HOW I APPROACHED MY PCLSA CERTIFICATION

Have this in mind before facing the exam: passing the CLSA exam does not require an abundant experience.

I started my Pega carrier on August 27, 2017.

I began my Pega LSA journey with less than two years of experience (July 2019). It was a very strange feeling when I started the CLSA journey, not knowing whether I would be able to clear the exam or not, however my interest and enthusiasm towards Pega motivated me to take the exam.

When I started my preparation, one thing was clear in my mind: not to worry about the outcome either a positive or negative one. But this journey will undoubtedly help me to advance in my career as a Pega Architect.

My Pega CLSA Preparation

• Prior to starting my LSA preparation, I have thoroughly reviewed the Pega CSA and CSSA academy courses to ensure that I am up to date on the latest Pega features.
• ?Whatever it is, I made sure to spend at least 2 hours of time daily, for CLSA preparation.
• Whenever I go through Pega courses, I made sure and understood how the rule was developed, and how the Pega architecture was present in the backend during rule execution. This has helped me to grasp the Pega architecture more clearly and has helped me improve my design build to a considerable extent.
• It took nearly 4 months to complete LSA Readiness (21 October) and LSA Part-1 Exam (26 November).
• I clearly remember now also how I felt after passing the LSA Readiness exam; I can't put it into words.

Now comes the big challenge LSA Part-2 (Build Exam)

• Before taking this exam, I got the Pega LSA retired exam questions from Pega Community and attempted to create a solution and design document for the same.
• Finally, after gaining confidence I enrolled for the CLSA Part-2 exam. On December month (2019) I took my Part-2 exam and in March-2020 I got my result. But result was not in my favor. Yes, I got failed. But that's fine - Failure is a steppingstone to success. This did not shake my confidence; I learned a lot during my LSA journey, and the feedback I had from my Pega CLSA team helped me a lot to improve.
• Within a month, I attempted the CLSA exam again. I submitted my CLSA design document in April 2020 and received the results in June 2020, and yes, now the result is POSITIVE.
• In August 2020, I submitted my CLSA solution. I received the dream email of all Pega aspirants from the Pega CLSA Team at 05:33 AM on September 23, 2020, and yes, I cleared my CLSA exam with 88.71%.

Finally Completed CLSA exam with 3 Years of Experience.

Some pointers for anyone wanting to take the CLSA exam

• Design document should be written in such a way that a non-technical person should grasp your design by reading it. Always attempt to have one proposed solution and at least two alternative solutions. wherever possible Include an architecture/process diagram in your design document.
• Try to present Pros and Cons for your designs. For your primary solution, Pros should be more, and cons should be very less.
• While developing your solution, try to use more number of OOTB rules.
• When designing a solution, decide whether some features may be created as a component, component application, and so on.
• Be more careful in placing the rules in respective ruleset, class hierarchy, and so on.
• Follow the Pega standard naming conversion for all the rules and provide proper usage and description in all the rules that you create.
• The test case document should be very explicit, with screenshots of all the different scenarios being tested. The test case document should encompass all aspects of testing, such as UI validation, routing process, audit history, and so on.
• Remove all the unwanted access to the end-users from Portal.
• Only give the needed privilege to the end-users.
• Try to have two products: one for rule history and one for all the rules you've created. This will aid in reducing product size and avoiding difficulties during product import.
• Don't give the evaluator any manual setup work. Evaluator simply want to import the product that you are providing and then begin to validate the app based on the test case document.

Special Thanks:

Our first manager will determine the nature of our carrier. In that regard, I am privileged because my manager had a significant part in my career. I'm not sure completing this certificate would be achievable in a short span without him. Thanks Kumar Boopathy :)