Salesforce B2B Solution Architect Certification — Experience
I have recently completed the Salesforce B2B Solution Architect Certification. It was a great learning experience overall. This blog post shares my experience, how I prepared for it, and the reference material.
About Certification
Salesforce B2B Solution Architect Credential is for individuals with extensive experience in solution design, planning, and delivery on Salesforce multi-cloud platform for B2B Customers. It includes knowledge of various products in the Salesforce ecosystem like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Revenue Cloud, Commerce Cloud, CRM Analytics, Muelsoft, Einstein products, CPQ, etc.
About Exam
- Content: 60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions
- Time allotted to complete the exam: 120 minutes
- Passing score: 58%
- Prerequisite: Salesforce Certified Application Architect Certification
You Can find detailed information in Salesforce Offical Exam Guide
Exam Outline
The B2B Solution Architect Exam is divided into below focus areas:
Discovery and Customer Success: 25%
This area focuses on understanding customer requirements, values, and vision. It also includes the customer landscape, defining the high-level architecture, and product roadmap.
Topics:
- Customer-Centric Discovery
- Learn Salesforce Agile Practices
- Learn About User Story
- Architecture Diagrams
- Process Mapping
- Business-Capability Mapping
Study Notes:
- Discovery Steps
2. B2B Business Models
3. Value of a Solution Architect
Business leadership: They guide companies on a multi-cloud solution journey for meaningful customer experiences.
Delivery leadership: They drive successful multi-cloud implementations on the Customer 360 platform using best practices based on use-case delivery knowledge and experience.
Technical leadership: They provide technical expertise by selecting the multi-cloud product features that best align with a company’s vision and business value goals.
4. Key Value Levers
In any business case, focus on the most critical value drivers:
- Increasing revenue
- Reducing cost
- Improving productivity
- Increasing strategic capabilities
5. Three Ways to Dig Into Discovery
- Embodying
- Shadowing
- Interviewing
Data Governance and Integration: 26%
This area focuses on Data Architecture and integrations with external systems like ERP, CRM, Dataware house, etc.
Topics:
Study Notes:
1. Types of B2C Commerce Architects
B2C Commerce architects can be functional, technical, or solution architects. They can also focus on technology such as Salesforce Order Management. Each type of architect requires excellent communication, leadership, and technology skills. So how do they differ?
- Determining the existing customer architecture landscape
- Defining data flows across systems
- Migrating and synchronizing data across systems
- Designing and mapping a sharing and visibility model
- Providing governance around data volumes
2. Systems of Engagement
- System of Record — ERP
- System of Reference — Data Warehouse
- System of Intelligence — Einstein, CRM Analytics
- System of Engagement — Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Experience Cloud
3. Multi Org Salesforce Implementation
Benefits
- Org-wide settings are easier to govern and manage & Reduced the risk of exceeding org limits.
- Simplified complexity reduces testing burdens.
- Improved time to market and freedom to innovate (autonomy) — Agility
- Security
Challenges
- Less reuse of configuration and code
- Inferior collaboration across business units
- Duplicated administration functions required
4. Multi Org Integration Pattern
- Hub Spoke/hierarchical
- Publisher / Subscriber or Enterprise Service Bus
- Point to Point
5. Building Blocks of a Lean Governance Framework
- Vision and strategy
- Business backlog
- Software development lifecycle
- Data strategy, architecture, and management
- Communication strategy
6. Governance Roles and Responsibilities
- Gathering end-user feedback
- Onboarding users
- Owning and managing the budget
- Designating a product owner
Design: 29%
This area focuses on defining the functional and technical solution in line with Salesforce standards, keeping the business value and objectives in mind. Also, it encompasses solution recommendations as per business requirements, including 3rd Party integration, AppExchange Solutions, etc.
Topics:
Study Notes:
- Salesforce Customer 360
2. Sales Cloud
3. Service Cloud
4. B2B and B2B2C Commerce Data Model
- Product Rules — There are four kinds of product rules: validation rules, selection rules, filter rules, and alert rules.
- Price Rules — Price rules inject a static value, field value, or summary variable into a quote or quote line field.
Deployment Models for Salesforce Billing
- Lead-to-Invoice
- Lead-to-Cash
8. Salesforce Lightning Platform Integration Patterns
- Remote Process Invocation — Request and Reply
- Remote Process Invocation — Fire and Forget
- Batch Data Synchronization
- Remote Call-In
- Data Virtualization
- High-Frequency Data Replication
- Publish/Subscribe
9. The Layer Approach
Four Dimensions
- Layers: The different types of tasks in a system
- Volume: The amount of data synched and the transformation activity between systems
- Timing: Communication timing is either asynchronous or synchronous, where data flows between systems in real-time (or as soon as possible) or is batched up for later delivery
- Direction: The source direction, which can be from Salesforce to another system, from another system to Salesforce, or bidirectional
Explore the Different Layers
- User interface layer
- Business process layer
- Data layer
10. Connectors for Data Integration
- MuleSoft Salesforce Connector
- MuleSoft Database Connector
- MuleSoft HTTP Connector
- Heroku Connect
- Salesforce Connect
11. Factors Affecting Scale
- Lack of Proper Bulkification
- Lack of Governance
- Locking
- Heavy Apex Post-Processing
Delivery: 12%
This area focuses on defining appropriate strategies that balance resources and effort to deliver an effective and efficient delivery method, it also includes providing the appropriate display of the capabilities of that solution to stakeholders (demos) that demonstrate continued alignment with the desired business outcomes and priorities
Topics:
- Agile Basics
- Salesforce Release Readiness Strategies
- Application Lifecycle and Development Models
- Demo Delivery Essentials
Study Notes:
- Build an Agile Program
Product owners prioritize work: The product owner’s focus is to optimize the value of the development team’s output. The development team relies on the product owner prioritizing the most important work first.
Development teams select work: The development team can only accept work as it has the capacity for it. The product owner doesn’t push work to the team or commit them to arbitrary deadlines. The development team pulls work from the program’s backlog as it can accept new work.
- Roadmaps
- Requirements
- Backlog
- Agile Delivery Vehicles
- Agile Metrics
2. Agile Ceremonies
- Sprint Planning
- Daily Stand-Up
- Iteration Review
- Retrospective
3. Salesforce Release Process
- Spring, Summer, and Winter
4. Application lifecycle management (ALM) development models.
- Changeset development
- Org development
- Package development
5. Track Progress with Burndown Lists
Operationalize the Solution: 8%
This area focuses on updating documentation, the center of excellence, and training. It also includes facilitating adoption for the business to benefit from a B2B multi-cloud solution
Topics:
Study Notes:
- Three Steps to Planning
- Identify your audience.
- Determine relevant training scenarios.
- Define your training plan.
2. Bring Learning Inside the Flow of Work
- Learning Paths
- In-App Guidance
- Trailhead App for Slack
- Guidance Center
3. Measure Salesforce Usage
- Suggested Metrics
- Measure Data Quality
- Assess User Satisfaction
4. Define Success Metrics
5. Validate Your Solution
