The Industries CPQ Developer certification is considered a unique credential because of the industry-specific applications the software is designed for. Passing this exam will demonstrate a thorough understanding of the tools used to implement complex enterprise-level CPQ solutions for the Communications, Media, and Energy & Utilities Clouds.
This guide will focus on the ideal candidate and the key topics, as well as give you the best strategy for studying and tips for taking the exam itself.
Who’s the Ideal Candidate?
The Industries CPQ Developer certification is meant for individuals with experience of developing enterprise CPQ functionality for Communications, Media, and Energy & Utilities Cloud implementations.
This certification will be helpful if you are working for a large integration partner with clients in one of the above industries. The concepts covered in this certification will ensure you are well-versed in the configurations used to create customized industry-specific CPQ solutions.
Developers, app builders, architects, and support engineers working with and implementing enterprise-level configure, price, quote solutions using Industries CPQ would also benefit from having this certification.
Key Topics
1. Products (20%)
Products are the primary building block of CPQ solutions – hence the large allocation of questions. You will need to know how to configure a product and product bundles including product details, structure, and attributes. Object-type hierarchies are also included in this section.
You’ll want to ensure you are familiar with how to configure product structure to enforce minimum, maximum, and default cardinality.
You will be tested on how to add attributes to products and the inheritance model of object type hierarchies.
2. Promotions and Discounts (7%)
There will only be a few questions on promotions and discounts. These will be testing your knowledge of how and when to configure promotions and discounts, and also the difference between the price adjustment methods.
You will want to know the different types of discounts and how to configure them. One key concept to review is how frame agreements are configured and used in the context of a discount.
The exam will present situations where a product or bundle requires a price adjustment and you need to indicate whether a promotion or discount should be used.
3. Pricing (17%)
You cannot have a product without a price. Ensure you understand the pricing model extremely well. Questions will be asked on how to build pricing, how to configure attribute-based pricing, pricing adjustments, cost and margin, and when to use the different types of pricing.
The exam will ask questions on pricing plans such as how to add new steps to pricing plans and the order of execution of pricing plan steps.
Ensure you know how to override pricing and when to do so. You will also need to know the components used to build pricing, which includes pricing variables and pricing plans. Time plans and time policies are another pricing concept that will be covered in the exam.
4. Rules (12%)
Rules ensure that every quote and order is perfect. This is essential for creating an enterprise-level industries CPQ implementation.
The Industries CPQ Developer exam will test your knowledge of product configuration procedures, context rules, and advanced rules. You are also expected to know when each type of rule should be used based on scenarios described in the question.
Be sure to study the components of each rule type and practice configuring rules in the system. This includes understanding the context dimension, context mapping, context scope, and how they are combined to define context rules. Review how context rules are created and what entities they can be assigned to.
Advanced rules are configured using product relationships and entity filters. You should know how to build entity filters and product relationships and how these building blocks are used to create advanced rules.
Finally, study the product configuration procedure actions, how they are defined, and the functionality of each action.
5. APIs (12%)
Understanding Digital Commerce (DC) and Cart-Based APIs is essential for succeeding on the Industries CPQ Developer exam. You are tested on your knowledge of what each API method does, what arguments are needed, and what behavior different argument values will have on information that is returned.
Review the API documentation and understand the arguments needed for POST, GET, and PUT methods for both the DC and Cart-Based APIs. As always, knowing which API should be used based on a mock scenario is something you should be prepared for.
6. Ordering and Quoting (12%)
The ordering and quoting section of the exam covers the cart experience, including product and bundle configurations, multi-site quoting, and asset-based ordering.
There will be questions about the cart experience when configuring orders and quotes. Ensure you familiarize yourself with the different components of the cart and where products will appear before and after being added to the cart. You will need to know how to configure product attributes in the cart and how to override prices from the cart screen.
Multi-site quoting is essential for B2B quoting in the Telco and Utilities industries. Be prepared to identify the process of defining single and multiple group structures for multi-site quoting and the overall multi-site workflow.
Asset-based ordering considers a customer’s existing products and services during order capture. The exam will test you on the different order types available in asset-based ordering, how these order types are initiated, and how you can identify when asset-based ordering is occurring from the cart screen.
7. Troubleshooting (20%)
As in most Salesforce exams, you will need to know how to troubleshoot CPQ development issues. These issues are related to improper configurations stemming from the above topics.
You will need to familiarize yourself with the maintenance jobs and EPC jobs. By not running these jobs you might encounter issues with product structure, rules, and attributes not behaving as expected. Some questions will require you to identify why products are not displayed in the cart.
To ensure your success on the API troubleshooting questions, study the request arguments and the response errors for all of the API methods.
Study Strategy
The Industries CPQ Exam has some complex topics, but don’t get overwhelmed. By spending time understanding the CPQ process and the building blocks used to configure this process, you will be in a position to pass the exam.
Trailhead is the best place to begin your exam revision. There is a high-level module that reviews the Industries CPQ Foundations.
Identify the concepts you are unfamiliar with and use the Salesforce Documentation and Industries Playgrounds to understand them by playing around in an org.
I would highly recommend knowing all components required to create context and advanced rules. Additionally, the Cart Based and Digital Commerce APIs account for approximately 20% of the questions, so ensure you know the method names, arguments, and response values.
If you are working for a Salesforce partner and have access to the Partner Learning Camp, you will have detailed study material and exercises, as well as access to Industries Training Playgrounds.
Completing hands-on exercises is essential for successfully completing this exam. By doing the exercises provided in the Partner Learning Camp, you will have an understanding of the complicated topics of the exam such as rule configuration and troubleshooting.
Another resource for gaining a deep understanding of more complicated concepts and filling in the gaps not covered in the Partner Learning Camp material is the Salesforce documentation. The primary documentation you will want to reference is Communications Cloud, Cart-Based APIs, and Digital Commerce APIs.
Tips
- Complete Industries CPQ Foundations Trail.
- Get hands-on experience either in a sandbox or client integration project.
- Review Salesforce Industries CPQ documentation.
- Complete all Partner Learning Camp exercises.
- Review Partner Learning Camp modules.
Final Thoughts
The Industries CPQ Developer is an essential certification if you are implementing enterprise CPQ solutions for clients in the Communications, Media, and Energy & Utilities Clouds.
This exam covers the fundamental skills you will need to develop industry-specific CPQ functionality and will help with product catalog development and the usage of APIs to implement CPQ processes. The emphasis on product catalog development includes the creation of products and product bundles, pricing, promotions & discounts, and product-related rules.
Additionally, you will face questions on the order and quoting process, the APIs used to implement this process, and troubleshooting errors that might occur during the development of an Industries CPQ application.
When coupled with the OmniStudio certification, you will be an essential component of the industry-specific CPQ development team.
Note: If you are not working for a Salesforce Partner, obtaining study material and playgrounds to get hands-on experience may be challenging.