Force.com Advanced Developer CertificationLearn from the Experts

Peter Chittum

Developer Evangelist, salesforce.com

@pchittum

Ralph Callaway

Principle, Callaway Cloud Consulting

@RalphATCCC

Caleb Sidel

Chief Architect, Strategic Growth, Inc.

@calebsidel

Leah McGowen-Hare, MSEd

Master Technical Instructor, salesforce.com

@LeahBMH

Safe Harbor

Safe harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

This presentation may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If any such uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions proves incorrect, the results of salesforce.com, inc. could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking, including any projections of product or service availability, subscriber growth, earnings, revenues, or other financial items and any statements regarding strategies or plans of management for future operations, statements of belief, any statements concerning new, planned, or upgraded services or technology developments and customer contracts or use of our services.

 

The risks and uncertainties referred to above include – but are not limited to – risks associated with developing and delivering new functionality for our service, new products and services, our new business model, our past operating losses, possible fluctuations in our operating results and rate of growth, interruptions or delays in our Web hosting, breach of our security measures, the outcome of any litigation, risks associated with completed and any possible mergers and acquisitions, the immature market in which we operate, our relatively limited operating history, our ability to expand, retain, and motivate our employees and manage our growth, new releases of our service and successful customer deployment, our limited history reselling non-salesforce.com products, and utilization and selling to larger enterprise customers. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of salesforce.com, inc. is included in our annual report on Form 10-K for the most recent fiscal year and in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the most recent fiscal quarter. These documents and others containing important disclosures are available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Information section of our Web site.

 

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other presentations, press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase our services should make the purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com, inc. assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

Peter ChittumDeveloper Evangelist - Salesforce

@pchittum

Leah McGowen-HareMaster Technical Instructor - Salesforce

@LeahBMH

Ralph CallawayPrinciple - Callaway Cloud Consulting

@RalphATCCC

Caleb SidelChief Architect - Strategic Growth Inc.

@calebsidel

Agenda

• Certified Force.com Advanced Developer Overview • The Exam• The Assignment and Essay• The Judges’ Perspective• The Anatomy of the Assignment• Panel with the Experts• Resources

Salesforce.com Certification Program

Administrator TrackManage and Configure

Salesforce

Prerequisite: Salesforce.com Certified Administrator

Implementation Expert Track

Design Sales & Service Cloud Solutions

Developer TrackDevelop Custom Force.com Apps

Architect TrackArchitect a Complete Force.com Solution

Prerequisite: Salesforce.com Certified Administrator

Prerequisite: Salesforce.com Certified Force.com Developer

Prerequisite: Salesforce.com Certified Force.com Developer

Learn more: certification.salesforce.com

Salesforce.com Certification Program Agreement

Protecting the security and confidentiality of our exam content is essential to providing credentials that are respected and industry-leading.

You agree to the Salesforce.com Certification Program Agreement when you create a test taker account.

You are prohibited from disclosing, copying, or publishing exam questions.

Salesforce Certified Advanced Developer

GOAL Demonstrate your mastery of Apex,

Visualforce, and Testing

RECOMMENDED EXPERIENCE 8+ months experience on the

Force.com platform

• Step 0: Certified Developer

• Step 1: Test

• Step 2: Assignment

• Step 3: Essay

• Maintenance

Agenda

• Certified Force.com Advanced Developer Overview • The Exam• The Assignment and Essay• The Judges’ Perspective• The Anatomy of the Assignment• Panel with the Experts• Resources

Step 1: Multiple-Choice Exam

• 2 hours• 69 questions• Passing score: 73%• Registration fee USD 400• Results: Provided immediately after exam submission as on-screen text and by email

Proctored and closed book!

What is on the Multiple-Choice Exam?

• Read the Study Guide!– http://certification.salesforce.com/SG_CertifiedAdvancedDeveloper.pdf

• Read the Article– https://developer.salesforce.com/page/The_Path_to_Advanced_Developer_Certification

Development Lifecycle 13%

Force.com Code (Apex) 33%

Force.com Pages (Visualforce) 38%

Testing and Debugging 16%

Apex

…

Ways Apex can be invoked

Use cases for dynamic Apex

Use cases for batch Apex

Execution order and before and after triggers

Governor limits and reasons behind them

Write scalable code that handles bulk operations

…

Behind the Scenes of the Exam

• Kept current with every release • Every question reviewed by at least two people holding Advanced Developer credential

Agenda

• Certified Force.com Advanced Developer Overview • The Exam• The Assignment and Essay• The Judges’ Perspective• The Anatomy of the Assignment• Panel with the Experts• Resources

Schedule found at: http://certification.salesforce.com/schedules

Step 2: Programming Assignment Window

Invitation to Sign-UpDay -30

AssignmentReceived

Day 0

AssignmentDeadlineDay 30

Detailed ResultReceived

Day 80-100

Essay

Programming Assignment

You Get• 1 Trial EE Org• Partially Complete Solution (Declarative)

• 1 Requirements Document

Expect to do• Apex• Visualforce• Apex Tests• Minimum 20 hours work• Deploy

• Read the assignment

• Plan your solution

• Focus on Force.com

• Write a complete set of tests

• Your own work!

• SHOW YOUR PASSION!

