certification Articles / Blogs / Perficient https://blogs.perficient.com/tag/certification/ Expert Digital Insights Fri, 11 Jul 2025 07:26:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://blogs.perficient.com/files/favicon-194x194-1-150x150.png certification Articles / Blogs / Perficient https://blogs.perficient.com/tag/certification/ 32 32 30508587 Perficient Nagpur Celebrates Contentstack Implementation Certification Success! https://blogs.perficient.com/2025/07/11/perficient-nagpur-celebrates-contentstack-implementation-certification-success/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2025/07/11/perficient-nagpur-celebrates-contentstack-implementation-certification-success/#respond Fri, 11 Jul 2025 07:26:14 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=383970

At Perficient, we believe that continuous learning is essential for excellence. This commitment drives us to evolve and master the latest technologies, ensuring the best possible delivery for our clients. This belief fuels our team’s pursuit of mastering cutting-edge technology.

On that note, we’re incredibly proud to announce a significant achievement for our Nagpur team! Six dedicated team members have successfully completed their Contentstack Implementation training and certification, equipping them with the expertise to deliver advanced headless CMS solutions to our clients.

A huge congratulations to the following achievers for their hard work and dedication in earning this significant certification! Their commitment to continuous learning and mastering new technologies is a reflection of the strong talent pool we have.

  1. Mahima Patel
  2. Sandeep Reddy Duddeda
  3. Aditi Paliwal
  4. Ashish Chinchkhede
  5. Akshay Gawande
  6. Vikrant Punwatkar

Our newly certified Contentstack implementers have undergone extensive training. They gained solid knowledge in content modeling, API integration, workflow automation, and best practices for creating scalable and efficient digital experiences with Contentstack. This expertise allows us to better assist our clients in maximizing their digital presence.

Why is this a big deal for Perficient and our clients?

In today’s fast-moving digital world, businesses really need to be agile, flexible, and able to deliver content smoothly across a growing number of channels. That’s exactly where Contentstack stands out as a top-notch headless CMS, and we’re genuinely thrilled to have our team leading the charge in this game-changing technology.

We’re looking forward to the exciting opportunities this enhanced capability offers our clients, and we are eager to leverage Contentstack to create even more innovative, impactful, and future-ready digital solutions.

 

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Perficient Celebrates Success as Nine Employees Achieve XM Cloud Developer Certification https://blogs.perficient.com/2023/10/17/perficient-celebrates-success-as-nine-employees-achieve-xm-cloud-developer-certification/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2023/10/17/perficient-celebrates-success-as-nine-employees-achieve-xm-cloud-developer-certification/#comments Tue, 17 Oct 2023 15:33:08 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=347252

At Perficient, we take pride in our commitment to excellence and continuous learning. Today, we’re excited to celebrate a significant milestone as nine of our employees have successfully passed the recently released XM Cloud Developer Certification Exam. This accomplishment not only highlights the dedication and expertise of our team but also reflects our commitment to staying at the forefront of the latest technological advancements in the industry.

Xm Cloud

The Journey to Excellence

The XM Cloud Developer Certification Exam is no easy feat. It is a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of an individual’s expertise in developing solutions on XM Cloud, a cutting-edge platform that powers exceptional customer experiences. Our nine talented employees, from various departments and with diverse backgrounds, accepted this challenge and embarked on a journey of learning and growth.

Meet the Achievers

  1. David San Filippo – Principal
  2. Martin Miles – Sitecore Platform Technology Director
  3. Mark Ursino – DXP Director
  4. Nick Sturdivant – Senior Solutions Architect
  5. Roberto Barbedo – Senior Solution Architect
  6. Neha Pasi – Lead Technical Consultant
  7. Mahima Patel – Technical Architect
  8. Vikrant Punwatkar – Solution Architect
  9. Karega Anglin – Lead Technical Consultant

Dedication and Hard Work

Each of these individuals demonstrated exceptional dedication and hard work in their preparation for the exam. They devoted countless hours to studying, practice, and hands-on experience to ensure they were fully prepared to take on the challenges presented by the certification exam.

If you appear to be a Perficient employee and want to progress with your learning, reach out to me (Martin Miles) to explore your options. We have a range of XM Cloud training and enablement, as well as certification for other Sitecore products as well. Perficient remains committed to supporting our team members in their pursuit of knowledge and certifications, ensuring we continue to provide top-notch services to our clients and remain at the forefront of technological advancements.

