CSSA PDN Links Compilation Important: Please note that following links are just the

starting set; Please do your own research according to the CSSA Exam blueprint to come up with the scope that you should read.

Last updated: 2012-11-05

Date 201202-27 201202-28 201211-05

Update Upgraded to the Google Doc new version as it was mandatory to upgrade There was a problem with sharing settings after the upgrade, now it is fixed and everyone should be able to access. Sorry for the inconvenience caused Added Check out the PRPC: Architecture course on Pega Academy under PRPC and J2EE architecture

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General PRPC Architecture

PRPC and J2EE architecture WAR and EAR Deployments Caching

Check out the PRPC: Architecture course on Pega Academy (This is a free course at the time of this writing) Choosing between an EAR file deployment or WAR file deployment Understanding caching Rule Caches (Please read this PDF completely) Working with the Rules Assembly cache

--System Pulse Pulse - definition Understanding the Pega-RULES agents Interacting with the Database Designing Applications that Ensure Data Integrity (Please read this PDF completely)

--Persistence --Transaction Model --Deferred Operations Model --Locking --Threading Model Agents

Designing Applications that Ensure Data Integrity Designing Applications that Ensure Data Integrity Distributed Transactions in PegaRULES Process Commander Designing Applications that Ensure Data Integrity

Understanding object locking and the Designing Applications that Ensure Data Integrity Contrasting PRThread objects and Java threads About Agents Agents Advanced Topics (PDF) Integrating With External Systems v 5.2 (Please read this PDF completely) How to reduce maintenance of service rules and listeners with Global Resource Settings Services and Connectors (Please watch the entire eLearning series) Services and Connectors Web Services

Services and Connectors

Architecture --Service Architecture --Connector Architecture Web Services --SOAP About Service SOAP rules --HTTP Connect SQL About Connect HTTP rules About Service HTTP rules About Connect SQL rules

File Listeners About Service File rules About File Listener data instances How to set up a file service (and file listener) How to support high-throughput file services with multithreading How to parse a Comma-Separated-Values (CSV) file using a file service Rule Resolution and Achieving Reusability Rule Resolution Overview of rule resolution Agents and rule resolution Rule Resolution (Please read this PDF completely) How the system finds rules through rule resolution About RuleSets and Rule Resolution

How class inheritance works Webinar Archive: Understanding Inheritance in Process Commander Applications Enterprise Class Structure --Reasons for Building an Enterprise Class Structure --Enterprise Class Structure Best Practices Types of Reuse Reuse Techniques Enterprise Class Structure Layers Application Accelerator Framework / Work Extensions / Data model / Components Inheritance / Composition PRPC Product Layer / Enterprise Reuse Layer / Divisional Reuse Layer / Framework Layer / Implementation Layer

Enterprise Application accelerator - definition Application Profile and Enterprise Application Accelerator (Please watch the entire e-Learning series)

Reusability Reusability and Specialization (Please watch the entire and e-Learning series)(Please take a note to compare pre 5.4 Specialization class structure with current Enterprise class structure layers) Importance of Rule Specialization and Reuse RuleSets and RuleSets and Rule Specialization Rule Specialization Circumstance - Concepts and terms Circumstancing Specialization and Circumstance Understanding circumstances and other rule qualifiers How multivariate circumstancing works Improving Reusability Security Security - Contents Configuring Access Rights (Process Commander Administration and Security Guide v5.3 - Read Chapter 6 fully) Diagram: Process Commander Security Model

Authentication Authentication Overview (Please watch the entire e-

Learning series) Authentication Options and Components (Authentication in PegaRULES Process Commander v 5.3 - Read Chapter 2 fully) Authentication Types Enterprise Enterprise Identity Management Identity Identity Management and Single Sign-On Overview Management and Single Sign On PRPC Authentication Types PRPC Managed Authentication Authorization Access Groups User Profiles and Multiple Access Groups Authorizing users for applications using application rules Access group data instances

