Creating a Lean Solution Architecture

In the digital world, the term “solution architecture” refers to the process of analyzing client needs, understanding the core of their problems, and determining the appropriate solution to provide measurable benefits to the business.

The solution architect is likely the most business-aware architect on a project. To pass the CTA review board, you must possess both the technical skills and the ability to interpret business needs and craft an end-to-end solution architecture. Your solution must consider the capabilities and limitations of the platform.

The detailed principles of lean architecture are beyond the scope of this book. But in short, it is all about eliminating waste by achieving the following:

• It defines and follows standards to reduce the time wasted on recurring challenges and discussions. This should also aim to reduce overall solution inconsistencies.
• It ensures you are establishing an environment...

Understanding the Role of a Salesforce Solution Architect

A solution architect is usually the person that forms a bridge between business and technology. This architect will focus on creating the technical vision for solving a specific business problem. As a CTA, you are expected to lead and support both Salesforce and non-Salesforce solution architects during an implementation.

Note

According to the Salesforce online documentation, the CTA candidate should meet a specific set of objectives that can be found at the following link: https://packt.link/7kjFw.

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

• Select the right combination of declarative and programmatic functionalities
• Augment your solution with the right external applications

Now have a closer look at each of these objectives.

Select the Right Combination of Declarative and Programmatic Functionalities

It might sound simple, but you need to keep in mind that every suggestion...

Introducing the Solution Architecture Domain Mini Hypothetical Scenario: Packt Visiting Angels

The following mini scenario describes a challenge with a particular client. The scenario is tuned to focus on challenges related to solution architecture specifically. But as you would expect, there are also requirements related to other domains, such as data and security.

As you did in the previous chapters, you will go through the scenario and create a solution step by step. You should try the suggested solutions yourself unless you are already familiar with the described feature. You are also encouraged to try different solutions that could fulfill the requirements.

Remember that the solutions listed are not necessarily the only possible solutions. Alternate solutions are acceptable as long as they are technically correct and logically justified.

Scenario

Packt visiting angels (PVA) is a home clinical trial company that bridges the gap between clinical research organizations...

Selecting the Appropriate Functionalities to Build Your Solution and Presentation

Give yourself time to quickly skim through the scenario, understand the big picture, and develop some initial thoughts about the solution. Now, go through it again, section by section, and incrementally build the solution.

Understanding the Current Situation

The first paragraph of the scenario has some general information about PVA’s business model. It also tells you important information about the different personas that are going to use the system. You now know that they have a marketing team, a sales operations team, and nurses. Each is doing a specific set of activities. Based on that, you can start creating a draft of the actors and licenses diagram. Your diagram could look as follows:

Figure 8.1 – Actors and licenses (first draft)

You can include an assumed nurse manager role in anticipation of needing someone to create and manage the nurses’...

Summary

In this chapter, you have dived into the details of the Salesforce solution architecture domain. You learned what is expected from a CTA to cover and at what level of detail. You discovered the process of selecting the right combination of configurable and programmable features to deliver a requirement and learned some guiding principles in selecting third-party solutions to deliver value in a short time.

You then tackled a mini hypothetical scenario that focused on solution architecture and created some catchy presentation pitches while solving it. You practiced the process of selecting the right feature to deliver the required functionality and learned that it is not enough to simply mention the name of the used feature. Instead, you must clearly and crisply explain how it is going to be used, end to end, with no gaps or ambiguity. If it is not clear to you, then it will not be clear to your client or the team delivering it.

You also covered other topics in the mini...

Chapter Review Flashcards

Before you proceed to the next chapter, it is recommended that you go through the flashcards from this chapter first. These flashcards condense all the chapter concepts into smaller and easily manageable chunks that will help you with quick review and retention. By engaging with these flashcards, you will strengthen your understanding of key topics, identify areas that require further study, and build your confidence before moving on to new concepts.

The following image shows an example of the flashcards interface.

Figure 8.9 – CTA flashcards interface

To access the end-of-chapter flashcards from this chapter, follow these steps:

1. Open your web browser and go to https://packt.link/ctach8. You will see the following screen:

Figure 8.10 – Flashcards interface login

You can also scan the following QR code to access the website:

Figure 8.11 –...