Evasive Pattern Delta

When any Federation Starship gets in trouble they often resort to using a predefined set of evasive maneuvers. This always struck me as odd since I always thought the whole point of evasion was to be spontaneous. One of the first things I did on the new job was create Engagement Templates for Major Giving. This seemed to be a better use of a predefined plan of engagement.

There are two challenges as I see it for passing the NPSP consulting exam:

1. No legitimate practice exams, i.e., nothing from Focus On Force. I won’t use exam dumps. 

2. The wrong hands on experience. NPSP has a base functionality which the exam will test. Working for a consulting partner, I will be part of building custom functionality and I will need to distinguish between what is on the test and what is stuff we built.

To address both of these, I am going to blog about stuff I build and try to focus on the base functionality and avoid talking about the custom stuff. In the case of Engagement plans we did not build anything so this will be easy. Blogging will help reinforce my understanding.

To address the first item I am going to think about practice exam questions. Note at the time of this writing I have not taken the exam so any potential questions are my own and I will try to not structure my questions similar to the exam questions. Specifically, I won’t create scenario based questions and will focus on content only. I’ll list the questions at the end and create a Quizlet which I will also share at the end.

For my purposes I am going to break the engagement plan into two portions, header and line. I don’t think they are called that but it will help me understand what I am doing. For more detail check out this link; I’ve taken my material straight from here. The header section is the name/description of the engagement plan and has three key components:

1. Default assignee - The engagement plan is a series of tasks. If a Task doesn't have a named Assignee (owner), this setting determines who is assigned the Task by default (Salesforce requires that all Tasks be assigned to a user). You can select either the User Creating Engagement Plan or the Owner of the Record that the Engagement Plan is associated with.

2. Skip weekends - If checked, due dates are automatically adjusted for weekends. For example, a Task completed on a Friday has a follow up Task two days later. Instead of having a due date of Sunday, that Task would be due the following Tuesday. 

3. Reschedule to - Should Tasks with Due Dates on a weekend day be scheduled for the Friday before the weekend or the Monday after? This applies only if Skip Weekend is selected. Interestingly, the documentation says - This is used only in conjunction with Skip Weekends. This would be typically be set to Monday, but if your organization is closed on Mondays, you could select Tuesday. However, there doesn’t appear to be an option to select anything other than Monday or Friday.

4. Automatically update child tasks - If selected, dependent tasks will start based on their parent task completion. 

The line portion of the engagement plan is pretty straightforward. This is where you set up the tasks and dependent tasks. Pro-tip: Save often. If you make a mistake you can’t delete the task until you save it and if there is a blank task it won’t let you save. Additionally, you can’t really rearrange the tasks once they are complete. 

As far as questions go here’s what I am thinking (taken from the above link and here:

(Also this is the Quizlet I am creating)

Q: What day can you reschedule a task to?

A: Friday before the weekend or the Monday after.

Q: What happens to a task that doesn’t have an owner?

A: It gets assigned to the default owner.

Q: Who are the default owners?

A: User Creating Engagement Plan or the Owner of the Record that the Engagement Plan is associated with.

Q: How do you create a dependent task?

A: Click the add a dependent task.

Q: What’s the difference between a reminder and an email

A: A reminder is a typical task reminder while an email is an email. You can both or one 

Q: What happens if you try to connect an Engagement Plan to multiple records at the same time, such as Opportunity and Contact

A: You'll get an error message.

Q: How are engagement plans kicked off?

A: Engagement plans can be kicked-off manually by a development officer or automatically when used in conjunction with Levels.

Q: How is the reminder time stored?

A: The reminder time is stored as a number representing "minutes after midnight." For example, a reminder time of "600" translates to 10 am.

Q: What happens to changes in Engagement Plans created from templates when the templates are changed?

A:Changes to the Template are not reflected in Engagement Plans created from the Template that are already assigned to records.

Q: What happens when you delete an engagement plan?

A: When you delete an Engagement Plan, the underlying tasks still exist, but task automation is not enforced for dependent tasks (dependent tasks won't be updated or assigned based on parent task completion). 

Q: What happens when you complete a dependent task?

A: When you complete a Task with a dependent Task, the dependent Task's status is automatically updated from Waiting on Dependent Task to Not Started.

Q: What happens when you complete a single Task?

A: The Status on the Engagement Plan updates from Not Started to In Progress.

Q What happens when the last task is completed?

A: When the last Task is completed, the Status on the Engagement Plan is updated to Complete.

 

Q: The NPSP Engagement Plans uses what objects?