What This Means for Perficient and Our Clients

The achievement of our employees has far-reaching benefits. It showcases Perficient’s commitment to fostering an environment of growth and development for our team members. Our employees’ success translates into enhanced capabilities for delivering innovative solutions to our clients, reinforcing our position as a leader in the technology consulting industry.

Thank you for being a part of our journey towards excellence!

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XM Cloud Certification https://blogs.perficient.com/2023/09/26/xm-cloud-certification/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2023/09/26/xm-cloud-certification/#comments Tue, 26 Sep 2023 09:31:43 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=345337

Among several other XM Cloud platform enthusiasts, I was invited to take part in the XM Cloud beta certification. Taking into account that I was also involved in beta testing of XM Cloud Developer Fundamentals Training earlier in July (it is available now and I highly recommend the one), I would like to share overall experience feedback and suggest what to expect if you’re aspiring to obtain the knowledge and certification about the new Sitecore’s flagship product.

The full version of the XM Cloud certification exam is expected to go live in October, however, SUGCON NA attendees have a rare opportunity to become among those first getting certified with XM Cloud at a discounted price. This link contains more about this offer. Otherwise, you may wait a few weeks until authors analyze the performance of beta takes and set up final pools of questions to go live with, at a price of $350.

XM Cloud certification is a traditional Kryterion Webassessor proctored exam. All the same requirements are in place, is it was used before. I may use a built-in laptop camera but please ensure your room is well-lit and silent and what’s most important – while the exam is in progress, you do not move your eyesight away from your monitor. If you do it a few times – the exam will be terminated. There were several cases already.

So, let’s take a look at what to expect. The exam itself is not difficult, however, you won’t be able to pass it without having specific product knowledge and experience. If you work for a partner and can play with XM Cloud sandbox – that will serve you well, especially for the first four competencies from the list below. Other than that – Sitecore stood up with exceptionally good documentation for XM Cloud products and it covers the entirety of certification competencies.

Сompetences you must prove to pass:

  • XM Cloud Architecture and Developer Workflow, including its benefits and the new terminology, understanding headless architecture and supported frameworks.
  • Deployment of XM Cloud Projects. You must be fluid with Deploy App, and know CLI and other ways of deployment.
  • XM Cloud Pages is another new competency devoted to the new editing interface and its FEaaS capabilities.
  • Security for Developers covers a mixture of both old good items security (users, roles, access rights) and the new security model coming with Sitecore Cloud Portal and the types of its users.
  • Renderings and Layout, especially what comes with Headless SXA – Page & partial Designs, Rendering Variants, as well as legacy stuff such as datasources and placeholders and settings.
  • Sitecore Content Serialization is similar to the one from XP10 certification, however, CLI is much more important with XM Cloud, same is serialization. You need to know how to configure it and set up rules.
  • Sitecore APIs & Webhooks is a totally new section. It is all about the nuances of Experience Edge and publishing into it, the ability to pull the data through GraphQL, the ability to create and handle webhooks, and new features of both XM10.3 and XM Cloud – Authoring and Management GraphQL API. Make sure you practice well in GraphQL IDE.
  • Data Modeling is mostly another old good section, however, it requires knowledge of how it all plays well together with Experience Edge as well as a few SXA tricks.

Topics not included in the exam:

  • Next.js or react coding questions
  • Any C#-based API questions, as it was in the previous XP10 exam
  • Docker/containers related questions
  • XM Cloud pipelines or any other internal customizations
  • Migration from XP to XM Cloud
  • Built-in personalization, despite it could be a good set of questions

I want to admit: this exam is probably the best and well-balanced of all the Sitecore certifications I came across (and I passed them all). The authors did an exceptionally great job of evaluating the average professional working with the new platform and setting the bar significantly enough to ensure the level of their expertise meets the desired standards of certification.

In any case, I wish you the best with obtaining your new in-demand certification!

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New MuleSoft Team Member: Etna Zeneli https://blogs.perficient.com/2021/04/27/new-mulesoft-team-member-etna-zeneli/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2021/04/27/new-mulesoft-team-member-etna-zeneli/#respond Tue, 27 Apr 2021 17:35:16 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=291110

This is the second in a series of interviews with our newest MuleSoft hires. Each team member, regardless of their proficiency level, is expected to complete training in order to learn the latest and greatest about the MuleSoft platform. These certifications help us showcase our expertise to MuleSoft and to our customers.

