White Paper
Certified
System Architect
EXAM BLUEPRINT
Copyright 2016
Pegasystems Inc., Cambridge, MA
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Document: Pega Certified System Architect Exam Blueprint
Updated: August 31, 2016
The Pegasystems Certified Professional Program
The Pegasystems Certified Professional Program has created a worldwide community of thousands of
Certified Professionals, drawn by a commitment to excel in their ability to deliver world class Pega
applications.
When a System Architect participates in the design and development of a Pega application there are
fundamental, essential Pega skills and knowledge areas that must be applied to ensure success. These
skills and knowledge areas form the basis of the certification exam.
Pegasystems is committed to providing you with the training, tools, and knowledge needed to achieve
certification as a Certified System Architect (CSA).
About the Exam Blueprint
The purpose of the blueprint is to provide you with a roadmap of the System Architect Certification exam
content, which helps you to better prepare for the exam.
The blueprint includes test domain weighting, test objectives, and topical content. The topics and
concepts are included to clarify the test objectives.
The exam is based upon the knowledge areas necessary for a System Architect to be able to participate
in the successful design and development of Pega applications.
Candidates are tested on their:
Understanding of the Pega platform including Designer Studio and DCO tools
Ability to analyse business needs and organize them into stages and steps in a Pega application
Ability to apply key concepts and techniques in the design and construction of the components of a
multi-process application
Ability to apply Pega 7 application design principles and best practices on projects
Prerequisites
The suggested training prerequisites for this certification level are:
System Architect Essentials (7.2) course
The skills and knowledge areas measured by this exam are derived directly from the content of this
course.
1
Exam Test Domains
The table below lists the test domains and the extent to which they are represented as an estimated
percentage of test items.
Test Domains % of Exam
Application Design 7%
Case Design 30%
Data Model 19%
Decision Design 7%
UI Design 20%
Report Design 7%
Integration 6%
Testing 4%
Total 100%
Exam Format
The exam consists of 70 questions and three additional questions that are experimental items and not
scored. You are given 90 minutes to complete the exam and the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
requirement. A passing score of 65% (subject to change without notice) is needed to be recognized as a
Certified System Architect (CSA).
Question Format
The examinee selects from one or more response options to answer a question. A response is
considered correct when it accurately completes the statement or answers the question. Distracters or
incorrect answers are plausible response options that examinees with incomplete knowledge are likely
to choose.
Pega certification exams can contain any of the following test question formats:
Multiple Choice Select one option that best answers the question or completes a statement.
Multiple Responses Select more than one option that best answers the question or completes a
statement. If multiple responses are required, the text states how many responses the examinee must
choose.
Matching Select an item in column 1 and associate it with the correct response in column 2.
2
Test Topics
Application Design
System Architect responsibilities
Pega application development guardrails
Classes and class structure
Circumstancing rules
Case Design
Case steps and stages
Cases and sub cases
Routing
Service levels
Activities
Correspondence
Work status
Work parties
Data Model
Properties and data types
Data transforms
Declarative processing
Declare expressions
Forward and backward chaining
Reference data
Data pages
Decision Design
When rules
Decision tables
Decision trees
User Interface (UI) Design
Basic UI rules and their uses
Section
Paragraph
Dynamic UIs
Responsive UIs
UI Controls
Report Design
Report types in Pega 7
Creating reports
Filters
Optimization
3
Integration
Connectors
Services
Testing
Methods to debug Pega applications
Tracer
Live UI
Clipboard