A: Engagement Plan Template, Engagement Plan, and Engagement Plan Task

 

Q What does the Engagement Plan Template object do?

A: Defines the process and associated set of tasks required to complete an Engagement Plan.

 

Q: What does the Engagement Plan object do?

A: It is a set of tasks that helps you engage with your constituents.

 

Q: What does the Engagement Plan Task object do?

A: Defines the details of each task that is created when applying an Engagement Plan to a record.

76th Rule of Acquisition - Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.

Change of plans; I am going to get the consulting certifications first. I will still get the developer certification, just not right away. I have a new job and they put more emphasis on the consulting certifications. The company is a Salesforce partner and I have access to the training materials, so I hope to get them in short order. Then I will circle back to the developer certifications. I think/hope this will give me more time to actually learn how to code vs. just passing the exam. 

Eventually I'll need the PD1 certification to be an architect (certification wise), but I am not a hurry to get it. Certifications are often used to get a new job and in my case, that job is an internal position.  My future posts will be about getting the NPSP Consulting and my continuing journey from Consultant to Architect.

As part of working for a partner I had to link my Webassessor and Trailhead accounts to their partner account. The actual process was simple but I learned two things:

1) Not all badges are created equal. I had assumed that I had three more badges than I really did. There are 'Event/Community' badges that you earn as part of doing things that may not be directly related to modules. TBH, I have no idea how I earned them but apparently they don't show up on public profiles. So when I linked my Trailhead to my Partner account I was three badges short. Below is a screenshot of the badges that the support folks told me did not count.

2) A new maintenance module was just released. When I linked my Webassessor account it said I was behind by one release on three of my four certifications. (The Administrator certification covers three of my certifications)  I had been checking the verification steps every few months and it always said I was caught up. This news was alarming since my employment is contingent upon maintaining my certifications. At the time the latest maintenance module was not released publicly. I submitted a case to Trailhead and they indicated that there was a high volume of cases due to issues with the maintenance modules. I checked the maintenance schedule and there were not any new ones released. I clicked through to the module and it was marked as completed. I did this a few times over the past week and eventually it said I was not current, i.e., there was a new module. I completed the module and the next day everything was synced up.

I took the job to learn more about Salesforce. I did not think this would what I would learn. I also spent some time creating engagement templates for NPSP, which I will discuss in a later post. I created enough of them that I think I can answer any question they throw at me. But to be double sure I will post something about it.

I think moving forward I will post concepts that I learn. I found in the past that training others for the certification helped me learn the material. At the new place everyone knows the stuff, so training them is probably not in the cards, so this will be the next best thing...lol

The Gamesters of San Francisco

I am at 182 badges. I did a search for Apex to find modules that would help me with studying for the PD1 exam. I found this one the other day (link) on how to prepare for the exam. It listed relevant modules and had some practice exam questions. I think it is relatively new and I don't think too many people know about them. I am going to post the link on Linked In -Ohana bro...

Most people I know struggle with the exam question format and not the concepts. Hopefully Salesforce has recognized this and the modules are a way to address the issue.

Out of Order

One of the influencers that I follow, like a lot of people, is David Liu. Recently he posted a video on how many certifications you should get and the order based on your career path. Interestingly, for all roles the first five or six were the same. After the usual suspects he suggests the Sales and Service Cloud certifications. 

One thing I wished I had learned sooner is that he believes in getting PD1 later in the architect journey. On LinkedIn I have seen a few people get this certification towards the end of their architect certification journey. It's too late for me since I am pretty far into studying and think that if I put it aside I will need to start from scratch. But after that I need to seriously consider the two main consulting certifications. 

Here's the video below..

79th Rule of Acquisition - Beware of the Vulcan greed for knowledge

Also true for Salesforce professionals and Trailhead badges. I am currently at 174 and closing in of 175. When I first started, Trailhead was a great way to learn the platform. Not enough to get certified, but enough to understand the material in the study guides. Over time I drifted away from it. A lot of the badges on the recommended certification trails I had already done and once I hit Ranger status, the gamification aspect sort of fizzled out. 

It did not help that one of the last badges I did was called Catter. It's real and it's no longer available but here's the proof. As the name suggests it's about cats and as an owner of between 2 -3 rescue hounds at any given time, it is not my most valued badge.

Fast forward to about a year or so ago when I started to learn Apex. The Apex badges were very difficult for someone with no coding experience and not very helpful. They were configured for developers wanting to learn Apex. I left the trail for resources listed in previous posts. I figured I would circle back to them once I had a better understanding of coding.