1615412017195I started developing my technical skills in high school by enrolling at an academy that focused on teaching programming skills. I graduated from Graceland University with a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Information Technology. During my three years there, I participated and had leadership roles in different organizations, such as ACM-W (Association for Computing Machinery for Women) and International Club. After graduation, I worked as a Product Specialist, which helped me to further develop my technical skills. Technology has always been something that I found intriguing and had a huge interest in – it’s challenging and fulfilling at the same time.

PRFT: How long have you worked at Perficient?

EZ: I’m a recent graduate, and I joined Perficient five months ago as a Technical Consultant focusing on MuleSoft development.

PRFT: What training or certification have you completed since you started?

EZ: During these past five months, I have started and finished training for MuleSoft Developer 4 and Apigee.

PRFT: Do you have any key takeaways from your training?

EZ: The biggest takeaway from my training period and tip for others is that you can spend the whole time reading and watching videos, but you will only really learn the content by doing and repetition; that way, you will always discover something new.

PRFT: What was the most enjoyable or interesting part of your training?

EZ: I would say that the most enjoyable part of the training is that after you are done, you get to apply the new knowledge to different projects and see your training pay off

PRFT: Do you have any best practices or tips for others doing this training? 

EZ: Don’t just read the material and watch the videos – if you’re able to be hands-on and work through modules, you’ll learn better.

 

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New MuleSoft Team Member: Adem Karaduz https://blogs.perficient.com/2021/04/20/new-mulesoft-team-member-adem-karaduz/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2021/04/20/new-mulesoft-team-member-adem-karaduz/#respond Tue, 20 Apr 2021 16:50:34 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=291059

This is the first in a series of interviews with our newest MuleSoft hires. Each team member, regardless of their proficiency level, is expected to complete training in order to learn the latest and greatest about the MuleSoft platform. These certifications help us showcase our expertise to MuleSoft and to our customers.

Adem Headshot

I am a technical consultant within the APIMC US Consulting business unit, where I will focus on MuleSoft development. I graduated with a degree in Information Technology and have previous work experience in managed services. Outside of work, my interests are basketball, working out, cooking, and hanging out with family and friends.

 

Training Q&A with Adem

PRFT: How long have you worked at Perficient?

AK: 3 months

PRFT: What training or certification have you completed since you started?

AK: MuleSoft Certified Developer – Level 1

PRFT: Did you encounter any challenges during the certification process? How did you approach these challenges?

AK: With any new technology, there was a learning curve. I was very used to seeing multiple lines of code going down the screen, but with MuleSoft, it was a completely different interface. It was a low-code program, so it was the opposite of what I was used to. After I began my training, I was comfortable after a few weeks.

PRFT: Do you have any key takeaways from your training?

AK: My biggest key takeaway from training would be to study the information multiple times. I would always use different forms of material to drill the knowledge into my brain. I combined a Udemy course, YouTube series, and official documentation to help me solidify the information.

PRFT: What was the most enjoyable or interesting part of your training?

AK: The most enjoyable part of the training was reaching out to my coworkers and receiving their help. Whenever I was stuck on a problem and my googling skills failed me, I reached out to coworkers. They were eager to help and were very patient. I would always try to get to know them during these small help sessions. Working from home and not communicating with them as regularly made it challenging to form relationships, so I used that time to connect with people.

PRFT: Do you have any best practices or tips for others doing this training? 

AK: There are a few prerequisites you must have in order to complete the training, including:

  • A basic understanding of data formats, such as XML, CSV, and JSON
  • A basic understanding of typical integration technologies, such as HTTP, JMS, REST, and SOAP
  • Some experience in programming, especially with Object-Oriented languages is helpful but not necessary

Like I said above, I would encourage others to use a combination of study methods – follow a learning course, watch a YouTube video, and read the technical documentation. Going through multiple different sources allowed me to pick up on any information I might have missed. My recommendation is:

Fundamentals Course + Udemy Course + Webinar + Review Documentation

Also, know that the test for Level 1 certification is 60 multiple-choice questions, closed book, and proctored. You have two hours to complete the test, and you must receive a score of 70% or better in order to pass.

If you have questions about any of the specific materials I used, please feel free to reach out!

