Pega Certified Lead System Architect – CLSA Journey

Hi All,

I am Rakesh Burbure, a certified Lead System Architect.

In this blog, I will share my CLSA journey and experience. Please note, this blog includes my personal experience, the challenges I faced, and things you should know before you begin. It does not include the exam requirements, as they are confidential.

The LSA journey has mainly 2 parts

1. Architecture Exam
2. Design Document & App Build

This is the starting point of your LSA journey. The LSA Part 1 is all about the online exam, just like CSA & CSSA.

The question comes, who all should take the LSA Part 1 exam?

1. People who have experience of leading the Development Projects.
2. Senior Developers who have gained enough knowledge in App Development who can take any challenges to complete the project.
3. Senior people who wish to upgrade themselves with advanced topics.

People from #1 & #2 category are completely ready for the Architecture exam.

But, for senior folks from #3, my recommendations would be, they should first go through the LSA Lead System Architect module from Pega Academy to get familiarized with the advanced topics which will boost their confidence. And after enough practice, they can plan their LSA Architecture Exam.

The preparation for LSA Architecture Exam starts with the Pega Academy module: At the moment, when I am writing this blog, the exam in available on Pega 23 and this is its link.

This module is all about the best practices which a lead needs to follow in order to deliver the application. In my opinion these are some of the characteristics of the good application which are as below.

1. Security
2. Maintainability
3. Usability
4. Efficiency
5. Scalability
6. Reusability
7. Integrity
8. Performance
9. Modularity
10. Compatibility

For you, its important to follow all the modules in the LSA mission.

Along with each mission, there will be a quiz containing a few question. Please make sure you practice the quiz properly as you might get some of the questions from the quiz as it is in the LSA Part 1 certification exam.

Apart from quiz, there will be practical challenges which you need to complete.

You will get the Linux based Virtual Machine, on which you can practice the things. Also, you will get the RAP file for the application which is getting covered in the LSA module, which you can import and explore.

As the LSA Part 1 is an MCQ exam, make sure you go through the module twice or thrice based on how comfortable you are with it.

Once you finish the module with quiz & challenges, now you are ready to schedule your LSA Architecture Exam. All the best 🙂

Once you clear the LSA Architecture Exam, you are ready for the Part 2, i.e. App Design & Build.

Lets say LSA 2.1 is App design or creating the design document. And LSA 2.2 is about building the application.

LSA Part 2 is all about the real time scenario. You need to register for this on Pega Academy. This exam is conducted by Pega & it’s cost is 750$

I’ll highly recommend you to attend the LSA Preparation Clinic from the Pega academy. Its a 3hr session conducted by Pega on LSA Part 2

While designing and building the app, the key points which you need to consider are as below. These points are important for both Part 2.1 & 2.2

1. Modular Approach: Create modular application wherever required. Separate application for each case type or child cases is necessary.
2. Have separate Data layer for easy access and proper reusability.
3. Create case types in a separate Rulesets only.
4. Wherever possible, development should happen from App Studio only. Only for Advanced configuration switch to Dev Studio.
5. DX API: Make use of DX API to establish commination in between two apps.
6. Connectors must be created from App Studio only.
7. Connectors required creating or updating cases should be created in Enterprise layer so that all the applications can use them.
8. Use of Savable datapages to save the data to Data Types.
9. Avoid using Obj Methods. If required, create a reusable activity in Ent layer which will be having Obj methods and call this activity wherever required.
10. Security: While creating security related rules, make sure to provide only required access. Do not provide Admin or Manager access.
11. Use Configuration sets for configuration values.

You will start your LSA Part 2 journey with the App design, means you need to prepare the design document. You will get 7 day for this. If you are from Non-English speaking country, then you will get 14 days to complete your document.

Within these 7 or 14 days based on your country, you will prepare the design document and some of the points which you need to consider are as above.

For LSA 2.1, you will get one template which you need to fill.

The easiest way to start with this process is read out the complete requirement document and get the thorough understanding.

Once you get the full understanding, you can start writing the design document. You just need to follow the template given by Pega.

Below here, I’m adding some of the important topics within the design document & what is expected from you.

Now, start writing the functional requirements for this. These are the small requirement, which will collectively form the complete application.

Make sure, you do not miss any requirement here. Otherwise heavy points will be deducted as its the starting for point your document evaluation as well.

Go through the requirement document multiple times, until you get the complete understanding. It will help you to get all the functional requirements.

The next step would be to get the micro journeys for these functional requirements.