At some point I came across the Object-Oriented Programing for Admins and SOQL for Admin badges. I took a look at them and they were exactly what I was looking for. I am not sure if they were intuitive based on the hours of watching Apex videos or if they just did a better job of explaining things, but they drove home some key concepts. Based on these modules and the studying I have done, I am more confident about learning to code and passing the Platform Developer I exam.

I do wonder if at some point you can have too many badges and conversely is there any benefit to getting more. I see a lot of multiples of Ranger status (e.g., 4X Ranger) and wonder if anybody cares about that sort of stuff. Much like too many certifications can sometimes be a barrier to things, especially if you can't back up the certifications with experience, I wonder about too many badges. When I pass 200 badges, I may note it on my profile, but I won't use a multiplier...probably

 

44th Rule of Acquisition - Never confuse wisdom with luck

I feel the same way about certifications and experience. I have four and hope to soon have five. My biggest concern with the number of certifications is that they will lead my experience. I can justify all of my current certifications based on experience and have a good ‘story’ lined up for the next two.

I view certifications as a curated learning plan. Just like in school, you get a syllabus, you absorb the material, you take a test and you get a grade. It doesn’t make you an expert in the class but it shows you are familiar with the topic. Over time you will not remember everything but you will know where to find the information and what it means when you see it again.

I can explain each certification in the Solution Architect path based on my experience (as I get them)  but I can’t explain the Solution Architect Certification that you get when you pass all 4. At first I was disinclined to take the consulting certifications but I recently saw a presentation on someone’s journey to becoming a CTA. \

The individual failed the first time and when studying for the second time took the ‘other’ certifications to keep current with the material. I am debating if it makes sense to take the consulting certifications and let my experience catch up.

The architect also mentioned there were two paths to pass the exam:

1. Theoretical knowledge and coaching - Luck

2. Practical experience being an architect - Wisdom

While it would be nice to be a CTA by either method, long term I think the best approach is gaining practical experience.

23rd Rule of Acquisition - Nothing is more important than your health… except for your money (How I Study)

 My pre-covid study routine was to go to the local Starbucks on Saturday and Sunday and:

1. Take a Focus On Force practice exam

2. Create flashcards on the topics 

3. Review the material 

I would do this every weekend until I was getting above 90% on all the exams in the course. I would then schedule the exam and then start taking the exams during the week. I would shift from picking the right answer to eliminating the wrong answers. Usually I would take the Friday off before the exam to study and then take the exam on Saturday. As a general rule, I try to never tell anyone that I am taking the exam. 

With the local quarantine restrictions, I have to stay at home. I realized that while I can set aside the same amount of time if not more to study, the coffee house atmosphere was very conducive to studying. I can’t explain it since there are probably more distractions at the coffee house than at home. I find that I am taking longer to get the next certification as compared to my pre-COVID path.

Of the many things I am looking forward to when we can go outside again, is being able to study for exams at a Coffee House. I may try to find other non-chain places to study at. BTW - English Breakfast tea, unsweetened is my beverage of choice when I study.

In Theory

One of my favorite Star Trek TNG episodes is - In Theory. It’s the one where Data learns about love. This post has nothing to do with that, but I like the title because I used to think In Theory the Schema Builder was great, but in practice it left much to be desired. I think it is good for trying to understand the relationship between objects in an org. I never really used it to create objects and fields.

A few weeks ago I watched a presentation on Building Artifacts from Requirements and it gave me some new appreciation for the Schema Builder. Building artifacts seems to be a common theme on the journey to being a CTA. I need to learn and start building artifacts if I am going to be an architect and one way to practice is to build the artifacts for existing orgs. This helps me with my day job by understanding the data model and gets me used to building them. 

The advantage of doing it on the existing org is that I know what it will look like when I am done.  It’s like being assigned a homework problem and having the answer in the back of the book. It might also help me find ways to improve things. I am seeing a push to start doing things off-platform from Salesforce and the artifact might help identify areas where this might be an option.

The first step is to figure out which tool to use. I have access to Visio for work, but I do a lot of stuff on my personal laptop so I need something that is free. The presentation suggested Lucid chart or Draw.io.

I am going to explore Draw.io first since it is free. Just because something is free, doesn’t mean it is bad. Remember the 82nd Rule of Acquisition - The flimsier the product, the higher the price.

23rd Rule of Acquisition - Nothing is more important than your health… except for your money (Remote Exam Thoughts)

In the before times, I understood the 23rd rule to mean work-life balance, with a tiebreaker going to work, usually. In the context of getting Salesforce certifications during quarantine it really is about my health. I am not a fan of remote testing and with the pandemic, sitting for an exam at a testing site can be life or death.

