I am Salesforce Certified System Architect

By passing Identity & Access Management Designer, I earned System Architect. The journey of Application Architect & System Architect begun from September 2017.

http://certification.salesforce.com/architectoverview

My ~8 years of experience have played a big role in all these certifications. Compared to Application Architect, System Architect track was more challenging, but at the same time I enjoyed it more. I am glad that I took it up and cleared them all.

I have written about each 3 of them in my blog:

• I passed Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle & Deployment Designer exam
• I passed Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer exam
• I passed Salesforce Certified Identity and Access Management Designer exam

Instead of explaining each of the topics, I have pointed to the blogs which have done this job. No reinventing the wheel (again)! The blogs I referred have played key role in each of the exams. Grateful to each author for doing this fantastic job. Hats-off to them 🙏

Like I mentioned in my blog on Application Architect, going through the Resource Guide is strongly suggested. It is one of the best thing you can do to your career in terms of strengthening the knowledge. Hats-off to the Salesforce Certification team for putting this together 🙏🙏

Do let me know if you need help in any of the exams. Don't ask for dumps - I don't have it. I believe dumps are for dumb people!

I passed Salesforce Certified Identity and Access Management Designer exam

IAM is considered as toughest of all other designer exams. So I took enough time to prepare and revise multiple times with hands-on wherever possible before appearing for this one. It was tough indeed, but surprisingly I got lesser number of scenario based questions.

I guess not having experience in various modules is what makes any exam tough. For me, out of all other designer exams, this one had least number of topics which I had real-time experience. So I ensured I had enough knowledge by reading and definitely by doing hands-on on all possible topics. It indeed helped me.

In the process of learning I thoroughly enjoyed learning new features, new terms (& technology behind it) - that's what took a month of preparation. There is a to-do list in my Evernote for digging deeper into some of the topics I found extremely interesting. I will be sharing my learning when I finish digging :)

Like my other blogs on designer exams, I will point out to the blogs which I referred and recommend. They have done superb job in explaining the topics with great details.

• By now, you already know whose blog it will be - Yes, Maceij has done it again in his blog.
• Gemma is a champ. She failed once but she didn't give up. She prepared more, tightened the screws, and went ahead, and of course cleared it. Here is her experience with great set of diagrams with explanation.
• Binod has listed down majority of topics and reference links for more details in his blog.
• An amazing blog by Chris with video links is a great read.
• Charly attempted this exam last year and she couldn't pass. So she decided to take time off, dig deeper before taking another stab at it. Another great example of learning from the failure. Do read.
• I also skimmed through this quizlet for revision.
• Totally recommend this article for understanding SAML & OAuth.

Unlike my other blogs I do not have topics noted since the above blogs covers exactly that. The Resource Guide, again, is a great place to prepare your study.

Nothing is impossible my friend. Go for it. All the best :)

I passed Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer exam

I have quite good number of years of experience in integration. But, don't be under the impression that it's enough to crack this one. For me, this was toughest one so far. You need solid preparation around the topics - there are huge number of them. To make it easier, there are lot of folks (including me) who have jotted down the topics so that you don't have to.

I will take slightly different approach from my other blogs. I have reference to only 2 blogs this time, but more focus on the topics that I noted down post the exam.

• It's Maceij's blog again. Excellent topic explanation with diagrams. This guy is amazing!
• Gemma did awesome job with this blog, again. She has given crisp and clear explanation, with diagrams. A must read if you are preparing for Integration Designer exam.

Now, coming to the topics, I noted down post the exam. This list quite exhaustive, so take a deep breath... aaaand read on.

