execute JS on the server. However more client side developer are using node as a means to manage their UI projects. I haven't seen it being used directly for UI work. but it does play into frameworks like angular/emberJS etc. The most common usage of nodeJS for UI development is node package manager (npm). we are using npm on all our angular work. to get the local environment setup and running looks something like this

c:/projects/my-project

npm install

bower install

gulp --env=local run

within my-project is there are 3 files package.json, bower.json & gulpfile.js

package.json is the list of npm modules. 

bower.json is a list of bower modules bower is like npm but the packages are specific to web development.

usually npm will install bower and gulp and the bower will install client libraries.

These files are similar to nuget's package.config in .net projects.

gulpfile.js contains the build tasks. similar to ant, nant, rake, cake, psake, etc... we have tasks like

1. create distribution directory

2. jslint

3. minify js

4. transpile .less to css

5. copy output to distribution directory

6. run tests (karma, protractor, qunit, etc.)

7. run local web server

To sum it up, node common purpose for client side development is package management and executing compile time scripts like gulp.

DVLUP Day at NYC

When Nick Landry, our regional DVLUP ambassador told me about the DVLUP day event at New York City, I recognized it as another excuse to experience the energy of the vibrant city apart from meeting and learning from other app developers. The event was to be on March 22nd and we had plans to visit NJ anyways to attend my nephew's birthday.

On Saturday morning, myself and my brother-in-law Shibu, set out to New York City.  Shibu is an Android fan, and I was like, well this is the chance for me to baptize him (to convert to Windows Phone). LOL.

 

We hopped on the NJ Transit from Metuchen station. The good thing about spending time with Shibu is that he is as geeky as me. We share common interests and always a pleasure to chat with him. Time flew by and after a 45 minute ride, we reached Penn Station. It was almost 7:45 AM. So we had to rush as the event was supposed to start at 8. And we knew the event was over-booked. And thanks to my dear friend Giphi, who was texting images of the long line outside the event, which made us literally run :) (BTW, this event took place at the Microsoft office at Times Square).

The 10 minutes of jogging reminded me how out of shape I was. Man!

We joined the line, some 200 dudes (and some girls) back :) :(. 

 

They were giving away a Swiss Gear backpack as an early bird incentive, which Shibu managed to get.

Once we were in, I could recognize some faces who were there at the WPDevSaturday at Iselin, NJ, a month back. After chatting and having a hot coffee, we went inside the main conference room.

Nick Landry did a amazing Keynote, which gave an introduction to Windows Phone and how it is growing fast and gaining popularity.  He introduced all the speakers of the day.

 

Once the keynote was over, we spread out Into different tracks. I had taken the "Maps, Image SDK and Cloud" track.  Nick gave a very good insight into GIS abilities of WP and also how< to implement map-ing capabilities in WP apps.

As I am working on a map-based app, it was indeed an informative session for me. Lot learned. The main thing was the answers from Nick invoked from wonderful questions from the attendees. That is the main reason for attending such in-person events. This session answered lot of questions/doubts I had.

The time flew and it was time for lunch. Sandwiches, a bottle of water, and some time to code on my app. By this time Jesus Aguilar was ready to give us some great info on Azure. 

He gave insights into Azure basics and explained everything I needed to start on Azure Mobile Services.

Then came the Lightning Talks about Design, Submitting apps to Marketplace (for beginners) and  how to market our apps. The Marketing talk from Susan Wisowaty was quire informative. Jeff Harmon's talk on advertising gave a new insight to app ads. Depending on PubCenter is a dumb idea. :) Jeff also helped me solve a problem I was facing on getting map images from HERE REST APIs.

We spend some time coding afterwards and meeting other app developers. It is always a good feeling when you could share knowledge with like minded people. 

Two of the many friends I made from attending the events: Rob Irving (of Car Dash fame)  and Nick Landry. Missed snaps with Jason and Govind. Next time :)

Well, after the event, Nick did not forget to hand over the Swiss Gear bag that I won on the February app contest. Also collected the NFC card that Giphi won on the same contest.

As the NJ transit trains are sporadic on weekends, we had to run back (it was already 6:45 PM) to the station to catch the train. I did not miss the chance to take some good snaps of Times Sq.

 

Overall, it was a wonderful, happy, geeky, informative day of knowledge sharing and having fun! And at Times Sq, NYC, one of the few  places I like to spend the time at.

A BIG THANK YOU to Microsoft and Nokia for putting up an event like this.

Oh I did not mention the cost of the event. $FREE.00.