With every exam I take, I go through the same emotional roller coaster. The first stage is shock/doubt. Specifically, after the first five questions I start to wonder if I signed up for the wrong exam. Once that passes, I start to panic that I won't have enough time and this leads me to finishing the exam in 20 minutes. After I get to the end I calm down and go through each question a few times until I am comfortable that I have answered all of them correctly, or at least answered enough to pass the exam with a cushion.

The final stage is where onsite testing is critical for me. When you are onsite you can have a pencil and paper. This has become key to me passing the exams. After I answer all the questions, I write down the numbers 1-60 in three columns (20 numbers per column). I then look at each question and write down the letter and review my choice. After my review if I like the answer I cross it out on my paper immediately. If I am less than 90% confident, I circle it. If I am less than 50% confident I don't do anything to the answer.  

As I go through the exam, I tally up all the ones that I think are good. Then I go back to the circled ones and think about them. If I change the answer or after thinking about the answer leave it unchanged, I cross it out and add it to the tally. After those are done I go to the WTF questions and try to figure them out. I use the whole time and usually feel confident that I have at least 80% or better.

In some cases I actually diagram out the solutions on the paper. I also try to be consistent in my answers. So if two questions seem similar enough, I try to make sure that I answered the questions consistently. Usually there is enough of a difference that I can tell that one is 100% correct and then I can get some insight into the other question. There is a fair amount of mouthing the questions, swearing and in the case of the Community Cloud certification, some gesturing at the screen. I expect these behaviors would be problematic in a remote exam. 

Back in the day, I worked in a chemistry lab and a supervisor shared with me something his organic chemistry professor told him. If something works once, it's a trick; if something works twice it's a technique. Having passed 4 exams on the first try, this is a technique for me.

2nd Rule of Acquisition - Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to (Part 2)

While I have not been updating the blog I have been busy during the quarantine. I obtained my Advanced Administrator certification and have been studying to pass the the Platform I developer. I don't think I will be a developer, but it's required for both Architect certifications. My intent is to know enough about coding to understand when it is appropriate (i.e., clicks not code) and to understand and troubleshoot automations that others write.

Per my last post and in keeping with the 2nd Rule of Acquisition, I have been trying to find a lot of low cost ways to learn to code. The most I spent was $200 on a Salesforce Bootcamp. There are a lot of Udemy courses out there and I found this article from Salesforce Ben on how to get started. I did try the Apex Academy and while the courses were good, given my schedule, I ended up paying a lot for Pluralsight and not using it. So if you go that route make sure you are ready to review it. I think the author gives a free version of his stuff here. There are also some free Salesforce videos that you can find here.

Here's what I have done so far (with links - which may require you to log into Udemy) and what I plan to do. There are a few, uh, provisos, a, a couple of quid pro quos:

1. Most training assumes you know Java and focuses on syntax and not coding. I tried to use using Apex only stuff when practical

2. Many training guides/videos are focused on passing the PD1 exam and provide some tangential training about Apex, etc.

3. Most examples are simple classes to insert data

Course	Date Completed	Notes	Link
Salesforce Developer Bootcamp	9/19/0	Geared towards passing the Platform Developer I exam. Not too much coding is required for this. Assumes you know Java or Apex. Moderate depth into PD1 exam. It has been on sale for $200. Try to find a coupon.	Link
Salesforce Development Training for Beginners	10/16/20	No Java experience required. High level overview with examples	Link
Salesforce Developer Training with Real Time Project	10/25/20	Simple app with REST API. Emphasis on REST API and reading data from an SF org, not sending it to another platform	Link
Salesforce Development for Intermediate Developers		Have not started but highly recommend this instructor	Link
Introduction to Salesforce DX and Visual Studio Code	8/21/20	Overview and set up of VS Code. He has a newer class, which I have not seen yet, but the instructor produces high quality materials	Link
Salesforce Integration with External Systems		Have not started but highly recommend this instructor	Link
Complete Salesforce Certified Platform Developer Course		Have not started but highly recommend this instructor	Link
Preparation for Your Platform Developer Certification	10/28/20	Preparation for exam; condensed version of the Bootcamp (Certification Days)	Link
Salesforce DX The Complete Guide		Have not started but highly recommend this instructor	Link
Prakiseth M Developer Videos	June 2020	Series of introductory videos about apex	Link
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer Part  1		Have not started but highly recommend this instructor	Link