User Profiles and Multiple Access Groups

Access Roles About access role rules About Access of Role to Object rules Access Role About the Access Role editor Editor and Access Control Production Levels Access When and Access Deny Rules Privileges Security and Encryption Production levels Production Levels and Access-When Rules About Access When rules About Access Deny rules About privilege rules More about Privilege rules How to encrypt the Storage Stream Property rules - Implementing and using the TextEncrypted type How to control access to categorized attachments How to enable attachment security using attachment categories What's new in Process Commander V5.3 - Encryption

User Interface Advanced UI Techniques(Please watch the entire e-Learning series) User Interface Concepts and Terms UI Theory Top Ten Usability Guardrails Webinar Archive: Building Successful User Experiences

 Why UI is Important Human Factors UI Best Practices UI Design Decisions PRPC UI Fundamentals Flow Design: About Flow Action rules Standard vs. Presenting flow actions Comparing three approaches Screen Flows Screen flow Creating and editing screen flows Validation Client Side Validation --> Edit Validate --> Validate Rule --> Post Activity Validation Client-side format validation How to enable client-side validation for an input field How to customize the presentation of errors on work object forms How to use regular expressions to validate user input ---------How to add automatic field-formatting to input fields How to provide interactive formatting of user inputs Basic UI Standards Basics

UI How to use radio buttons to represent a property value Implementation How to embed a list view rule with check box options in a work object form How to use parameters in section rules Smart Info feature How to create attractive flow actions using SmartLayouts Client Event Editor Implementing dynamic form actions and the Client Event Editor Adding an Input Box Branding/Skinn About the Application Skin wizard ing Wizard How to use the Application Skin wizard to create a new skin Widget Library UI controls How to configure a Dynamic Select control (V5.4) How to add a list-to-list control to a flow action form How to add an autocomplete field to a flow action form How to add a SmartLabel pop-up to a harness, section, or flow action rule How to present a repeating group as tabs or columns on a harness or flow action form How to display collapsed form sections using the Accordion control

How to add a Grid layout to a section How to add a menu bar to a composite portal How to create layouts that contain tabbed headers How to support multiple work object forms with the Work Area control How to provide inline Word property display and editing Split button You should know each widget and the most appropriate business scenarios where the widgets can be used Implementation Performance - Contents (Selectively read the KB articles) and Performance Tools Implementation tools --Preflight --Tracer --Pega Log File and Alerts (including Log4J) --Refactoring Tools Performance Preflight / Performance AnaLyzer (PAL) / Log Usage / PRPC Analysis Tools Alerts / PegaRULES Log Analyzer (PLA) / Profiler tool / DB Trace / Autonomic Event Services (AES) You should be able to select the most appropriate tool or tools according to the given scenario Preflight Understanding rule warning messages Preflight tool - definition Using the Application Preflight tool Using the Preflight tool to report accessibility compliance How to download a list of high-priority rule warnings Overview of the Performance Tools (PAL) Interpreting Performance Tool (PAL) outputs Interpreting the Performance Tool (PAL) Detail display Performance alerts, security alerts, and AES Understanding Alert log message data Understanding the PegaRULES Log Analyzer About the Profiler tool An introduction to the Profiler Tool Using the DB Trace and Profiler tools to understand performance About the Tracer tool Monitoring the System(Process Commander Administration and Security Guide v5.3 - Read Chapter 8 fully)

Performance Analyzer and Log Usage PRPC Alerts PegaRULES Log Analyzer Application Profiler DB Trace

How to run the DBTrace tool in a production system PRPC Maintenance Purging and Archiving Work Objects About the Purge/Archive wizards How to use the Search/Replace a String wizard Use the Pega-RULES agent to purge selected database tables regularly System Management Application - definition About the System Management application Designing and Building for Performance(Please watch the entire e-Learning series) Webinar Archive: Understanding the Top 5 Roadblocks to Optimal Performance Webinar Archive: Demonstrating Performance Troubleshooting Support Play: A methodology for troubleshooting performance Memory management revealed - Questions and answers Reporting - Contents (Read selectively) Getting started with reporting Symbolic date How to use symbolic dates in report selection criteria

System Management Application Building for Performance

Reporting Reporting Basics Reporting Using PRPC Table and Column Basics Exposing Data List View Features