Do

• Do not skimp on tests

• Do not just go for code coverage

• Do not focus on esthetics

• Do not focus on other technologies

• Do not get too complex

Do Not…

Step 3: Essay Exam• Proctored• 60 minutes• 3 short-answer essay questions• Results dependent on completing the assignment

Agenda

• Certified Force.com Advanced Developer Overview • The Exam• The Assignment and Essay• The Judges’ Perspective• The Anatomy of the Assignment• Panel with the Experts• Resources

The Assignment Window: The Judge’s View

AssignmentDeadlineDay 30

ResultReceived

Day 80-100

6-8 Weeks

How Assignments Are Judged

• Standard Scoring Methodology• Assignment-Specific Job Aids• In General

– Business requirements– Functional requirements? – No glaring Apex anti-patterns

• Consistent judging is key

“Truth is one, paths are many” -Hindu saying

Leah Caleb Unified

Criteria A 4 5 5

Criteria B 2 2 2

Criteria C 3 3 3

Criteria D 3 3 3

Criteria E 4 3 4

Judges Work In Teams

Anonymity of Test Taker

Candidate 01111000

Judging Fun Facts

• 4 Windows Per Year• 250 Candidates per window• Many Judges each window• 2 Judges per assignment submitted• > 800 person hours on judging each window• Find detailed registration policy here: http://bit.ly/AdvDevAssignmentReg

Agenda

• Certified Force.com Advanced Developer Overview • The Exam• The Assignment and Essay• The Judges’ Perspective• The Anatomy of the Assignment• Panel with the Experts• Resources

Assignment Ingredients

• Fictitious Company Scenario• Business Requirements• Data Model• Business Process Requirements• User Interface Requirements• Only Standard Force.com Features

Scope

ComplexRequirements

NarrowScope

Draft

Review and Refinement

Review Final

Draft: created by assignment writer

Review: 2-3 other certified developers

Final Edition: released for assignment

> 120 person hours

Agenda

• Certified Force.com Advanced Developer Overview • The Exam• The Assignment and Essay• The Judges’ Perspective• The Anatomy of the Assignment• Panel with the Experts• Resources

Q & A

Q & A

• Peter Chittum• Developer Evangelist• salesforce.com

@pchittum• /in/peterchittum

• Caleb Sidel• Chief Architect• Strategic Growth, Inc.

@calebsidel• /in/csidel

• Ralph Callaway • Leah McGowen-Hare• Principal• CallawayCloudConsulting

@RalphAtCCC• /in/ralphcallaway

• Master Technical Instructor• salesforce.com• @LeahBMH• /in/leahmh

Visit the Certification website:http://certification.salesforce.com/developers

Agenda

• Certified Force.com Advanced Developer Overview • The Exam• The Assignment and Essay• The Judges’ Perspective• The Anatomy of the Assignment• Panel with the Experts• Resources

The obvious stuff

• Developer User Groups: https://developer.salesforce.com/dugs?title=page/Force.com_User_Groups

• The Study Guide: certification.salesforce.com/developers

• Training (instructor-led or self-paced online training) http://www.salesforce.com/services-training/training_certification/

• Practice in a free Developer Edition Org: https://developer.salesforce.com/en/signup

• Register for the Exam: www.webassessor.com/salesforce

• Join the Salesforce.com Training & Certification Group in the Success Community (search for ‘Certification’) https://success.salesforce.com/_ui/core/chatter/ui/ChatterPage

The bottom line

• Certification has value because we all put a lot of effort into it• We want every deserving candidate to be certified• Do your best work and show us you deserve it

Appendix

So I’m Certified, Now What?

• Display your certified logo proudly!

• Get active on the Discussion Boards: https://developer.salesforce.com/forums/ForumsCategories

Ready for hands-on training?

Follow up with an instructor-led course, we suggest:

Force.com Code (Apex) and Force.com Page Controllers

Join thecommunity to

collaborate with customers,

employees, and peers.

Simply log in to Salesforce, click Help &

Training,then click 

Collaboration.

Don’t forget...

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Have Premier?

Try these online courses:

Apex

Managing Development with Force.com

Visualforce Controller

Salesforce Success

Community

Need Help, Contact Us

Search the Knowledge Base certification.force.com/pkb

Open a Case certification.salesforce.com/open-a-case

Salesforce.com Training & Certification GroupSalesforce.com Certified Professionals Group

facebook.com/SalesforceCertification

@SalesforceCert

How do I register for the exam?• Create a test taker account and register for

the exam at: www.webassessor.com/salesforce

• Log into your test taker account to register for additional exams and view your transcript.

• Locate a testing center at: kryteriononline.com/host_locations

• Online proctoring is available– Review system requirements at:

www.webassessor.com/downloads– Apple computers not recommended

How do I maintain my credential? You must maintain your

Salesforce Developer Certification via release-specific, online exams for each major Salesforce release.– You will be notified via email when

release content and exams are available.

– Cost: $100 for every 3rd release exam (includes associated maintenance exams for one year).

Each release exam is available for two release cycles.– If you do not pass the release

exam by the deadline, all credentials will expire.

– Release exams are 30-minute online and non-proctored exams.

– The exams are open book/note, so you can refer to the release training and release notes found at Help and Training during the exam.

Certification Exam Release Schedule: certification.salesforce.com/schedules