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Perficient’s Agile Community Serves Colleagues of All Backgrounds https://blogs.perficient.com/2021/03/19/perficients-agile-community-serves-colleagues-of-all-backgrounds/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2021/03/19/perficients-agile-community-serves-colleagues-of-all-backgrounds/#respond Fri, 19 Mar 2021 20:58:38 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=289842

When you work at Perficient, you’re never “in it alone.” We pride ourselves on having a collaborative, supportive environment dedicated to fostering both career and personal growth. Perficient’s Agile Community is one of the latest ways colleagues can connect with each other, breaking down walls and collaborating globally in a whole new way.Agile Community Perficient

“It makes my day when someone reaches out to me to say that they got a new idea from the community, applied it, and saw a positive result,” said Jennifer Rostal, project manager, ScrumMaster, and Scrum Foundations Educator.

Jennifer has been the driving force behind building Perficient’s Agile Community, now earning support from an 11-member steering committee with executive sponsorship from Kevin Sheen, vice president. After teaching Scrum Foundations to hundreds of Perficient colleagues over several years and co-hosting training events with Vernon Stinebaker, principal, Jennifer and Vernon recognized the dedicated community focused on Agile methodology could better service colleague questions than classes alone, while building camaraderie at the same time.

Who Benefits from the Agile Community?

Everyone does!

The Agile Community brings continuing education and career growth opportunities together in the form of presentations, activities, and roundtable discussions designed for people to learn about Agile-related topics that are of interest to them, such as story mapping, scaling, release management, retrospectives, estimation, and relationships.

Scrum Certifications Offered at Perficient

The community also supports colleagues in earning Scrum Educational Units (SEUs) towards their certification renewals. Colleagues interested in growing their skills can access recordings to previous events and several other resources in the Agile Community Events tab, located in the Delivery Excellence Team.

Creating Connection Among Perficient Agilists

Agile Community EventBonding with others has also been a highly valued outcome in a mostly remote workforce.

“We’ve been pleased to see participation from the broader Perficient community, not only from the Scrum Masters and business analysts,” said Jennifer. “It’s been great to see how many Agilists we have across Perficient. I love seeing the familiar faces and meeting the new ones during our events.”

Plus, there’s always a friendly ear in case someone has a question or a challenge to discuss. “We’ve just debuted coaching office hours, where experienced Agilists are available to help people with questions, and we hope to expand our programming in 2021 with mentoring circles, interactive workshops, and more!”

Growing a Global Agile Community

“One of our 2021 goals is to ensure every Perficient colleague is aware of the Agile Community and its easy accessibility for everyone,” Jennifer explained. “It’s important to us that colleagues in all time zones can actively participate and something we are continually working on. We want to grow the conversation! If you have ideas or would like to help, I encourage you to reach out to me or the Agile Community. We would love to have you.”


READY TO GROW YOUR CAREER?

At Perficient, we continually look for ways to champion and challenge our talented workforce with interesting projects for high-profile clients, encourage personal and professional growth through training and mentoring, and celebrate our people-oriented culture and the innovative ways they serve Perficient and the community.

Visit our Careers page to see career opportunities and more!

Go inside Life at Perficient and connect with us on LinkedInYouTubeTwitter, and Instagram.

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Key Takeaways from CPACC Accessibility Certification https://blogs.perficient.com/2020/07/15/key-takeaways-from-cpacc-accessibility-certification/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2020/07/15/key-takeaways-from-cpacc-accessibility-certification/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2020 21:21:31 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=276611

The Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies, or CPACC, is an accessibility certification bestowed by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). It covers conceptual knowledge of disabilities, universal design, accessibility laws, management strategies, and software development.  This test deepened my understanding of accessibility and opened up my thinking about accessibility in both the digital and physical worlds.

Models

The CPACC tests for understanding of various theories or models of disability. This includes medical, social, and economic perspectives. The social model of disability affected my thinking the most.  It describes disabilities as a problem that society created by way of design. I no longer assume that everyone can interact with the world in the same way that I do. I am now aware of how design can be unintentionally discriminatory, fueling a passion for advocating for better user experiences.

Universal Design

The principles of Universal Design (UD) is a topic that I don’t encounter in my day-to-day testing, but the concepts underscore the goals of accessibility testing. UD consists of 7 basic principles that strive to create more usable products and environments. Studying for the CPACC affected the way I look at components I am testing. For example, Perceptible Information – providing adequate color contrast on web content not only helps low vision users but helps all users understand the material. No one wants to lose a potential buyer because they could not read the information!

