Pega CSSA Exam certification

Certify for the exam “Certified Senior System Architect”

Why take the CSSA certification exam?

  • The most important use is that your market value increases
  • You would be recognized well among others.
  • If you have any plans to change your job, certification helps.
  • If you don’t have any plans to quit, get a pay rise in the next appraisal

 How must I prepare?

Understand the blueprint. To summarize:

  1. To take this test, you should have passed CSA (Certified System Architects)
  2. Take instructor led or e-learning classes (offered by Pega)
  3. CSSA exam is  70-question multiple response exam

General PRPC Architecture

PRPC and JEE architecture

WAR and EAR Deployments

Caching

– System Pulse

Interacting with the Database

– Persistence

– Transaction Model

– Deferred Operations Model

– Locking

– Threading Model

Agents

Services and Connectors

Architecture

– Service Architecture

– Connector Architecture

Web Services

Connect SQL

File Listeners

Rule Resolution and Achieving Reusability

Rule Resolution

Enterprise Class Structure

– Reasons for Building an Enterprise Class Structure

– Enterprise Class Structure Best Practices

– Types of Reuse

– Reuse Techniques

– Enterprise Class Structure Layers

– Application Accelerator

Reusability and Specialization

– Importance of Rule Specialization and Reuse

– RuleSets and Rule Specialization

– Circumstancing

– Improving Reusability

Security

Authentication

– Authentication Types

– Enterprise Identity Management and Single Sign On

– PRPC Authentication Types

– PRPC Managed Authentication

Authorization

– Access Groups

– User Profiles and Multiple Access Groups

– Access Roles

– Access Role Editor and Access Control

– Production Levels

– Access When and Access Deny Rules

– Privileges

Security and Encryption

User Interface

UI Theory

– Why UI is Important

– Human Factors

– UI Best Practices

– UI Design Decisions

PRPC UI Fundamentals

– Flow Design: Standard vs. Screen Flows

– Validation

– Basic UI Standards

– UI Implementation

Branding/Skinning Wizard

Widget Library

Implementation and Performance Tools

Implementation Tools

– Preflight

– Tracer

– Pega Log File and Alerts (including Log4J)

– Refactoring Tools

Performance Analysis Tools

– Preflight

– Performance Analyzer and Log Usage

– PRPC Alerts

– PegaRULES Log Analyzer

– Application Profiler

– DB Trace

PRPC Maintenance

System Management Application

Building for Performance

Reporting

Reporting Basics

– Reporting Using PRPC

– Table and Column Basics

– Exposing Data

– List View Features

– Summary View Features

OOTB Reports

– Standard Report Types and Categories

BPM

Case Management

Flow Shapes

Activities

SmartBPM

– Service Level Agreements

– Routing

– History

Correspondence

BRE

BRE Introduction

– BRE Basics

– Declaratives

Declarative Expressions

– Forward Chaining

– Backward Chaining

– Goal Seek

Triggers and OnChange

Declarative Pages

Rule Execution and Delegation Strategy

– Rule Delegation

– Function Alias

– BREs and Performance

Application Deployment

Creating a Rule-Admin-Product (R-A-P) File

RuleSet Versioning

Exporting and Importing a R-A-P File

Pega Log Files and Alerts

 

Sample flow rule diagram

By selecting a BPMN Visio stencil, you can create flow diagrams that closely match the appearance and notation used in Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) diagrams. So, they would be similar and follow best practices of Pega BPMN.

Pega BPMN flow diagram
Pega BPMN flow diagram
The standard Work-New harness includes the standard CoreParty and PartyDisplay sections that your operators can use to add work parties on the New form of a work object. For the Pega sample flow rule diagram, follow these steps:
1) create operators who uses workflow

2)create properties which are used in work flow

3)create activities used in workflow

4) Draw flow rule diagram using the stencils provided by pega business model

5) Go to Process Commander XML to see representation of the flow in XML.

6) You can also edit the XML to change flow or covert into BPEL or XPDL both are supported wfc standards.

7) Write supporting java classes for customized tasks and inherit them

8) You can configure email adapters, outlook connectors by using wizards or connectors of Pega.We can also use integration capabilities like JMS, MQ, CORBA etc..if needed with legacy system communication in message routing.Also can generate services.

9) save your work flow and publish.

Example of using Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX)

One use of BIX is that it can be implemented Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) as a solution to extract data to the data marts

Situation: Transformation program to improve and automate the recovery management process for a large global insurer with complex reporting requirements.

Solution:

Using BIX, Extraction rule can be configured to extract the instances of any work or data or assign class. Using the extraction rule, we can extract Single Value Properties, properties in a page, page list, page group, value list, Value group, embedded pages (all levels), embedded page group (all levels). Extraction rule provides the option to select the list of properties for extraction based on the applied to class of the rule. Direct properties and inherited properties of class will be available in extraction. Data can be extracted to xml format or csv format or Database table.

BIX extraction process can be scheduled by calling Process Commander Application libraries from the Ant script. We specify the data to be extracted and the output format by providing an Extract rule definition defined in Process Commander.

Pega PRPC Installation procedure

these are the major steps to install Pega PRPC.

These are to be kept in mind by software administration team.