• Capabilities of Bulk API - what types of file/format it supports (XML, JSON, CSV), doesn't support base64
• Understand CA-signed & Salesforce client certified - also know what is used for Outbound message
• Know when to use Wave vs external ETL - this is excellent article given in Resource Guide
• Understand what is actionPoller and actionRegion tags
• Know what is allowed inside Test.startTest() & Test.Stop()
• Understand capabilities of Apex Continuation class - also know the difference betwee @future class
• Thoroughly understand Named credentials - where it can be used
• Understand the Integration Design Patterns - read & understand this excellent article/resource - there were good number of questions on this topics
• Salesforce Connect - know the capabilities, what's supported what's not
• Know various options for getting updated records - Data Replication API, getUpdated(), etc.
• Clearly understand the capabilities/features of Enterprise & Partner WSDLs
• Know the difference of ETL & Middleware - know when to use what, also know capabilities of middleware
• Understand usage of workbench
• Know Outbound Messages thoroughly - like others mentioned there were good number of questions around this topic - using Named Credentials, availability in Process Builder
• Understand how Duplicate Management works
• Know Force.com Canvas - again excellent tutorial given in Resource Guide
• MUST go through these 2 video tutorials given in Resource Guide (you should go through all of them, but special shout out to these 2)
• Integrating with Force.com : Security
• Integrating with Force.com Streaming API

Section-wise weightage and # of questions. Do refer to the latest study guide for any change in weightage.

	Weightage	# of questions
Salesforce Integration Testing	10%	6
Enterprise Integration Architecture Concepts	15%	9
Monitoring	5%	3
Salesforce Integration Patterns	17%	10
Integrating with Force.com: Security	15%	9
Salesforce Integration Capabilities	28%	17
Tools	10%	6

May the force be with you. The hands-on experience combined with the study, will definitely make the exam easier for you. All the best :)

I passed Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle & Deployment Designer exam

After clearing Application Architect track last month, I continued my flow and started preparing for System Architect track. Today I cleared Development Lifecycle & Deployment Designer exam 😄😎

The exam was easiest of all the designer exams for me. My experience helped me big time for this feeling. Though I studied as per the Resource Guide and blogs, I felt due to experience I was able to answer various questions.

Like other blogs I have written, I am not going write in detail for each topic, rather I will point out to the blogs I have referred and the topics I noted post the exam.

• Blog by Gemma. She has done wonderful job in covering the topics with neat explanation, sharing her experience on the exams in each of her blogs.
• Nicholas, in his blog, has given excellent explanation to various topics covered in the exam. Definitely 'worth' reading it 😋
• Development Lifecycle Guide is a MUST read in my opinion. I am guessing it covers majority of the topics. Its a nice refresher too.

Topics I noted post the exam (please refer to Study Guide and read the topics I might have missed):

• Types of sandboxes - there were good number of questions with different scenarios. Pretty straight forward if you know the usage of each type of sandbox
• External objects & Salesforce Connect - know its capabilities, deploying them, reporting on them, etc.
• Continuous Integration - best practices around branching, know how it works
• Change Sets - what happens during deployment (what gets locked)
• Difference in Waterfall & Agile methodologies
• Tools/matrices - RTM, RACI - if you are part of project management/planning its easy peasy, otherwise read and understand about it
• Various types of testing and when to use it - stress testing, load testing, performance testing
• Usage of Apex Hammer.

Section-wise weightage and # of questions. Do refer to the latest study guide for any change in weightage.

	Weightage	# of questions
Metadata API	10%	6
CI Techniques	8%	5
Methodology Tools	3%	2
Governance	17%	10
Risk Identification and Mitigation	12%	7
Understanding Packages	3%	2
Testing	10%	6
Application Lifecycle Management	17%	10
Environments	15%	9
Change Sets	5%	3

All the best :)

I am Salesforce Certified Application Architect

By clearing Sharing & Visibility Designer exam, I became certified Application Architect. Of course I am a Certified Platform Developer 1 & Platform App Builder (these are needed to be awarded as an Application Architect, see diagram below).

http://certification.salesforce.com/architectoverview

This is one of my great achievements. I definitely enjoyed preparing for these exams, learnt lots of new stuff. The thought of continuing this 'flow' came to me and I decided to study for the other track - System Architect. Watch out for my next posts on how I passed 😉

I have written 2 separate blogs on how I passed the 2 designer exams:

• I passed Salesforce Certified Data Architecture & Management Designer
• I passed Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer

Instead of rewriting the topics and explaining them again, I have given the blogs which have these information. No reinventing the wheel please!

