Development-Lifecycle-and-Deployment-Architect Salesforce Certified Platform Development Lifecycle and Deployment Architect (Plat-Arch-202) Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

A requirement traceability matrix is a project artifact that maps each requirement to its corresponding test cases, ensuring that all requirements are covered by testing. User acceptance test scripts are the actual steps to execute the test cases, not the artifact that links them to the requirements. Testing strategy and test execution plan are high-level documents that describe the overall approach and schedule for testing, not the specific mapping of requirements and test cases.

A source control tool provides the ability for distributed teams to work in isolation, as they can create branches and merge their changes later. It also provides the ability to backup code/configuration changes, as they can be stored in a remote repository and retrieved if needed.

 D is the correct answer, as the Agile methodology is the best way to handle a project with a fixed deadline and a changing scope, such as retiring a business-critical application that will no longer be supported. The Agile methodology allows for frequent feedback, iterative development, and adaptive planning, which can help to deliver a working solution on time and within budget. A is incorrect, as executive leadership is not a methodology, but a role that can support the project. B is incorrect, as a requirements traceability matrix is a tool that can help to track the requirements and their fulfillment, but not a methodology. C is incorrect, as a business continuity plan is a document that outlines how to resume business operations in the event of a disruption, but not a methodology. You can learn more about the Agile methodology in the Agile Basics module on Trailhead.

This is the correct answer because some components, such as custom settings, user permissions, and email templates, cannot be deployed via the Metadata API. Therefore, these components should be documented and manually deployed or configured in the target environment.

The best environment for developing a new feature in an org with unlocked packages is a scratch org with the package code that will be changed and its dependencies. A scratch org is a source-driven and disposable deployment of Salesforce code and metadata that is fully configurable and can be created quickly. A scratch org can also install unlocked packages and their dependencies, which can help ensure compatibility and functionality of the new feature. A Developer Pro sandbox is not a good option, as it is not source-driven and can have outdated or conflicting data and metadata.

Pairing with the administrator and reviewing each change as it happens is the best way to handle the situation of discovering a Sev0 defect in production. This way, the architect can ensure that the changes are done correctly and quickly, without compromising the quality or security of the application. The architect can also provide guidance and feedback to the administrator, as well as monitor the impact and outcome of the changes. Denying the suggestion, explaining that only developers are certified to make changes, or calling the security team are not advisable actions, as they can delay the resolution of the defect, increase the damage, or create unnecessary conflict.

The sandbox types that the architect should recommend for batch data testing are Partial Copy sandbox and Full sandbox. These sandbox types allow the testing of large data sets that are similar to the production data. Developer Pro sandbox and Developer sandbox have limited storage and may not be able to accommodate the data needed for the batch data testing.

Two software development methodologies that an architect should suggest to solve the issue of visibility are Scrum and Kanban. Scrum is based on the value of openness, which means that the team members and stakeholders share information and feedback regularly and transparently. Kanban is based on the principle of making everything visible, which means that the team uses a visual board to track the progress and status of the work items. Waterfall is not a good methodology for visibility, as it does not allow for frequent communication and feedback. DevOps is not a methodology, but a culture and practice that aims to improve collaboration and delivery across the software development lifecycle.

Minor changes should be thoroughly documented and follow some type of standard cadence, as this can help maintain the audit trail and visibility of the changes. All changes should still be tested, even if they are minor, as they can have unexpected impacts on other parts of the system or introduce bugs or security issues. Downstream environments will not be automatically updated when production changes are made, so it is important to have a strategy to keep them in sync and avoid conflicts or overwrites. Minor changes do not need to be documented and can be made at any time is a wrong statement, as it can lead to poor governance and lack of accountability. CI/CD is not required to successfully manage minor changes, although it can help automate and streamline the process. See Application Lifecycle and Deployment for more details.

Announcing the maintenance window ahead of time, defining a rollback strategy, and temporarily suspending configuration changes in production are all best practices for production deployment. These practices help to minimize the risk of errors, downtime, and conflicts during the deployment process.

 Creating a governance process requiring all projects to create project deliverable documentation is an option that an Architect should recommend, as it helps to ensure that the code and configuration are well documented and maintained, and that the administrators can understand the rationale and impact of the changes. Creating a standard method for deprecating classes and fields using design standards is also an option that an Architect should recommend, as it helps to avoid cluttering the org with unused or obsolete metadata, and to improve the performance and security of the application. Creating an adoption plan for end users using Salesforce dashboards and reports is not an option that an Architect should recommend, as it does not address the issue of how objects and fields are being used and how future implementations can be maintained. Creating a design standard requiring integration to use declarative configuration patterns is not an option that an Architect should recommend, as it does not address the issue of how objects and fields are being used and how future implementations can be maintained. Creating a governance framework focused on high-level business strategy and goals is not an option that an Architect should recommend, as it does not address the issue of how objects and fields are being used and how future implementations can be maintained.

A single-org strategy is the best option for UC, as it will enable them to achieve business process standardization among all business units, which is the main goal of the CEO. A multi-org strategy would make it harder to enforce consistent processes and policies across the different business units, and would also increase the costs and complexity of managing multiple orgs. A common managed package could help with some aspects of standardization, but it would not cover all the possible scenarios and customizations that UC might need.

 The best release strategy for creating a new report to support an urgent client request is to utilize the daily release process. The daily release process is designed for small and quick changes that do not require extensive testing or approval. The daily release process can create the report directly in a full sandbox and then deploy it to production. The major and minor release processes are more suitable for large and complex changes that require more testing and approval. The major and minor release processes should not create the report directly in production, as this may cause errors or conflicts.

These are the correct answers because they are essential components of a governance framework that helps to manage the changes and enhancements to the Salesforce application. Requirements management is the process of capturing, analyzing, prioritizing, and tracking the business needs and requests. Change control log is the tool that records and tracks the status of all change requests and approvals. Documentation repository is the central place that stores and organizes all the project artifacts and deliverables. Automated testing and continuous integration are not necessary components of a governance framework, but rather best practices for ensuring the quality and reliability of the code and configuration.

 The success criteria for data migration and the manual and automated data validation approaches are two key areas of UC’s data migration test plan that should be included. The success criteria define the expected outcomes and quality standards for the data migration process. The data validation approaches ensure that the data is accurate, complete, and consistent after the migration.

The architect should recommend backing up the existing metadata using the ANT Migration Tool. To roll back deployment, deploy again to production using backed up metadata. This strategy allows the team to restore the previous state of the production org in case of any issues with the deployment. Creating a sandbox from production to take the backup of existing metadata is not necessary and may take longer time. Using destructivechanges.xml to delete new components is not a reliable way to roll back deployment, as it may not remove all the dependencies and references. Manually deleting new components is also not a feasible option, as it may be error-prone and time-consuming.

 Testers will experience functional changes throughout testing due to not having isolation from development. Using a single developer sandbox for both development and testing is not a good practice, as it does not provide a stable and consistent environment for testing. The developers may make changes to the code or configuration that affect the functionality or behavior of the application, which may cause the testers to encounter unexpected results or errors.

The recommended strategy for deploying a large volume of metadata is to identify metadata dependencies, create logical groupings, and deploy in the right order. This can help avoid errors and ensure a smooth deployment process.

The optimal way to store the service centers as technical reference data is to add them to a custom metadata type. Custom metadata types allow you to create, update, and deploy records that are defined by a custom object. Custom metadata types are similar to list custom settings, but they have some advantages, such as being deployable, queryable, and packageable. Hierarchical custom settings are not suitable for storing multiple records of the same type, and defining a new custom object with a picklist field is unnecessary and inefficient.