The Salesforce architect exams are some of the most rewarding and interesting exams to get. I really enjoy them because they offer a rare chance to dive very deep into a specific area of the platform. These can expand your capabilities within Salesforce, and provide you valuable understanding as you progress your career towards Technical Architect. This is the study guide for the Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer certification exam.
Each of these exams has a study guide (like all other certifications), as well as a resource guide which has linked articles, Trailhead modules, documentation and more. To get the most out of those guides, I have written down some important areas to study and understand. If you understand the concepts below, you’ll do well on your exam.
Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer
The Salesforce Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer exam focuses on your understanding of development methodologies (agile, waterfall, etc.), the different stages of the development lifecycle, and deployment strategies. This includes continuous integration, version control, and sprint planning.
Key Topics
Environment Management
Which sandboxes should you use for which types of activities? How do you manage multiple work streams? You will be presented with sample scenarios, and asked which environment setup you would recommend. So think through best practices here. If a company is developing several features, how do you plan the releases? Which environments deploy into one another? How would you handle bugs found in an integration or UAT sandbox?
Deployment Options
Which tools can you use to move metadata between orgs? You should understand the different tools available, and why you would recommend one over another. When should you recommend change sets vs. Force.com IDE? What is the Metadata API, and what are the use cases and considerations?
Continuous Integration
For some organizations, continuous integration is a requirement. So understanding the tools and drawbacks is an important piece. This article talks about the techniques.
Methodologies
You will be presented with many questions on the different development methodologies, and which you would recommend given a scenario. When is an agile methodology best suited? When is a waterfall methodology preferred? Think through some scenarios, and the deciding factors (i.e. defined end date, defined budget, team size, etc.)
Governance
How do you establish a governance model? What is important to consider? This trailhead maps out some key considerations.
Testing
How do you ensure adequate testing is completed in the different environments? Which sandbox(es) should handle performance and integration testing? Where should UAT be completed? How should you handle bug fixes?
The blog helped me tremendously to prepare my Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer exam. Many thanks, Chris! :))
Happy to help. And congratulations again on the achievement!
hi, Chris,
would you recommend this certification to a salesforce project manager without any programming knowledge to take, or it’s only beneficial for people to climb on the architect ladder? and how long you would recommend to prepare for this exam? thanks in advance!
This certification has some good content for a project manager. It focuses heavily on the development life cycle, including agile vs. waterfall methodologies. So I do think there is benefit here. For prep time, I recommend 4-6 weeks for people with good Salesforce project experience. Without development experience, I would add a week or two of extra preparation around items that may be less familiar, like continuous deployment and specific tools.
FYI – The trailhead link under governance is no longer working.
Thanks for the heads up Justin! I have updated the link in the post.
Nice post. Doesn’t it ask any questions about DX stuff, git commands, sfdx/cli commands, etc…? Thanks!
This exam doesn’t get too deep into any of that. It is more about the principles of GIT, CI strategies, etc.
Hi Chris, thanks for this guide. Do you think they would still ask about force.com ide? I believe it is deprecated.