If you are not ready for the exams, I (strongly) suggest you all to go through this wonderful thing called Resource Guide for each of these exams. Salesforce team has done a fantastic job of putting together all the helpful resources in one PDF. Apart from links to articles and videos, it also has a practice material to ensure you get hands-on experience. How cool is that?

I passed Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer

Next up, in my journey to Application Architect, is Sharing & Visibility Designer. The whole topic of security/sharing is very dear to me. The exam had lot of scenario based questions and confusing options/answers. Though the topic is very close and I was very confident, it wasn't so easy for me. Lot of other folks said that it was one of the easiest. May be, they got the easier set of questions 😋😉

Like my previous post on Data Architecture & Management Designer, I will give you various blogs that I went through and various topics that I noted post the exam.

• How to Prepare For and PASS Sharing and Visibility Designer Exam by Maciej, by now my go to blog for designer exams.
• Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer Exam Preparation by Sathish. His post has cross posts/reference to Maciej' and Santanu's blog too.
• Prepare for Salesforce ‘Sharing and Visibility Designer’ Exam by Binod.
• Tips for passing Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer by Santanu.
• I highly recommend watching these 2 webinars:
• Secure Development on the Salesforce Platform - Part 1
• Secure Development on the Salesforce Platform - Part 2
• Glanced over this quizlet for revision.

Topics I noted down post the exam:

• Use cases for Apex Managed Sharing, also what happens when owner changes
• Territory Management - Uses of Type, Type Priority, Hierarchy, Model State
• Capabilities of Platform Shield
• Usage of Crypto class
• With Sharing keyword - what is enforced. Using Schema.DescribeSObjectResult and  Schema.DescribeFieldResult to enforce/check
• Cross-site Script (XSS)
• Parallel Sharing Rule, Defer Sharing Calculations, Granular Locking - scenarios on when to use what
• runAs() usages
• Best practices for storing passwords (Named Credentials, Protected Custom Setting, etc.)
• Report sharing options
• Options available for Filtering and sharing list view
• Usages of External OWD.

Section-wise weightage and # of questions. Do refer to the latest study guide for any change in weightage.

	Weightage	# of questions
Performance	8%	5
Programmatic Sharing	25%	15
Declarative Sharing	67%	40

The exam was fantastic opportunity to know some of the new topics and to strengthen the current knowledge.

All the best :)

I passed Salesforce Certified Data Architecture & Management Designer

It was a while since I took any certifications. The great promotion on Designer exams attracted and I decided to go for it.

I decided to go for Application Architect track, since I believe its much easier and wanted to ensure I get 2 certs free ;)

http://certification.salesforce.com/architectoverview

First up, Data Architecture and Management Designer. I cleared it yesterday. Yay!

As always I referred to the study guide for understanding the weightage and various topics covered, and go through blogs to learn from the experience.

Below are the blogs that I referred apart from thoroughly going through Resource Guide.

• I am super impressed by the level of details and research Maciej has done in each of his blogs. His blog on Data Architecture & Management Designer is excellent.
• Gemma is awesome. All her blogs have been BIG help in all my designer certs. Here is her superb blog.
• She even created a Trailmix with great collection of Trailhead modules.
• As a revision, I went through this Quizlet.

Here are some of the topics that I have noted down post the exam:

• Working with Large Data Volume (LDV)
• Skinny Tables
• Indexes
• Mashups
• Defer Sharing Recalculation
• Bulk API - Serial & Parallel modes
• PK Chunking
• Duplicate Management
• Data.com Clean
• Advantage of Custom Metadata over Custom Settings
• Data Governance & Stewardship
• Measuring data quality - Age, Completeness, Usage, Accuracy, Consistency, Duplication.

Section-wise weightage and # of questions. This kind of helped me to go deeper into the each of sections which had more number of questions. Do refer to the latest study guide for any change in weightage.

