How to study understanding, not memorization

Meowwww!

Preface: this post is part of the Study Guide: How to Earn 15 Salesforce Certifications series.

Remember how I told you to study for understanding, not memorization?

Well, here’s exactly how do that!

Start with the official exam guide for your certification. For this post, we’ll use the Salesforce Advanced Administrator Certification as an example. Here’s its exam guide:

Next, scroll to the Exam Outline section. You’ll see a list of features you need to study:

Workflow rules… my old friend!

For each feature listed on the exam outline:

• Practice configuring the feature in a free developer org. Play around with it!
• Read the feature’s official documentation, and other official tutorials you might find on it. For example, implementation guides and/or Trailhead
• Unofficial material can be helpful too, but note that the exams are based on official documentation. Unofficial material can sometimes steer you in the wrong direction

You have a good understanding of a feature when you can answer these questions about it:

	1. When should this feature be used?
	2. How does this feature work?
	3. What is the customization potential of this feature?
	4. When should you NOT use this feature?
	5. What are similar features, and when should they be used instead?
	6. How do you report / monitor the feature?
	7. How does this feature work within Salesforce’s security model?
	8. Are there any limits around this feature?

Once you can sincerely answer these questions about each feature, you will pass!

Practice Example: Workflow Rules

You’ve practiced configuring these and have read all the docs. To gauge your understanding, you should be able to answer all of the questions above. Take notes if you prefer.

Your answers should look something like this:

1. When should this feature be used?

A workflow rule should be used when you need to automate processes using IF / THEN logic.
Source: Workflow Rule Documentation

2. How does this feature work?

When a record is inserted / updated and it meets all the criteria for a workflow rule, the rule’s actions are executed. Actions include immediate and time dependant:

• Email alerts
• Field updates
• Outbound messages
• Tasks

Source: Workflow Rule Documentation

3. What is the customization potential of this feature?

A workflow rule can be evaluated when a record is:

• Created
• Created, and every time it’s edited
• Created, and any time it’s edited to subsequently meet criteria

Workflow rule criteria include:

• Field filter criteria
• Whenever a custom formula evaluates to true

Source: Create a Workflow Rule

As for a workflow rule’s actions:

Email alerts can be sent to related and/or designated email addresses using templates.
Source: Email Alert Action

Field updates can be done on the selected object or a related master-detail relationship record.
Source: Field Update Actions

Outbound messages send information to an external service using the SOAP API.
Source: Outbound Message Actions

Tasks are the details of a specific assignment given to a user.
Source: Task Actions

4. When should you NOT use this feature?

• When you need complex and/or multiple IF / THEN statements
• When you need to automatically create or delete records
• When you need to update records other than itself or its parent
• When you need to post to Chatter

Source: Which Automation Tool Do I Use?

5. What are similar features, and when should they be used instead?

Similar tools include Process Builder, Visual Workflows, Approval Processes, and Apex.
See this article for a breakdown of when to use each feature.

6. How do you report / monitor the feature?

Pending workflow actions can be monitored in the Time-Based Workflow search in Setup.
Source: Monitor Pending Workflow Actions

7. How does this feature work within Salesforce’s security model?

Field updates happen independently of field-level security.
Source: Considerations for Field Update Actions

8. Are there any limits around this feature?

You can only have 50 active workflow rules per object.
Source: Workflow Limits

I guarantee you will pass the certification if you can do all of the above for each feature!

Remember, all the materials you ever need are available for free. The official documentation is your best friend. If you focus and put in your best effort, you will pass any certification you want!

Next post: Guide to passing all Salesforce certifications! **MUST READ!**