Legal

Coming from a legal background, specific accessibility laws were the easiest to pick up. However, the full scope of the territory was a challenge. In addition to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the CPACC covers laws throughout the globe. Although I no longer practice, seeing the common thread of laws and their bases helped gain an understanding of how the rest of the world in serving their community of people with disabilities. It also highlighted the ambiguity of including the web in accessibility laws. I now feel empowered to voice these issues with my elected officials and advocate for inclusion.  Note – the new Accessible Canada Act was not covered in the March/April 2020 test, but maybe tested on future exams.

Process

A big surprise to me was the number of questions about organizational governance and the software development process. I purchased the Deque class for CPACC certification, and these topics were covered last. Naturally, I gave it the least amount of time and attention. There were more questions than I expected based on the amount of study material. IAAP provides supplemental material, which may provide more insight into these areas.

Tips

Finally, unlike many other certifications, there are not many practices or example questions available. The Deque course has multiple choice questions at the end of each section, but they are not representative of the items on the exam. For those who do not do well, like me, on multiple-choice tests, this can be a challenge. Knowing the material inside and out and reading the supplemental material was essential to scoring well on the exam.

The bottom line, understanding accessibility is more than just adding some extra HTML to code. Knowing to add some sort of aria role is different than understanding why that aria role is essential. Being CPACC certified (like me!) ensures a base level of knowledge not just on the how of accessibility, but also a deeper understanding of the impact of availability. This is important for taking accessibility from a “legal said we have to” perspective to a “let’s create a good experience for everyone” perspective.

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My Adobe Audience Manager Certification Experience https://blogs.perficient.com/2020/02/18/my-adobe-audience-manager-certification-experience/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2020/02/18/my-adobe-audience-manager-certification-experience/#respond Tue, 18 Feb 2020 14:31:19 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=250771

As I wrote previously in another blog post, I challenged myself to obtain a few different Adobe Certifications by the end of 2019. As the end of the year came and went, I ended up with three Adobe Certifications. I’m now an Adobe Certified Expert in Adobe Analytics, Audience Manager and Target.

After passing the Adobe Analytics exam, I decided to go after the Adobe Audience Manager (AAM) Business Practitioner Certification. It made the most sense, as Adobe Analytics and Audience Manager both make up the Adobe Analytics Cloud. I started taking the online partner portal AAM courses with very little previous experience with the Audience Manager. However, I still felt it was easier to understand the concepts and master AAM than it was Adobe Analytics. The actual exam, while challenging, was not as difficult as the Adobe Analytic exam either. But, the AAM knowledge I gained was every bit as valuable. Mastering topics such as creating meaningful audience segments, combining online & offline data sets and using data destinations prove to be valuable in my everyday work as an Analytics Consultant. Below is some info regarding the structure of the AAM Business Practitioner Exam (9A0-415):

Adobe Audience Manager Business Practitioner Certification (9A0-415) Exam Structure

  • Questions: 60
  • Time to Complete: 90 Minutes
  • Type of Test: Multiple Choice & Multiple Select
  • Delivery Method: Online Proctored (webcam & mic required)

All Adobe exams require a score of at least 550 to pass. Your test score can range from 300-700. When reading these requirements for the first time, most people have the same questions; how many questions do I need to answer correctly in order to get at least a 550 passing grade? In my search for this answer, I stumbled upon many forums with comments from people who had the same exact question. The best resource to use, in order to find this answer, can be found in the Adobe ACE Passing Percentage Guide.

This list will tell you the passing percentage needed for each exam. If you use the percentage on this list, along with the number of questions on the exam you are taking (which can be found in the Adobe exam guide for your particular exam: https://learning.adobe.com/catalog.html), you can calculate the number of correct answers needed to score a 550, or above, and pass. For example, there are 60 questions on the 9A0-415 exam, and you need a 73% (as of writing this) to pass. 73% of 60 is 43.8, so you would need to answer 44 of the 60 questions correctly to pass.

