A walk through of the Salesforce Advanced Developer Certification. Commonly known as "the DEV501 certification" this is the second step of certification for someone building apps with the Force.com platform, serving as a proving ground for developers who write Apex code and Visualforce UI. Four people who have been judges, assignment writers, reviewers, and of course who hold the certification themselves share about the certification from the inside out.
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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.
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
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
• 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 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
• 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
• 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