Presented to the Sydney SF Developer User Group 13 February 2013 Video of this presentation is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-oVBgRVzBM from about the 23 minute mark to the 39 minute mark.

1. Becoming a Salesforce.com
Technical Architect

2. 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.

3. Put another way

4. 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

5. What are the steps?
• 3 parts
– Self assessment (Online, Free)
– Multiple choice exam (Proctored, $500)
– Review Board presentation
(Presentation/Discussion, $6000)

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. The Review Board
My Review Board was in Sydney via Video Conference with San Francisco
About 4-5 people were ‘Judging’
Start Time End Time Session
6.00 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

11. 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.

12. In Summary
It’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

13. Questions?