	Weightage	# of questions
Data Modeling	20%	12
Data Governance	7%	4
Data Archiving	10%	6
Data Migration	10%	6
Metadata Management	7%	4
BI, Reporting & Analytics	10%	6
Performance Tuning	11%	7
MDM	10%	6
Conceptual Design	15%	9

I strongly believe you need to have good amount of experience along with studying these topics, as the questions are scenario based (and our favourite UC needs help).

All the best and do let me know if you need help.

Omni-channel Considerations

Omni-Channel in Salesforce is one of the awesome point-and-click feature which saves lots of coding and maintenance for us, Salesforce Dev/Admins. The blog is inspired by my session at Salesforce Dev Group, Bangalore. You can check out the slides I used during the session here.

This article concentrates on Considerations or Limitations, not about setting up or anything else. I have suggested and implemented in couple of projects for my clients, mainly because the considerations were not roadblocks. Considering how much time it would take to implement using custom solution, these considerations were ignorable for me. Also Spring'17 release had great feature announced - Omni-Channel Supervisor Tab, which also helped in reducing the effort required for creating multiple reports and dashboards (the feature does much more than that).

Image credit - Summer'15 Release Notes

If you are not familiar with Omni-Channel, NOW is the time. Learn more about it from the best place to learn Salesforce - Trailhead - there is a module for this. I highly recommend completing the module and practicing it for better understanding. Trust me it is very easy.

For step-by-step instructions and deep-dive, please check the Help Article.

Now… Assuming you know about Omni-Channel, let me come to the agenda of the blog - Considerations. I have listed them below. Please note that these are applicable as on today, 7 April 2017 (you know the speed of Salesforce, they would have added the feature while you are reading this).

• Deployment - This is probably the biggest consideration. You cannot deploy the related configs using Change Set or Eclipse; I am sure even ANT Migration doesn't support. What does this means is that, you have to manually create the settings/configs in the org.
• Salesforce Console - Omni-Channel doesn’t work with normal Salesforce pages. To work with Omni-Channel you need to have a Console app created. You might need to buy Salesforce Console as add-on feature if your edition doesn’t include it.
• CTI Support - Omni-Channel cannot assign the cases originating from Phone/CTI. It means that in the console you will have 2 component - one for Omni-Channel and another for CTI/SoftPhone. Slight inconvenience, I know :)
• Capacity - There are 2 considerations:
• Work Item (a case, lead, etc.) is considered to be closed when the tab is closed NOT when the Case is closed (Status=Closed). When the agent closes the tab, his/her overall load is reduced, so they would be assigned with new work item.
• The overall capacity or availability of the agent is calculated based on the work items that were assigned through Omni-Channel. In other words, if a case was assigned to an agent through a Trigger/Flow Definition/Workflow Rule, Omni-Channel will not adjust the overall capacity since it did not assign. Did you say, selfish? Currently, true!
• Supported objects - Omni-Channel is applicable to all the objects which can have Queues. So Account or Opportunity, for example, cannot be routed using Omni-Channel.
• Live Agent - There are number of differences how Live Agent handles the work item vs Omni-Channel. Please glance through the help article for details.
• SOAP API - Oh yes, this is kind of positive consideration. You can expand the Omni-Channel's capabilities using the SOAP API. Check out the Omni-Channel Developer's Guide.

One of the best way to check the limitation is to check the ideas. I myself have posted couple of ideas, here, here.

These are the various considerations that I have come across while implementing Omni-Channel. It will be great if you can comment on other considerations that I have missed.

As always, suggestions/feedback are most welcome.

Jaipur Dev Fest (JDF) for me

The highly anticipated, one of the most awaited event is over. I am glad and fortunate to be part of the history by attending as well as speaking at this event. This blog is about my experience attending Jaipur Dev Fest or JDF 2017.

What?

JDF is India's first-ever community led Salesforce event in India. There are many such events across the world - Midwest Dreamin', Tahoe Dreamin', London's Calling to name few. Check this blog by Apttus which has details about the various events happening in 2017 (of course it doesn’t have all the events but it will give idea about events happening across the world).

Why?

