Understanding the profile of a Salesforce Certified Technical Architect

As the Salesforce economy continues to grow rapidly, there's never been a better time to build a Salesforce-based career. Architects and architect-related skills are in higher demand than ever.

The Salesforce Certified Technical Architect credential is ranked as one of the Top Enterprise Architect Certifications in the industry. Just run a quick search on the web for job postings and you'll have no doubt about the value of this prestigious certificate. The very limited number of CTAs around the world gives an even more satisfying feeling of joining the club to the newly certified CTAs.

With such rapid growth of the Salesforce ecosystem, the borders between traditional roles in some workplaces are blurring. And with that, the value of having people with that special talent to link between the different teams becomes vital. Technical architects are not afraid to dig deep into business challenges, asking tough questions to reveal the real business value behind a particular requirement. They like to get to the bottom of things, and roll up their sleeves when necessary to try things out in order to select the right solution approach that serves the current and future potential requirements. They do not hesitate to jump into conversations with the development teams to give guidance and best practices, and then work with the project management team to prepare that cutting-edge presentation for the stakeholders.

As a CTA, you are expected to rely on your broad knowledge across multiple technologies and your deep expertise of the Salesforce Platform to design secure, high-performance systems that maximize the potential of the Salesforce Platform. You must then combine this with an excellent set of soft skills to help you socialize and defend the proposed solution.

The candidate should be able to demonstrate deep knowledge and experience in the following areas:

• 5+ years of implementation experience, including development, across the full software development life cycle. Although having hands-on development skills is not mandatory, those who had the chance to code would normally develop a sense of what would normally work for a software solution, which can help with logically selecting and justifying a particular solution.
• 3+ years of experience in an architect role, which includes experience across the entire spectrum of architecture activities. This includes, but is not limited to, designing data models, integration interfaces, and end-to-end solutions; communicating and socializing a solution; and having deep hands-on experience with the platform's capabilities and potential solution trade-offs.
• 2+ years of experience on the Lightning Platform, with at least one of those in a lead architect role, implementing Salesforce applications and technologies.
• Has held a technical architect role on multiple complex deployments, or has gained equivalent knowledge through participation and exposure to these types of projects.
• Experience guiding a development team on the appropriate use of platform technology.
• The ability to identify and mitigate technical risks across the architecture, which normally comes with experience.
• Exposure to globalization considerations on a project. Projects with globalization requirements come with a particular set of challenges. Having a practical understanding of the platform's capabilities is key.
• Experience with object-oriented design patterns. Although a CTA is not necessarily expected to write code, understanding object-oriented design patterns and principles creates a more rounded architect who is more capable of explaining how a particular module would work.
• Awareness of platform-specific design patterns and limits. In order to pass the CTA review board, it is strongly recommended that they have hands-on experience with the different platform functionalities.
• Experience developing code on the Force.com platform, as well as an understanding of limitations and associated challenges, even if they're not necessarily doing hands-on coding.
• Ability to identify development-related risks, considerations, and limits for the platform.
• Experience with multiple development languages (for example, .NET, Java, or Ruby) and design frameworks. This would largely help when designing an integrated solution. Understanding what is possible and what is likely not is the key.
• Experience with common integration patterns; experience with integration on the Salesforce Platform. Any hands-on experience here is a massive plus.
• An understanding of and the ability to architect a solution to address security complexities, mechanisms, and capabilities on the Lightning Platform as part of a functional security model.
• An understanding of and the ability to design an identity and access management strategy as part of an end-to-end solution.
• An understanding of data migration considerations, design trade-offs, and common ETL tools.
• Awareness of large data volume (LDV) considerations, risks, and mitigation strategies.
• Awareness of general mobile solutions and architectures and an understanding of on-platform mobile solutions and considerations.
• Experience with project and development life cycle methodologies.

Now that we know what the CTA profile is, let's get to know the review board.