Continuing the Hunt for Application Architect as a Declarative Architect
After a moderate break I attempted the Platform Developer 1 exam again and in the end, I succeeded! I passed the Salesforce Platform Developer 1 certification. As a result, I also received the Salesforce Application Architect certification which is an accomplishment I’m very proud of. For non-developers I don’t think the goal is to become a high level coder, but rather to know when and how to leverage solutions which utilize customization that declarative configuration cannot provide and to better work with the developers who help you deliver those solutions. Overall, this felt like a necessary challenge for a declarative architect to reach Application Architect and prove that they’re capable of understanding the entire landscape of development on the platform.
I approached the Platform Developer 1 certification the same way I’ve approached the last several, by creating a study plan made up of Trailhead, Focus on Force, available video content, and flash cards. As someone who isn’t living in the world of Apex every day, the Trail dedicated to preparing for this certification was particularly helpful. It gave me hands-on experience with creating Apex classes, Visualforce pages, SOQL/SOSL, and more in a very easy to follow manner. Though frustrating and exhausting at times, learning the content of the Platform Developer 1 certification contained some of the most satisfying moments of learning I’ve had on the Salesforce platform so far. To be honest, just downloading and setting up VS Code felt like a big win. The first successful deployment (of code I copy-and-pasted from Trailhead no less) was electric, and I hadn’t even written anything yet.
Trailhead and video content found online helped me bridge the knowledge gap, and then Focus on Force allowed me to test that knowledge by drilling practice questions. I will note that the Focus on Force study guide for this certification is very good, and includes videos with sections of the traditional study guide–definitely worth $19 or whatever it costs. The biggest challenge I faced was my general lack of development syntax knowledge, yet another thing coming from the fact that I don’t have a lot of day to day experience writing and reading code. As helpful as the Trailhead copy-and-paste coding exercises are, simply copying the code over with a couple clicks doesn’t force you to really look at the content and learn why it’s organized the way it is. What helped me was to watch through videos of people breaking down the Trailhead exercises and explaining granular details about the process that a full-time developer would likely take for granted. Overall I’m happy with the study plan I set up and with my continued dedication to pursuing the learning and certification despite failing at first.
Coming off checking a pretty large box with Application Architect, I think it’s a great time to reflect and create a new plan for where professional learning would be best directed next. As always, I think the best next target is going to depend on the person, what kind of job they have, and what kind of future career ambitions they have. For internal admins it will probably be dictated by the things that exist, or are wanted, in the Salesforce org. If you use integrations you might think about exploring the System Architect prerequisites, but if your company uses several Salesforce clouds maybe B2B Solution Architect would make more sense. For consulting resources I think the potential future tests are largely the same, with the driving factor being what you’re interested in and what your organization values most. Though I have much less knowledge about ISVs, I think it would make the most sense for ISV resources coming off App Architect to head straight into Integration Architect and the other System Architect certifications. An ISV is itself a third-party Salesforce solution, and knowledge of how to integrate one’s product with Salesforce or other third-party solutions will be immensely helpful. Regardless of which direction you or I go, it’ll be a lot easier if you set out intentionally.
“Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.” – Don Herold
The Declarative Architect 