As mentioned above there are so many community led events happening throughout the world. India has 2nd largest Salesforce professionals and there was no community event in India!
The idea is not just to do what others do, but to inspire, educate, collaborate and spread about Salesforce, just like all other community events.

Who?

The core team consists of awesome Indian MVPs and experts from Jaipur - Abhinav Gupta, Ankit Arora, Bhawani Sharma, Durgesh Dhoot, Gaurav Kheterpal. There were 38+ awesome volunteers too, who were key in the success of the event.

How was the experience for me?

Amazing! The event was organized very neatly. Starting from the pre-event dinner conducted for speakers, registration, keynote, sessions, lunch, panel discussions, after party, everything was well organized and was of great quality. The sleepless nights of the organizers and volunteers was very evident since the overall event was flawless and super fun.

The WIT had good percentage of overall session. There was WIT Panel Discussion too which included some entrepreneurs and WIT Leaders. The discussion and the ladies were (are) very energetic, inspiring and delivered powerful message.

Networking was much more friendly and warm. I met most of the India Salesforce Community leaders who I knew through Twitter and other online media. These folks are actually more energetic and creative than what they are in Twitter. Also met many students who sought guidance from their carrier perspective - the kids are lot smarter than we think! It was pleasure discussing with international delegates and our own Salesforce India team members. Where else do you get chance to meet?

Do checkout the Twitter and Facebook handles/pages to get a feel about the event. There are multiple Live videos posted by various attendees. Also check hashtag #JDF17 in Twitter & Facebook.

Psst.. do check the crazy after party dance. We danced as if we were the world's craziest dancers :P

When I heard about JDF announcement I was sure that I will attend; if not as a speaker as a volunteer or attendee. I am glad that my submission was selected and I presented on Apex Design Patterns.

The response was overwhelming. The hall was full and people were standing behind the last row! I got good feedback and inputs from some of the experienced folks who were leading and practicing design patterns in their organizations. This is more than what any presenter wishes for.

Some tweets about my session:

Great session #Apex #designpatterns by @goabhigo. A must for any #development. We @Zen4orce are stern followers of #designpatterns #JDF17

— Jina Chetia (@JinaChetia) April 1, 2017

FullHouse @ #Nahargarh in #JDF17. Every @SalesforceDevs wants to know more about Apex Design Patterns. @goabhigo is a #Rockstar. pic.twitter.com/eHTKl1TAwZ

— Durgesh Dhoot (@ddurgesh28) April 1, 2017

Full house for @goabhigo session #JDF17 Great knowledge pic.twitter.com/oOBcAVKSRS

— Vipul Goel ☁ (@vipulgoel19) April 1, 2017

kick start on apex design patterns by @goabhigo must attend this @jaipurdevfest #JDF17 pic.twitter.com/3RmXFmvYg6

— M U S T A F A (@MustafaJhabua) April 1, 2017

I am grateful to Andrew Fawcett for all the amazing things he does to the community. I cannot imagine my session without his blogs. Keir Bowden, my mentor, who always believed and encouraged me.

Thank you JDF. You made many of us stronger and proved that Salesforce Community in India is very strong.

[Sharing the learning] - Merge fields in email templates

This is the first blog of a series where I want to share the learnings with you all. I have spent enough hours working on various approaches and found out the 'working' approach. I do not say that these are the best ways or only ways, but definitely they are not bad.

So, now to the topic..

Use case: Send email to the user and the mentor (manager field in user) when there is change in mentor. Simple right?

First thing that would come to your mind is to use workflow email alert. Even I thought so. First problem is you cannot access Manager's email directly in workflow email alert. There are some ideas (https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000Y3KuAAK, https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000hhSFAAY) in IdeaExchange.

Second, the email alert is always sent to the user who changed it, even when you use 'User Fields' under 'Available Merge Fields' in email template.

Definitely apex trigger is a solution. But it is always good if you can avoid coding if the solution can be achieved using point-and-click.

What I used is mix of custom field and workflows, as many of us have been doing for years now.