Topics Covered

There are over 14 hours of on-demand video training, as well as several instructor-led courses, on the Adobe Partner Solutions website for AAM. However, the 9A0-415 exam takes a narrow focus, with all 60 questions falling into one of these four main topics:

  • Activation (32%): Creating audience segments and traits, understand addressable audiences for destinations, understand how to add new destinations and describe destination types.
  • Analysis (32%): Define Total Audience Size, the difference between Real-Time and Total Segment populations, the daily rate of change of an audience, Boolean Logic, compare audience sizes.
  • Platform Configuration (16%): Clear naming conventions, navigating tool to the right segment, locate and export reports for data manipulation.
  • Data Flow Quality Assurance (20%): Perform quality assurance of the AAM (DEMDEX) pixel, read and interpret Unused Signals Reports, perform quality assurance of match rates to a destination.

Overall, preparing for and taking the AAM Business Practitioner exam was a rewarding experience. While learning, it was obvious that this curriculum was going to make me a better data and analytics professional and help me in my day-to-day work responsibilities.

If you have any interest in learning more about taking Adobe exams, click here for information on the following:

  • Exam Prep Resources
  • How to Register
  • What to Expect on Test Day

This will take you to a previous review of my Adobe Analytics certification experience. The second half of the article covers the three topics listed above. Also, check back in the near future for an additional review of my Adobe Target certification experience.

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Perficient’s Minneapolis Office Adds Red Hat Exam Center https://blogs.perficient.com/2020/01/30/perficients-minneapolis-office-adds-red-hat-exam-center/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2020/01/30/perficients-minneapolis-office-adds-red-hat-exam-center/#respond Thu, 30 Jan 2020 17:05:24 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=250491

Our Minneapolis, Minnesota office is now an official Red Hat exam center.

The exam center is open to the public and provides a secure, classroom environment for developers that need to take any Red Hat exam or certification, including those for Ansible, JBoss, Linux, and OpenShift.

There is no additional cost for utilizing the exam center, but you must schedule your exam ahead of time.

This is the second Red Hat exam center to be located at a Perficient office – the other is at our Livonia, Michigan office in metro Detroit. The Minneapolis exam center is open from 9 am-4:30pm Monday-Thursday.

You can find our Minneapolis office at 100 North 6th Street, Suite 550A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403.

Schedule your Red Hat training exam today!

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My Adobe Analytics Certification Experience https://blogs.perficient.com/2020/01/07/my-adobe-analytics-certification-experience/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2020/01/07/my-adobe-analytics-certification-experience/#respond Tue, 07 Jan 2020 17:51:28 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=249558

During Q3 2019, I challenged myself to obtain a few different Adobe Certifications by the end of the year. As the end of the year came-and-went, I ended up with three Adobe Certifications. I’m now an Adobe Certified Expert in Adobe Analytics, Audience Manager and Target.

The first certification I pursued was the Analytics Business Practitioner certification or Adobe exam AD0-E202. Although I had a few years of experience in Adobe Analytics (including back in the Omniture days), and a decade of solid data and analytics experience to draw from, preparing for and taking the Analytics exam was difficult and challenging. To be completely honest, I found the Analytics exam much more difficult than the Audience Manager and Target exams. That’s part of the reason why I found the training materials and curriculum so impressive and rewarding. Before I get into the curriculum and the resources I used to prepare, I first want to cover the basics of the exam, how it is structured, and the requirements to pass.

Adobe Analytics Business Practitioner Certification (AD0-E202) Exam Structure

  • Questions: 69
  • Time to Complete: 120 Minutes
  • Type of Test: Multiple Choice & Multiple Select
  • Delivery Method: Online Proctored (webcam & mic required)

All Adobe exams require a score of at least 550 to pass. Your test score can range from 300-700. When reading these requirements for the first time, most people have the same questions; how many questions do I need to answer correctly in order to get at least a 550 passing grade? In my search for this answer, I stumbled upon many forums with comments from people who had the same exact question. The best resource to use, in order to find this answer, can be found in the Adobe ACE Passing Percentage Guide (found here). This list will tell you the passing percentage needed for each exam. If you use the percentage on this list, along with the number of questions on the exam you are taking (found here in the Adobe exam guide for your particular exam), you can calculate the number of correct answers needed to score a 550, or above, and pass. For example, there are 69 questions on the AD0-E202 exam, and you need a 72% (as of writing this) to pass. 72% of 69 is 49.7, so you would need to answer 50 of the 69 questions correctly to pass.