One Micro journey can have single or multiple functional requirements.

A micro journey can be a case type, process, data type or a utility.

By this time, you should have a clear idea on the different end user applications and case types within it.

Here you can start noting the Application and case types or data types within it.

After mentioning the case type, you can now start noting the stages within it which will follow the functional requirement. Make sure not to miss any functional requirement here until and unless you have a different plan for it.

Here, you are ready for design the application structure. The App structure diagram is very important and it indicates the thought process of the candidate.

Make sure to include the Component as well. There will be some requirements where component will be the best fit. You need to identify that and include that in the App Structure diagram.

You can mention all the entities in the App Structure and explain why its part of the App Structure. It will add more weightage to your App Structure.

Here you will need to identify all the Abstract and Concrete classes you will need in the application. Also, you will need to mention its full class name. It indicate where exactly you are going to create those classes.

Make sure to keep inheritance and reusability in your mind. Try to use OOTB classes to inherit properties.

Mention important properties and Primary Key, Foreign Key or Composite Key wherever required.

Its not possible to guess all the properties for actual App build so only important properties you need to mention.

Here you will mention the Case type classes and important properties in it.

Do not directly create any property in the case type. Instead create an Abstract class for case type with the same name and include Page property of this Abstract class on the case type.

After this, prepare a Entity diagram which will clearly indicate the relationship between the Case type and Data type classes.

Here you will need to fill a table which will define the logic for the security related rules.

It specifies the security plan for the microjourneys, case types, data types, etc.

Its important to showcase the roles which you are creating. Please avoid including Admin or Manager roles in the design.

Throughout the business requirement, you will be asked some questions like how will you implement some logic.

You need to provide your logic here to solve the given problem.

Here, you will need to mention the connectors which you going to have throughout the application and you will need to mention the request and response JSON structure as well.

Again, here as well, you need to mention the important properties.

Here, you will need to provide solution to the scenario given in the requirement document. You need not to implement this. Its there to judge your thought process.

Apart from these, there are some other areas which you need fill. These are small but important areas.

1. Terminology: If you are using any terms throughout the document, you can mention it here.
2. Assumptions: If you are assuming something during this journey of Part 2, you can mention it here. Make sure, not to include the main requirements in the assumptions and don’t keep it aside.
3. Extensibility & Specialization: Justify how your app design follows the app development standards.
4. Reusable Assets: You can talk about your component here.
5. User Interface: Mention different portal you are going to have in different applications.
6. Reports: There will be some requirements related to the reporting for which you will need to write the pseudo code.

Once you submit the app design, it will take a few weeks and you will get the result.

NOTE: Please note, you pass the app design, you need to develop the application according to the app design only.

If you feel, you need to make some changes in the app design, you need to write the Design Deviation document. Make sure there are no huge changes in the design.

Once you pass the LSA Part 2.1, you have entered the final stage. You will get max 28 days to scheduled the final App build exam within 30 days. Lets say I got the LSA Part 2.1 result on 1st, I must schedule the Part 2.2 before 28th and the starting date should not be after 30.

You will get 7 days to complete the exam.

NOTE: If you have some genuine issues & if you feel, you need additional time to complete the app build, you can request CLSA Pega team for additional time.

So on a high level, you have max 30 days before you start your actual app build.

Once your exam starts, then only you will get the improvement feedback which you must implement in the app build.

Apart from that, if you feel there are some improvements you can do without stressing too much, you should do that.

Within these 30 days, I recommend you to do below things, which will make your App build journey bit easier.

1. Start writing stories for your requirement: You already have functional requirement. Its time for you to deep dive and note down all the stories in the sequence. By this way, you will get the complete list of actions which you need to implement. Also, it will work as a checklist as well for you.
2. Implement the concepts in which you are weak: Lets say, you are weak in some of the concepts, this is the time to master it.
3. Logic building: Lets say, for your business requirement, you have suggested some approach, you can do your analysis to implement that requirement.
4. App Studio: Make yourself comfortable with App Studio if you are not. You will be doing most of the stuff in App Studio only.

NOTE: DO NOT START WITH ACTUAL APP BUILD. APP BUILD MUST START ON GIVEN DATETIME ONLY.

Once your LSA Part 2.2 exam starts, you will need to follow your app design.

In case of any queries during this journey, you can reach out to CLSA Pega team.

I hope this article will be helpful to you.

If you have any queries for me, you can post it here. I’ll be more than happy to answer it.