Acing Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer Certification

Last Updated on July 16, 2022 by Rakesh Gupta

*Disclaimer – Any questions you find in this article are practice questions created by me. Please treat them as pointers – it does not bear any relationship with Salesforce certification examination questions.

Clicks, not Code is a hallmark of the Salesforce platform – without writing a single line of code, a savvy Adminoloper/Devmin can tackle most customization needs of internal and external stakeholders. The key here is most – for, at some point, an Adminoloper/Devmin may need to resort to codes to customize Sales or Service Cloud using Apex, Lightning Components, or APIs. 

An Adminoloper/Devmin feels buoyant when he/she is able to develop a most streamlined solution to fulfill customers’ requirements. At times, by relying exclusively on Clicks, an Adminoloper/Devmin may not be able to develop and deliver the most opportune solution. To avoid this fate, I recently cleared Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer certificate. If you too share my view – about equipping yourself with the best available tool to exceed your stakeholders’ expectations – then, wait no longer! Join in! Start by reading my recent articles – Application Architect or Community Cloud Consultant on developing strategies to prepare for advanced level certificates.

Many aspiring Admeloper/Devmin wonder – “I do not have development experience (I mean write Apex or creating Lightning Components) will I be able to earn this certification“?  Fortunately, the answer is, YES! To clear/crack this exam you do not have to have hands-on experience with Salesforce development; but, you do have to have in-depth understanding of the following – Development Lifecycle; Release Management; Integration Design Pattern; and when to use which API, etc. 

Personally, I have not come across any documentation to prepare for this exam – indeed, this is one of the reasons for writing the blog!

I am a die hard Salesforce evangelist – I firmly believe that without in-depth understanding of the platform, any certification has zero or no value. Although it generates boundless happiness, and it is a matter of pride, getting certified is important because it validates your investment of time and effort in mastering the breadth and depth of the platform. This is indeed, priceless!

Recently, I installed Prometric at home – the setup allows me to appear for certifications from the comfort of my home. On 28th October, I appeared for the Application Architect certification and cleared it! This boosted my confidence.

So in this excitement, like a kid in a candy store, I Googled to find out which certificate I should embark on next! After some research, I narrowed my choice to Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer certificate. Although I am a die hard

Salesforce evangelist, I am, by no means, either a hard code developer or a serious programmer! But despite that, because of my command over the Platform, I recently passed Platform Developer II – MCQ. I simply went ahead and registered for it (Thank you Trailhead University and MVP Program management team for MVP certification coupon code). I spent about 75 minutes on the exam and clicked Submit! BOOM BOOM! I just passed my 4th Domain Architect exam. 

One may be tempted to attribute my passing to sheer luck. Luck could have played a part – although, I always find that harder I work, better my luck gets! If I were to take a guess, I would attribute the ‘fluke’ to my disciplined approach to mastering the Salesforce Platform. Daily, rain or shine, I spend at least couple of hours exploring the platform. I have written several books on how to master the platform. Furthermore, I am an avid Salesforce blogger. And, last but not least, I am active on the Salesforce Trailblazer community (Passive member of Salesforce StackExchange) – I try to solve as many questions on the Salesforce Trailblazer Community as possible.

Designer Certification is unique but relatively easy if you have command over the intricacies of the platform. For, once you earn this certification, your employer and co-workers will expect you to be a walking Salesforce Encyclopedia! From their perspective, now, you are the one who understands the platform very well and therefore, should be able to design a scalable solution.

What you need to know

• 1. Understand the roles and responsibilities of the following teams. For example, whom to contact when you receive a requirement during middle of a project, that is not feasible to deliver by the promised deadline? 
     1. Center of Excellence (CoE):- Most IT firms have CoE today. CoE is a team of people that promotes collaboration and uses best practices around a specific area to drive business or customer-valued results.
     2. Release Management Team:- Release Management team is responsible for planning, scheduling, and controlling the build, in addition to testing and deploying Releases.
     3. Governance Framework:- It basically improves coordination by ensuring all members of your team are working together to achieve project deadline.
        