Table and column basics Managing Data for Reporting About List View rules (Read entire help for all the tabs in the List View rule) How to add a header or footer to a report How to customize styles in list view reports How to embed a list view rule with check box options in a work object form How to use parameters as selection criteria in a list view rule

Summary View About Summary View rules (Read entire help for all the Features tabs in the Summary View rule)(It is must to know the differences between List view and Summary view reports) Preparing to create and use interactive charts OOTB Reports Standard About Standard Monitor Activity Reports Report Types and Categories BPM Business Process Management Process Engine API Process Engine API activities

Case Management

Understanding covers Concepts and terms How to enable multiple simultaneous updates of covered work objects Understanding folder and cover work objects About Flow rules (Having a thorough practical understanding of all the flow shapes is must) How to display process statistics using flow overlays Should be able to select the most appropriate flow shape for a given business scenario

Flow Shapes

Activities SmartBPM Service Level Agreements Service level rule About Service Level rules Understanding service levels and System Settings for the Pega-ProCom Agent Troubleshooting Service level rules not executing Router activity Intelligent routing Maximizing user productivity with GetNextWork Please have a good understanding about push and pull routing and GetNextWork processing History History- base class How to control history instances written to the audit trail Working with the PegaRULES database Tables for history History-Add method

Routing

Correspondence How correspondence works Correspondence reference How to create correspondence rules that prompt users for input Correspondence Concepts and terms BRE BRE Introduction BRE Basics Declaratives Declarative Processing Declarative processing Concepts and terms Dependency network Declarative rule Declarative Expressions Declarative Expressions (Please watch the entire eLearning series) About Declare Expression rules More about Declare Expression rules How to unit test a Declare Expression rule Declarative Expressions and Forward Chaining Business rules engine

Forward

Chaining Backward Chaining

Forward chaining Backward chaining Declarative Expressions and Backward Chaining Backward Chaining Example Property-Seek-Value method How to trigger backward chaining in flows (goal seek) About Declare Trigger rules About Declare OnChange rules Declarative Pages (Please watch the entire e-Learning series) Understanding declare pages How to reduce maintenance of service rules and listeners with Global Resource Settings

Goal Seek Triggers and OnChange Declarative Pages

Rule Execution Comparing decision tree, decision table, and map value and Delegation rule types Strategy Pay more emphasis on the results tab of the following 3 rules, while reading the help for the entire rule About Decision Table rules About Decision Tree rules About Map Value rules Rule Delegation Delegated rule - definition How to delegate a rule How to build for change My Rules - definition About Function Alias rules Context-free expression Declarative Expression Change Tracking Tab How to correct the Context Free warning for Declare Expression rules Understanding the PEGA0024 alert - Time to load a declarative network exceeds limit How to correct the Whenever Used warning for Declare Expression rules Federated SmartBPM Deployment Strategies : Deployment Strategies for Large Enterprises (Optional but Good Read) About Product rules How to ensure that a product rule includes all parts of an application Administering RuleSets(Process Commander Administration and Security Guide v5.3 - Read Chapter 4 fully) About RuleSet Versions How to refactor RuleSet Versions How to rename a RuleSet (V5.5) How to skim, compress, merge, copy and delete RuleSets with the RuleSet Maintenance wizard Development using a multi-phase project and iteration How to use RuleSet prerequisites

Function Alias BREs and Performance

Application Deployment Creating a Rule-AdminProduct (R-AP) File RuleSet Versioning

Exporting and Administering RuleSets(Process Commander Administration Importing a R- and Security Guide v5.3 - Read Chapter 4 fully) A-P File Pega Log Files Monitoring the System(Process Commander Administration and Alerts and Security Guide v5.3 - Read Chapter 8 fully) Deployment Wizard Deploying an Application Administering RuleSets(Process Commander Administration and Security Guide v5.3 - Read Chapter 4 fully)

Please watch all the e-Learning courses apart from the below two (you must :)) - e-Learning courses Customer Process Manager Interactions Contact Center 101

Best of Luck for the exam Thanks and Regards Indrajith Manamperi

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