Adobe Analytics Topics Covered

There are over 24 hours of on-demand video training, as well as several instructor-led courses, on the Adobe Partner Solutions website for Adobe Analytics. However, the exam boils all that info down into five main topics:

  • Business Analysis (25%): Determining the best reporting strategy, conversion funnels, interpreting the Solution Design Reference (SDR), outliers and anomalies in reports.
  • Reporting & Dashboarding (25%): Configuring projects using the appropriate tool, fallout & flow visualizations, Report Builder, Data Warehouse, sharing projects, setting Alerts, and looking up dimensions/components.
  • Segmentation & Calculated Metrics (25%): Developing & configuring segments, sharing segments, comparing segments, applying segments to projects, generating calculated metrics and determining metric types.
  • General Tool Knowledge & Troubleshooting (15%): Identifying data quality issues, defining types of dimensions & parameters, bringing data in and out of Adobe Analytics and configuring Report Builder.
  • Administration (10%): Configuring Marketing Channel reports & Processing Rules, Classification Importer & Rule Builder, Marketing URLs, configuring Virtual Report Suites and Report Suite Admin Console settings.

Exam Prep Resources

Below is a list of the resources I used in order to prepare for the exam. On top of using these resources, Adobe recommends that you have 2 years of analytics experience before taking the exam.

  • Adobe’s Partner Sandbox Environment: If you work for a company that partners with Adobe, you can most likely get access to their training sandbox environment, which gives you hands-on access to Adobe Analytics, and any other Adobe tools you want to gain more experience with. Talk to your Adobe admin.
  • On-Demand Training: On the Adobe Partner site, found here, you can get access to several hours of free training videos. These videos were great and made it easy to understand and retain the info.
  • Adobe Certified Expert Exam Guide: Each Adobe exam has its own exam guide. It includes the topics the exam will cover, the number of questions, the amount of time and a checklist of the specific tasks you should be able to perform within the tool before taking the exam. These guides can be found on the Adobe Partner website mentioned above.
  • Adobe User Guide: Found here, the Adobe User Guides are the online manual to all the workings of all the Adobe Experience Cloud tools.
  • Adobe Forums: I regularly visited https://forums.adobe.com, https://community.adobe.com, and https://helpx.adobe.com. These forums helped me further dig into topics covered on the User Guide site.

Adobe also offers in-person and online instructor-led training, but those come at an extra cost beyond the free on-demand training they give their partners access to. I did not use any instructor-led classes.

How to register

In order to register for an Adobe exam, you must visit https://www.certmetrics.com/adobe and create a profile using the same email address you used to create your Adobe partner ID when you logged into the on-demand Adobe Partner website. Once you create your profile, you can view a list of all the different Adobe exams offered, and register for any exam you please. You will then be taken to another website belonging to Adobe’s partner, PSI. There you will need to pick a day/time, pick between online proctored or in-person exam, and pay $180. You may also want to run the PSI system check to ensure your computer setup and webcam meet the standards needed to run the online exam.

What to expect on test day

As I mentioned in the section above about the exam structure, I took the online proctored version of the exam, as there are no physical Adobe testing locations near me. The Adobe online proctored exams are administered by Adobe’s partner PSI (found here). You will need to log-in and give them access to your webcam and mic. Next, you will need to show a valid ID, use your cam to take a picture of yourself, and do a room-scan with the webcam. Adobe and PSI require that you be in an enclosed room, by yourself, with no distractions. You can’t have any food or drinks in the room, you cannot have your phone or use any other tech devices other than the computer being used to take the test. Adobe and PSI do not allow any notes, screenshots or internet browsing while testing. No one is allowed to enter the room while you are testing, all doors must be closed and all windows must be blocked from view. They also ask that you do not talk during the test, including reading the questions out loud. You can’t even mouth the questions as you read them to yourself. Once inside of the testing environment, the clock starts and the first question is displayed. They also provide you with a calculator tool, if needed.

Once you complete the exam and click the submit button, you will be asked to answer a few survey questions about your testing experience. After that, your preliminary results will be displayed. You will get a Congratulations note if you pass, and a “sorry, but…” note if you did not pass. Usually, 2 or 3 days later you will get your official results, which include your score (550 is passing) and a breakdown of your performance on each of the five topics I mentioned above. Each exam question falls under one of the five topics, and you will be given a percentage of questions you answered correctly for each of the five topics. This gives you an idea of those topics you need to improve in before a re-take, if necessary.