Install JDK 1.5 or higher
Install SQL Server or Oracle DB 9i ( > 9.01 )
Run PEGARULES SCHEMA i.e .sql to create pega rule databases

Install Websphere or Jboss application server or Tomcat Server

If Tomcat,
—> Use unique port
—> Goto Tomcat Manager ( Manager Servlet)
—> Copy classes12.jar/xerces.jar under Tomcat\common\lib
—> Deploy prweb.war under \Tomcat\webapps\prweb
—> Open \Tomcat\webapps\prweb\WEB-INF\classes\pegarules.xml
—> Enable JDBC driver, change UserId,Passaword which were used for installation of oracle

Copy all jars prpc jars,commons logging jars,classes12.jar,xerces.jar under defaultdeploycommonlib
Deploy prweb.war under defaultdeployprweb
Open defaultdeployprwebWEB-INFclassespegarules.xml
Enable JDBC driver, change UserId,Passaword which were used for installation of oracle Start the Application server
Access server using the following URL: http://hostname:port/
Access server using the following URL: http://hostname:port/prweb/PRServlet

CLIENT side
login with Admin rights
Install Microsft VISIO
In Internet Explorer, Goto Tools–>Internet Options–>Security–>Custom level, enable all the radio buttons

Hope this Installation procedure was useful.

Blend Smart BPM with RUP, Agile or Waterfall

There have been cases where projects have blended PEGA methodology with more traditional development approaches such as Agile or Waterfall. Normally this is done based on dependencies. For eg. large J2EE changes would follow waterfall, smaller J2EE changes follow Agile, ESB changes would follow RUP, Pega would follow Smart BPM- this is just an example and it depends upon the project decisions.

In these cases, there are many challenges for various development approaches to match up the timeline:

 

Intelligence of iBPM

BPM is not just technology. BPM is a management concept that helps organizations achieve their strategic goals and drive their operations. Automation is a key component of BPM solutions. It includes several iterative phases from design to execution to monitoring and continuous improvement. It plays a key role in process improvement and enterprise architectures.

iBPMS encapsulates a number of core capabilities, including:

Features of iBPM
Features of iBPM

 

Process Component Registry/Repository iBPM suites are ideal for intelligent business operations. Key among intelligent business operations are iBPM-enabled customer relationship management operations.

Learn more about iBPM or even more about iBPM…..

What is iBPM as per Gartner?

To keep it simple, iBPM is just Intelligent Business process Management

What iBPM is and what it can do for you
What iBPM is and what it can do for you

iBPM has become the new way of creating customer centric software and agile business solutions. iBPM automates not only mundane tasks and key business practices but also dynamic knowledge work.

Gartner introduced the term and acronym iBPM Suites(http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=224913&ref=g_sitelink)

Visit here for the intelligence of iBPMs

iBPM: The Next Wave for Customer-Centric Business Applications

The Next Wave for Customer-Centric Business Applications and the branding of products and services. Other high-level objectives include improvements in productivity, compliance, cost reduction, as well as innovation by a well-oiled adaptive enterprise with satisfied customers and stakeholders. IT, on the other hand, focuses on providing the necessary support and execution of systems that can help achieve the business objectives, using intensely technical platforms, tools, and primitives. There are legacy and proprietary systems that are difficult to extend. These traditional IT issues—from maintenance to increased backlogs and requirements for new applications—are augmented with new challenges, especially globalization and compliance. Today, organizations are increasingly facing pressures to change and respond to multiple types of challenges. These can come from internal stakeholders, customers, the government, and shareholders alike. As organizations migrate to emerging enterprise solutions, the frequency and magnitude of change is increasing. Market pressures, the need to integrate diverse departments, and global competition are driving management to constantly evolve the ‘rules’ of the business, resulting in a massive increase of changes in business policies and procedures. Since iBPM solutions automate policies and procedures, they stand the best chance of reducing or even eliminating the execution gaps, while allowing the business to keep up with change. The next sections delve into each of the letters of the acronym: “B,” “P,” and “M” as well as the “i” or the intelligence of iBPM. Business: The “B” in iBPM Let’s talk about iBPM, starting with the business. iBPM is not just about technology: It is the discipline of building solutions with a business focus.

What is Application Profile?

Application Profile is one of the DCO (Direct Capture of Objective) tool in PEGA. The other two are Application Accelerator and Application Documentation.

Application Profile is used by the Business Analyst or System Analyst when a project starts. The main purpose of using Application Profile in the beginning of project is that it is mainly use to capture client requirement and business objective of the customer.

Collecting requirement of a project is a big task and especially when it is a large project and involves dozens of stakeholder. Creating requirement document and maintaining version of each of the requirement document is difficult job.

What PEGA has provided is Application Profile in which a project manager or business analyst can capture the business requirement, business use cases, and project objectives all inside the PEGA environment. Project manager or BA does not have to create a word, excel or use any specific template to capture the requirements.



With Application Profile following requirements can be captured.
1. Business objective of the project
2. Business processes and specifications
3. Project end users; their roles and responsibilities
4. Any assumptions captured during the project initiating phase.
5. Kind of correspondence (email, letters, fax etc) which application need to generate.
6. Estimated Scope of work in the project.

Once the Application Profile is ready it can be shared with the project stakeholders and their approval can be taken before the development can begin. Once the stakeholder approved the application profile the System architect of the team can use the information collected as an input toApplication accelerator which in turns create the complete applicationskelton of the project. It creates the Stub Rules which project teams can work upon.