I started working on AEM (when it was called CQ and at that time 5.4 was the latest version) as a developer and delivered multiple projects in various domains. During my early days I was very much focused on core build blocks of AEM e.g. OSGi, Sling, JCR, etc. to understand APIs and that has really boosted my capability to work on AEM. After working on AEM for few years I thought it is a good time to go for AEM Architect certification because anyways my job role at the workplace is AEM Architect and I have learned a lot at my job.
In this post, I want to share my experience with those who want to become AEM architect. This exam covers every aspect of AEM right from installation to designing custom solutions on top of AEM so, if you do not have few years of AEM experience then I’ll highly recommend spending at least 2 to 3 years with AEM.
When I started to think about certification I was very much sure that I do have practical hands-on knowledge but, very soon I realized that it is not enough for architect certification. Along with hands-on knowledge, we should know best practices, how to secure AEM, how to customize AEM, what is provided out of the box and to be frank you should know everything about AEM. The purpose of this exam is to make sure that an architect is able to design a solution using AEM capabilities that should suffice client/customers' requirements. In this exam you’ll not be asked to write code or remember code syntax but, from a functional point of view, it is expected that you know all capabilities of AEM.
So what to study and where to find information to get started?
As per Adobe’s certification mandate, everyone needs to sign an NDA and no one is supposed to disclose the questions asked during certification so, I won’t disclose that here. What I can tell you in this article is what topics you should study and where to find study resources.
There are no short cuts. For this exam, you have to prepare well along with your real experience. If you have good hands-on experience of AEM and do not have much time to go through documentation then I’ll recommend attending training offered by Adobe (http://training.adobe.com/training/current-courses.html#solution=adobeExperienceManager&p=1&country=United-States). I did not attend any training because I was already very much familiar with documentation as I was referring it frequently during my day to day work.
Two important points to remember while preparing for certification (I did this):
1) While going through the documentation please remember that it is always beneficial to try out things explained in documentation yourself on your local instance of AEM, this will not only help you to understand the concept but, you’ll remember it better because you did it yourself.
2) Things that are new to you or you are not using often need more attention. Try to repeat it by trying various combinations to see what happens when you change something.
Here are some of the topics that you should master before you appear for the exam. The exam guide also has a detailed list of topics that you can refer to.
1) Backup strategies,
2) Sling: EventListner (JCR), EventHandler (AEM) & Schedulers
3) Query: JCR Queries, QueryBuilder, Predicated. When to use which option.
4) Sightly
5) David's content Model
6) Architectural diagrams (Conceptual, Physical, Data Flow, Logical, etc.). which diagram is used when and which document you’ll prepare based on the customer’s request.
7) AEM Security Checklist: https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-0/administer/security/security-checklist.html
8) Out of the box features & components
9) Translation and Internalizing of AEM components
10) Authentication handler, login module, integration with LDAP, SAML, Development of custom identity providers
11) Security – SAML, LDAP, Custom login module, Authentication handler, 2-factor authentication, clickjacking, CSRF, XSS, firewall rules, DOS attack, ACL groups/users, etc.
12) MSM: Blueprint, triggers, actions. Developing custom rollout configurations. Best practices for site hierarchy, live copy, blueprint, live-action, roll out config, language copy, translation workflow, etc.
13) The baseline for AEM infrastructure (machine capacity, disk space, etc.): how many authors/publish instances required based on the number of users, size of repository and load on the server.
14) Integration with: Adobe Campaign, Adobe Target (mbox.js), Adobe Analytics/Site Catalyst, Adobe Media Optimizer, Dynamic Tag Manager, PhoneGap
15) Importing content from the external system – Explore various options such as poll importer, eCommerce product importing, POST servlet, Content packages (best for large content per adobe doc), live feed integration, etc.
16) Integration with external systems such as eCommerce PIM, Offer creation system, etc.
17) Serving the web pages created by the external system from AEM.
18) Dispatcher – dispatcher.any permission sensitive caching, dispatcher cache invalidation, etc.
19) Dispatcher server selections – IIS / Apache and how in the context of a phased migration to AEM.
20) Dispatcher (very important): you should be able to set up dispatcher on IIS, Apache and should be able to configure it properly based on project requirements. You should know every tag/element and purpose. You should also beware of the security checklist that needs to apply for the dispatcher.
21) Deployment options for author / publish and impact on parameters such as performance and failover – TarMK (farm), MongoMK (cluster).
22) Clientlibs and how it helps in improving load time (performance).
23) Performance of author machines – Concurrent workflow, Limiting parallel jobs, Disable asset synchronization service, etc.
24) Identifying a number of templates given the pages.
25) AEM forms, its deployment model and security
26) Multiple languages for dialog – Language nodes, translators, etc.
27) AEM translation framework.
28) Account management activities – Password reset, etc.
29) Tagging – The best way to model the tag structure.
30) AEM replication. How replication works in various deployment models.
31) WCM Components – Geolocation support, OOTB components, Column component, extending components, etc.
32) Ecommerce – product data importing, price information, eCommerce API, etc.
33) UGC/Communities – Moderation, forum support, messaging support, adobe social, social logins, etc.
34) Caching, CDN.
Some Useful links:
OOTB Components: https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-1/author/page-authoring/default-components/components.html
Best Practice: https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-0/develop/the-basics/dev-guidelines-bestpractices.html
OSGi Configs:
- https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/cq/5-6-1/deploying/osgi_configuration_settings.html
- https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-1/develop/components/i18n/translator.html
- http://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-0/administer/sites/languages.html
- https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-0/develop/components/i18n.html
- http://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/cq/5-5/wcm/default_components.html#Column%20Control
- https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/cq/5-6-1/deploying/performance.html
AEM Form:
- https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-1/author/page-authoring/default-components/components.html
- https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-0/develop/best-practices.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/aem-forms/6/aem-forms-architecture-deployment.html
- http://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-0/administer/sites/multi-site-manager/msm-sync.html#Synchronisation%20Actions
- http://blogs.adobe.com/experiencedelivers/
I hope this will help you to learn more about AEM and prepare for your certification. All the best!!!
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