• Create a custom email field (Manager_Email__c) in user (hide it from page layout, ideally), because workflow email alert will not consider formula fields too
• Now create a workflow field update to populate this field with Manager's email address. You can use either,
• 'created, and any time it's edited to subsequently meet criteria' where the rule criteria will be Manager not blank
• Or 'created, and every time it's edited' where the rule criteria will be OR( ISNEW(), ISCHANGED( Manager ))
• Ensure that you check 'Re-evaluate Workflow Rules after Field Change'
• Next, create a workflow or create email alert to send email using this email field.

The catch here is the email template. The first template I used was as below:

Dear {!User.Name}, 

Please note the change of mentor / mentee with effect from {!Today}. 

Mentor: {!User.Manager}
Mentee: {!User.Name} 

Thanks & Regards
Salesforce Helpdesk.

I used the User Fields under Available Merge Fields

The result was surprising (at least till I understood the usage of merge fields). Whatever test I did, I, the current user, got the email alert, with my name and my mentor details.

After many hit-and-try, finally I read through the article on considerations for using merge fields in email templates. Highlighting below that is relevant to this blog/issue, but would encourage you all to read through the article.

User Fields — Use these merge fields to represent the sending user. Merge fields named {!User.field_name} return values from the user record of the person who created or updated the record that triggered the workflow rule.
Workflow Target User Fields — Use these merge fields only in email templates for workflow rules on the User object. Merge fields named {!Target_User.field_name} return values from the user record that was created or updated to trigger the workflow rule.

So the culprit was {!User.fieldName}. I changed the email template to the following:

Dear {!Target_User.Name}, 

Please note the change of mentor / mentee with effect from {!Today}.

Mentor: {!Target_User.Manager}

Mentee: {!Target_User.Name}

Thanks & Regards

Salesforce Helpdesk.

Though it looks very simple I had to spend lot of time understanding this.

To understand further, there are set of fields available under Sending User Fields and Receiving User Fields. Note that these merge fields work only for mass email and are not available in Visualforce email templates. Also to use it the user will need 'Manager Users' permission.

Trust this helps people who end up writing apex code, either a trigger or call apex through Process Builder. As always I welcome suggestions on making this easier or optimal.

Lightning Experience (LEX) - The Sexier Salesforce

Ever since we were part of Meet the New Salesforce LIVE from SFO meetup, I have been waiting to get my hands on this beautiful upgrade.

My favourite Salesforce learning tool/place, Trailhead, has all the necessary (and as always, more) trails/modules for understanding various aspects of LEX. There are 4 trails:

• Admin Trail - Migrating to Lightning Experience (4 modules)
• Admin Trail - Starting with Lightning Experience (3 modules)
• Developer Trail - Lightning Experience (5 modules)
• Sales Rep Trail - Using Lightning Experience (2 modules)

For me the first one, Migrating to Lightning Experience looks most relevant and good place to start for all the Salesforce users/developers/admins/everyone. Mainly because we are all so used to the old Salesforce interface very much, that this will make it way easier to understand and decide to go ahead with LEX. Note that now onwards the existing tabbed interface will be called as Salesforce Classic, not the very old iOS/Android/Blackberry app - thats all ancient now, not old :-P. Before I go deep into the module, I must say that the Trailhead team is one of the best thing happened to Salesforce after Salesforce. Writers make it so much easy to read and understand the concepts. I have thanked many times in multiple tweets and blogs, and I will continue to do so because they continue to make it so much fun to learn. Hats-off folks.

Now, the trail; it has 4 modules, starting from basics to features to rollout strategy. As usual, screenshots are provided for easier and understanding, and also for better memory (they say visual memory is strongest).

Lightning Experience Basics: This explains about the LEX and Salesforce Classic and their differences. The module also provides the high level description of key features of LEX. There are great comparison charts/tables that will help you to determine if LEX is right for you. This clearly goes through each of the key features of LEX and provides info about the supported interfaces (SF Classic or LEX). In the end it provides info about enabling LEX; the more detailed explanation is given in the last module.