     4. Change Control Board:-  It is a committee that makes decisions regarding whether or not proposed changes to a software project should be implemented. In other words, whether or not any changes to the Baseline Requirements, agreed with the client, should be taken up by the project team for approval from this committee. 
     5. Executive Sponsor:- The sponsor champions the project by acting as the project’s highest level change leader – communicating the importance to stakeholders and senior leadership; and, obtaining go-ahead decision and collaboration. The sponsor is accountable for (owns) the solution’s success by – supporting the project manager; facilitating problem-solving; ensuring that the solution is sustainable; and, exercising strategic control to achieve project objectives and business benefits. 
     6. Architecture Review Board:- They will be responsible for defining the overall structure of a program or a system. They will also be overseeing IT assignments that are aimed at improving the business and ensuring that all parts of the project run smoothly.
     7. Steering Committee:-  steering committee is a group of high-level advisors who have been asked to govern an organization or organizational segment and provide it with direction. 
  2. Familiarize yourself with different types of development environments and know which to use when – Development, Integration testing, Regression testing, UAT, Staging, Production Debugging. For example, At Gurukul on Cloud (GoC), they just completed the development of a batch Apex. This will only work on Lead record – to delete a record that doesn’t have an email address. In this scenario, which sandbox will you use to test the batch job to make sure that it will work as per requirement – assuming that, at present, Full copy sandbox (they have only one) is used to fix a major production bug. 
  3. Design Standards: – Make sure that you understand Salesforce design standard. For example, Bulkification of code, Standard methods for deprecating classes and fields, and development best practices.
  4. Project development Methodologies: – Understand the difference between Waterfall and Agile methodology. Make sure to understand how to select project methodology based on requirement, deadline, and budget. 
  5. Thoroughly master different deployment tools and know which to use when. Understand, in which scenario, it is better to use Force.com Migration Tools, Force.com IDE, Packages, and Change Sets. For example, At GoC they are currently implementing a project to integrate Salesforce with their in-house ERP system. Developer or TA doesn’t have access to the production instance of Salesforce and IT team is responsible for deployment. Which of the following tools fit in this requirement?
     • Fore.com IDE
     • Force.com Migration Tool
     • Manage Package
     • Unmanaged Package
  6. Continuous Integration:- You do not need to use Continuous Integration tools. But, make sure you understand its purpose and some considerations when advising its implementation as a technical architect. Learn about different CI tools available in the market for Salesforce. Also, understand how these tools help you to manage source code repository.
  7. Release management:- Understand the inter-dependency between Salesforce release and development release schedule. How would you plan a release if there is an upcoming Salesforce release?
  8. Testing:- Testing the Force.com application (Unit test (QAT), Integration testing, Regression testing, UAT, Performance testing, Security testing, Load testing, Stress testing etc.). 

Exam Outline

• 60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions – 90 mins.
• 68% is the passing score.
• Go through the training and materials available here free resource guide for this domain certification

Here is a list of material that must be thoroughly read in addition to the free resource guide

• Force.com Development Lifecycle
• An Introduction to Environments
• Application Lifecycle Management
• Performance Testing Your Force.com Application
• Record-Level Access: Under the Hood
• 9 Steps to Effective Change Management
• Manage Change with a Governance Framework
• Release Management with the Metadata API
• Automating Deployment Between Orgs Using Git & Continuous Integration
• Introducing Agile Accelerator

–> Do not forget to check the study guide that contains the complete syllabus of the Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer exam. 

Conclusion

If you have a solid hands-on experience with all the above topics, passing the exam will be a cinch; and, you will be able to earn the much coveted Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer certification! However, if you do not have enough experience with the above-mentioned topics, and you plan to become a Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer exam, then, I suggest you draw 6-9 months plan to prepare for it. 

I hope that you find these tips and resources useful. If you do put the time and effort in, you are certain to succeed. Happy studying and good luck!

Technical Editor and Proofreader: - Munira Majmundar