Impressive Curriculum

I was genuinely impressed with the Adobe Analytics on-demand curriculum. Not only does it do a thorough job of teaching you all aspects of the tool itself, but it also arms you with additional knowledge that can help you be a better data analyst, a better implementation architect, and better at building and growing client relationships. It goes through the technical documentation you need to create to implement the tool correctly, it teaches you who the client stakeholders are that you need to build relationships with, and what questions you should be asking these clients. Even someone like me, who has over 10 years of analytics experience, can learn several new and valuable aspects that will help make you a better data/tech/consulting professional all around. It is fair to say that Adobe not only met my expectations but far exceeded them with their impressive curriculum.

That great experience and wealth of knowledge I picked up through the Analytics Certification process led me to go after two more Adobe certifications, as I mentioned. I plan on following up this blog post with a mini-series highlighting my experience while preparing for, and taking, the Audience Manager and Target Certification exams.

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Perficient’s Livonia Office is Now a Red Hat Exam Center https://blogs.perficient.com/2019/12/17/perficients-livonia-office-is-now-a-red-hat-exam-center/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2019/12/17/perficients-livonia-office-is-now-a-red-hat-exam-center/#respond Tue, 17 Dec 2019 18:03:04 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=248806

Our Livonia, Michigan office is now an official Red Hat exam center.

The exam center is open to the public. It provides a secure, classroom environment for developers that need to take any Red Hat exam or certification, including those for Ansible, JBoss, Linux, and OpenShift.

There is no additional cost for utilizing the exam center, but you must schedule your exam ahead of time.

This is the first licensed Red Hat exam center in Michigan and is conveniently located in metro Detroit. The exam center is open during normal business hours.

Our Livonia office is located at 38701 Seven Mile Road, Suite 400, Livonia, Michigan, 48152.

Schedule your next Red Hat training exam today!

 

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MS-700: Managing Microsoft Teams Study Guide https://blogs.perficient.com/2019/12/01/ms-700-managing-microsoft-teams-study-guide/ https://blogs.perficient.com/2019/12/01/ms-700-managing-microsoft-teams-study-guide/#respond Sun, 01 Dec 2019 15:26:31 +0000 https://blogs.perficient.com/?p=247728

One thing many IT pros have been asking for since the release of Microsoft Teams was a certification to go along with it. There are some great resources from Edx out there that can help you gain more knowledge around all things Microsoft Teams (specifically “Enabling Teamwork with Microsoft Teams” and “Microsoft Services Adoption Specialist”) along with the newer Learning Paths that Microsoft provides for IT pro training. However, there was no official exam nor certification strictly dedicated to Teams to go along with it….until now! During Ignite, Microsoft released a plethora of new features and functionality for Teams which included a new exam path for Microsoft Teams administrators! The new certification is called “Microsoft 365 Certified: Teams Administrator Associate“, not to be confused with the similarly named certification “Microsoft 365 Certified: Teamwork Administrator Associate“. Although the Teamwork Administrator Associate certification does have some Teams pieces (and you should definitely consider taking this exam as well so you can see the “big picture” around Teams) it didn’t specifically target the deeper aspects of Teams for those administrators that will only be handling this service. For those of that that fall under this umbrella, you’re in luck because today we’ll be breaking down what you’ll need to know to pass the MS-700: Managing Microsoft Teams exam and earn that shiny new certification! With that being said, let’s put that brain to work to ace the MS-700!

Plan and Configure a Microsoft Teams Environment (45-50%)

Upgrade from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams

Plan and configure network settings for Microsoft Teams

Implement Governance and Lifecycle Management for Microsoft Teams

Configure and manage guest access

Manage security and compliance

Deploy and manage Microsoft Teams endpoints

Monitor and analyze service usage

Manage Chat, Calling, and Meetings (30-35%)

Manage chat and collaboration experiences

Manage meeting experiences

Manage phone numbers

Manage Phone System

Manage Teams and App Policies (20-25%)

Manage a team

Manage membership in a team

Implement policies for Microsoft Teams apps

That wraps up what you’ll need to know for the MS-700 exam! So get out there and start studying so you can show off that brand new MS-700 certification to all of your colleagues! I also encourage you to go check out the rest of ever-expanding Teams content here.

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