Lightning Experience Features: This is the module which details out various features of LEX. The navigation of LEX and Setup is detailed out with step by step explanation in this module. More detailed explanation of Opportunity & Lead Workspace is given, along with the super cool Opportunity Board (like Trello/JIRA Sprint boards) feature. Along with this enhancements on the Home Page, List Views, various record pages (detail pages), Events/Calendar, and Reports and Dashboards are beautifully written. I am so much excited after seeing these by myself in my preview org.

App Customization Lite: The impact of updating Page Layouts and Compact Layout is explained in this module. You can understand how changing Page Layout changes the content of record page in LEX. As in other modules, various unsupported items are clearly mentioned. The next chapter talks about the Actions - where are they displayed and what determines their order. After the great explanation, there is an example which washes away any stains of doubts.

Lightning Experience Rollout: After learning various aspects of LEX, this unit is for you, the company's trusted advisor of Salesforce for rolling out LEX in the org. Awesome module which covers the tiniest details with great coverage of each preparation area. For example, it explains the best practices of a demo!! - Make sure what you demo has data, Test everything beforehand, Record your demo. Not just that it revisits the Gap Analysis just to ensure that you have buy-in from your Stakeholders. There is a great enablement pack provided by the folks which again is so detailed and well written. There are some more best practices for rollout, like, enabling Super User. It is so awesome that I think it is one of the best advice to enable LEX in the client orgs. 

I am very happy and excited after going through the modules. I have already tried out many stuff in my preview org and can't wait to explore more!

Finally I would like to highlight some of the major limitations/things to consider before rolling out LEX (for more and exact list please go through the modules):

• Orgs with Person Accounts cannot enable LEX
• Custom URL and JavaScript buttons aren't supported
• Many Sales and Service features like Forecasting, Territory Management, Consoles..
• Force.com Quick Access menu won't appear 
• Many things won't appear in Home tab, notably Recycle Bin
• Custom Help don't appear in new Help menu
• There is no setting for no. of items to show in List View
• Inline editing (Detail page as well as List View) not supported
• Search in Reports isn't there
• Joined Reports aren't supported.

This is the beginning and for that the above mentioned are not roadblocks. Many of these will be covered in coming releases (or before) and I just can't wait!

Salesforce Event Monitoring - Bring out the Sherlock/Bond in you!

Event Monitoring - Another great module in Trailhead and one of my dream job related stuff - Detective!

Salesforce.com provides many ways to keep your data secure with security settings like Org Wide Defaults, Profiles, Field Level Security, etc. There are Prevention and Tracking methods – prevention to keep away data from being exposed to unwanted users/sources, and Tracking to find out the culprit.

Apart from the conventional Audit Trail and Login Hours/IP Ranges Tracking there are loads of other “event” tracking provided by Salesforce.com. Event Monitoring in Salesforce provides 29 types of events such as Login, Logout, UI Tracking (SF1), API Calls, Report Exports, etc. Ever wondered if you could find the culprit who exported a report? With Event Monitoring you can!

All log files of Event Monitoring are available in Enterprise, Unlimited and Performance Edition at an additional cost, while login and logout log files are available for free. The good news is,the Developer Edition has free access to all 29 log files. Note that it is available only after 24 hours and is stored for only 24 hours in DE. This is an API-only feature for now;it’s not available in Setup area. That means to view various “events” you need to access EventLogFile through Workbench or any other similar tools.

Using the Workbench you can query the number of EventLogFile records. Also you can explore the attributes and fields of this object to understand it a little deeper. All these are simple and straight forward. Now, viewing the event records in Workbench is challenging, especially because of the format of the output provided by REST Explorer or SOAP (SOQL Query Editor).

There are many ways to view these files in a more ‘readable’ format like .csv. Easiest of them all is event log file browser application. This downloads the log into .csv file. If there are too many event log records, going through each of them in excel/csv is cumbersome. Some of the tools that will help in reading/understanding the data - Salesforce Analytics Cloud, Splunk App, CloudLock and CloudLock Viewer, ezCloudAudit.

After strong prevention, if still there were some loopholes in securing your data, with these techniques you can trace them easily.