MuleSoft Certified Catalyst Specialist Exam Guide
Summary
A MuleSoft Certified Catalyst Specialist is proficient in implementing the Catalyst methodology for identifying business outcomes, planning engagements, and crafting composable architecture solutions. This certification confirms that a candidate possesses the essential knowledge and skills to:
Comprehend Catalyst Foundations: Understand and articulate the fundamental aspects of the Catalyst methodology. This includes familiarity with Catalyst playbooks and delivery approaches, asset lifecycles, usage terms, engagement types and phases, delivery models, and typical roles and responsibilities involved.
Strategic Organizational Analysis: Efficiently categorize and connect various elements like business environment drivers, the organization’s vision and strategic goals, objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), and initiatives into a coherent framework that reveals their interdependencies.
Architectural Application of Catalyst Principles: Utilize Catalyst principles in architectural designs, focusing on maximizing reusability and potential for future use, while also addressing immediate objectives.
Engagement Roadmap Creation: Leverage the understanding of an organization’s context (drivers, goals, objectives) to develop clear, strategic roadmaps for engagements that aim to achieve specific business outcomes.
C4E Assets Management: Clearly explain the concepts related to C4E (Center for Enablement) foundational assets, including the processes of promoting and maintaining an operational C4E.
Catalyst Approach Advocacy: Articulate the advantages of adopting the Catalyst approach, customizing the message to align with the interests of different stakeholders. This involves being able to convincingly convey the benefits of this methodology to various audiences.
Format
The format of the examination is as follows:
- Structure: The exam is structured as a multiple-choice assessment, conducted online under proctored conditions. It is a closed-book test.
- Number of Questions: The exam comprises 45 questions.
- Duration: The allotted time for the exam is 90 minutes, equivalent to 1.5 hours.
- Passing Requirement: A minimum score of 70% is required to pass.
- Language: The exam is offered in English.
- Attempt Limitation: You are allowed a maximum of five attempts to pass the exam. There is a mandatory 24-hour waiting period between each attempt.
Cost
Validity
- Expiration Period: The certification remains valid for two years from the date you successfully pass the exam.
- Extension Method: To extend the validity of your certification beyond the two-year mark, you have the option to retake and pass this exam again.
Preparation
To effectively prepare for the exam, consider the following preparation strategy and resources:
ForceDigest: MuleSoft Certified Catalyst Specialist Practice Exam Test and the MuleSoft Certified Catalyst Specialist Study Guide. These resources provide a comprehensive overview of the exam topics and include practice questions that closely resemble the actual exam format, helping you to become familiar with the type of questions you will encounter.
Self-paced Training Course: Engage with the self-paced course, “Delivering Successful Business Outcomes with Catalyst.” This course offers an in-depth exploration of relevant topics and allows you to learn at your own pace, ensuring a thorough understanding of the material.
Candidates should ensure they are thoroughly familiar with all the content covered in these resources and can apply the concepts in real-world projects independently. This approach not only prepares you for the exam but also equips you with practical skills for professional application.
Topics
Introducing Catalyst
- Describe what Catalyst is and is not
- Identify the components of Catalyst
- Define Catalyst engagements
- Identify criteria for successful Catalyst engagements
- Adapt Catalyst to common delivery methodologies
Leverage Catalyst Knowledge Hub
- Explain the structure and types of Catalyst-related content in Knowledge Hub
- Explain the types of assets in Knowledge Hub
- Explain the asset metadata model used by Knowledge Hub
- Explain the different asset types and select the right one for a given purpose
- Evaluate the applicability of individual assets for a given deployment type
Architecting in a Catalyst context
- Articulate the role architecture plays in aligning business and technology
- Organize business environment drivers, organizational vision, and strategic goals, objectives, KPIs, and initiatives into a logical network of influences
- Analyze the value of each principle of architecting with Catalyst for projects and engagements
- Articulate the role of integration architecture in realizing end-to-end business processes
- Create a backlog of architectural significance to capture engagement scope in a way that is conducive to architecting in a Catalyst context
Architecting to Catalyst principles
- Critique too narrow engagement scope definitions and objections to their widening
- Architect to maximize reuse and reuse potential without neglecting short-term objectives
- Analyze the advantages that architecting on top of a digital platform brings to projects
- Apply an API-led approach to connectivity on the conceptual and logical level, making idiomatic use of interaction types and patterns
- Architect in the context of projects to support productization of APIs
- Architect to achieve both short-term outcomes and long-term goals, in a balanced way
Designing composable solutions
- Describe the principles and properties of composability
- Identify the generic patterns, interaction types, and interaction patterns on the conceptual and logical levels and apply them to common architectural styles
- Address the cross-cutting concerns such as Idempotency, transactionality, reliability, etc in the solution design adhering to catalyst principles
- Apply principles of API-led approach to connectivity to common integration patterns beyond simple RESTful APIs
- Articulate the benefits of Automation and Intelligently identify the use cases that benefit from it
Realizing business outcomes
- Articulate business outcomes and their expected value
- Discover and define business outcomes
- Align business outcomes with stakeholders
- Align engagement scope with stakeholders
- Measure and track business outcomes
Implementing a Center for Enablement (C4E)
- Describe what C4E is and explain its value proposition
- Explain the difference between C4E and CoE
- Explain the impact of not having a C4E
- Describe the C4E organizational models
- Describe the components of building a C4E
Positioning and reframing with Catalyst
- Position the benefits of a Catalyst approach to stakeholders
- Incorporate the principles of the Catalyst approach to scope engagements
- Reframe the value of Catalyst approach when the team is diverging from a Catalyst approach
- Resolve common objections to a Catalyst approach
