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 TAs 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.coms 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 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

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

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 Summary
Its not an certification thats about
cramming facts or the giving the right
canned answer.

Its 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?