Becoming a Salesforce.com Technical Architect

What is it?• The Salesforce.com Certified Technical Architect

program is designed for technical architects who want to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and capabilities to assessing customer architecture; designing secure, high-performance technical solutions on the Force.com platform; communicating technical solutions and design tradeoffs effectively to business stakeholders; and providing a delivery framework that ensures quality and success.

Put another way

By the numbers*

• Around 45 TA’s worldwide – From zero about 2 years ago

• 6 in Australia – 5 at Salesforce.com–Me*As far as I know

What are the steps?

• 3 parts– Self assessment (Online, Free)–Multiple choice exam (Proctored, $500)– Review Board presentation

(Presentation/Discussion, $6000)

Candidate background…(From Salesforce.com’s Study Guide)

• 5+ years of implementation experience, including development, across the full software development lifecycle

• 2+ years of experience in an architect role • 1+ years of experience with Force.com as a technical lead • Experience with other development platforms, preferably .net, java, and ruby • General experience with real-time integration; experience with integration on the Force.com platform • Experience with multiple, complex, and at least one large Salesforce implementation project involving

multiple releases, change management process, and/or multi-locale deployment • Understanding of best practices and design trade-offs, with the ability to communicate design choices • Experience with multiple, and at least one object-oriented, development patterns/principles • Awareness of mobile solutions and considerations • Awareness of data migration considerations, design trade-offs, and common ETL tools • Awareness of common third-party solution providers for Salesforce • Experience designing test plans and evaluating effectiveness • Experience with lifecycle methodologies • Participation in knowledge sharing and mentorship • Proven success with projects involving the skills and technologies above, with a portfolio of references to

speak for the work • Knowledge of internet and cloud architecture paradigms

My Formal Preparation• Self assessment

– None

• Multiple choice exam – ~24 hours reviewing Salesforce documentation

• Review Board presentation– 2 x ½ day group workshops at Salesforce offices– 1x 1:1 coaching with Salesforce– 1 x dry walk through with Salesforce.com staff– 40+ hours self study– 2 x Sleepless nights.

Also• ~16 years of Software

Development/Integration/Project Management• 2 years project experience with Salesforce technology• Other certifications

– Developer Certification (Pre-requisite)– Advanced Developer– Admin– Advanced Admin– Sales Cloud Consultant– Service Cloud Consultant

My Timeline• 25 October 2011– Passed Self Assessment

• 8 July 2012– Passed Multiple Choice

• 29 October 2012– Cleared 5/7 competency areas, invited back for

abbreviated session

• 28 January 2013– Passed Review Board, Granted Certification

The Review Board

Start Time End Time Session6.00 AM 6.05 AM Check-In

6.05 AM 7.20 AM Hypothetical Scenario Prep

7.20 AM 7.30 AM Break

7.30 AM 8.00 AM Hypothetical Scenario Presentation

8.00 AM 8.30 AM Hypothetical Scenario Q&A

8.30 AM 8.45 AM Break

8.45 AM 9.15 AM Case Study Presentation

9.15 AM 10 AM Case Study Q&A

My Review Board was in Sydney via Video Conference with San FranciscoAbout 4-5 people were ‘Judging’

What was hard• The Hypothetical

– 7-8 pages of requirements– 1 hour 20 minutes to design and present

• The Uncertainty– Knowing (really knowing) all the areas they could ask you questions

on.– Knowing if my Case Study was going to be ‘big enough’– Was I hitting the right mix of pragmatism and Architectural theory?

• The reputation of the Review Board– 4-5 people who probably know more than you know

• Waiting for the results– 1-4 week wait.

In SummaryIt’s not an certification that’s about cramming facts or the giving the right canned answer….

…It’s about being able to get up in front of a Salesforce.com customer and deal with all

their project needs at an Enterprise Architecture level

Questions?