I recently passed the Delta Exam for my Employee Central Certification in January 2016. As it was the first Delta Exam for one of the SuccessFactors Modules, I would like to share my experience of it with you, and provide more information about SuccessFactors Certifications in general.
SuccessFactors Certifications
In 2015 SAP introduced everyone to the new Training & Certification Shop of SAP. With this change, the SAP Learning Hub, SAP Credential Manager and SAP Certification Hub became really important for all Consultants and Consulting Companies.
Update (15.09.16): Additionally to the real Delta Exams there is are new Delta Assessment Tests after every Release Update with Delta Content available in the Learning Hub. Please read more in the article „SuccessFactors Release Updates – Delta Content Exams for Partner„. EVERY SuccessFactors Consultant has to do this Delta Assessment Exams!
One of the biggest changes was that the normal Associate Certifications, the ones you normally do after your training course, weren’t enough anymore. After the course (either; a booked course with trainer, or self-assigned from the Learning Hub) you have to do a proctored exam. The following Associate Certifications are available for those proctored exams:
- C_THR91_1505 – SAP Certified Application Consultant – SuccessFactors Onboarding
- C_THR88_1508 – SAP Certified Application Associate – SuccessFactors Learning Management Q3/2015
- C_THR86_1502 – SAP Certified Application Associate – SuccessFactors Compensation
- C_THR82_1411 – SAP Certified Application Consultant – SuccessFactors Performance and Goals
- C_THR81_1505 – SAP Certified Application Associate – SuccessFactors Employee Central Q2/2015
And two Delta Exams:
- D_THR88_1508 – SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP SuccessFactors Learning Management Q3/2015
- D_THR81_1505 – SAP Certified Application Associate – SuccessFactors Employee Central Q2/2015
Recruiting Management should be coming in 2016, and more will follow. I will describe later how a proctored exam looks, but first I want to talk about Delta Exams.
Consultants who are certified in a SuccessFactors module need to pass Delta Exams. I guess the reason is simple; SAP wants to make sure every consultant is always up to date with new developments. There are four releases every year, and some modules are rapidly developing so it is challenging to stay up to date with every release.
What is a Proctored Exam?
As said above, in some SuccessFactors Modules you need to do an additional exam via the Certification Hub. The 6 attempts can be used for one exam (but be aware that you just can use 3 attempts per Certification) or for 6 different Certifications. If you fail one Certification after 3 attempts, you need to wait for the next version of this Certification.
In the Exam Dashboard you can choose the exam and schedule an appointment. After that you will get an automatic E-Mail with confirmation of the appointment details. Appointments can be rescheduled at any time. Before you take the exam you should download Questionmark Secure and check if your system and connection are compatible.
If you start the exam you won’t have access to anything on your computer, as the software will ask you to close everything before you start. You will be connected to a person who will ask you to show the room you are in and your desk (which has to be empty). You are not allowed to read the questions out loud and obviously no smartphones or further help is allowed.
After finishing the Exam you get the results immediately (in %) and confirmation if you have passed or not. You don’t get any details of which questions were answered rightly or wrongly.
History of Certifications and the first Delta Exam in SuccessFactors
I got my EC Certification in February 2014. At this time you would have to pay 3.500 USD for a 3 weeks of daily training. I really enjoyed it as I had a nice learning buddy. We didn’t have to do an exam. Our final test was to configure and demo an EC Instance for about 15 minutes. I liked the idea of this approach, because you really had to get hands on and do something with SuccessFactors, instead of just learning everything by heart.
Nevertheless, in the last two years a lot of things in Employee Central have changed; Foundation Objects moved to MDF (in 3 steps), Business Rules cover a huge and important part in EC, more things can be amended in the Instance (BCUI) and a lot of things got better and easier. There are a lot of new things that you need to know as a consultant. That’s why I think SAP thought it’s time for a Delta Exam to prove the knowledge of Employee Central Consultants. I personally think they are totally right. Employee Central is probably the module where the most things have happened in the last few years and in my opinion it is the most important module in the SuccessFactors suite.
How to Prepare for a Delta Exam
All you need to prepare for a Delta Exam is in the Learning Hub. Check Learning Content if you have the “Employee Central HCM Academy Learning Room” assigned for you. Check the learning room and you will find the tab “Delta Release” with 3 documents:
- 1502 EC Flipbook
- 1502 EC Implementation Handbook
- 1505 Content and Exercises (Link for more Content)
Basically you have to review the complete EC course with the named Delta Version (1505 at the moment). You could also check all the Release Notes for every release to know about the changes in Employee Central. If you have had some SuccessFactors projects, most things will be very familiar and you should focus on the new features like Position Management, MDF Objects, Business Rules and Time Off.
The Training & Certification Shop also gives you a good advice about the content of the EC Delta Exam. For Employee Central the exam is arranged as:
- Events and Language Implementation > 12%
- Foundation Objects and Generic Objects > 12%
- Data Models 8% – 12%
- Manage System Security 8% – 12%
- Manage Employee Data and Position Management 8% – 12%
- Manage Time Off 8% – 12%
- Rules and Workflows 8% – 12%
- Importing and Exporting Data < 8
You also find some test questions to practice with. The best preparation for me was a little MDF example with Business Rules and Workflows. It also helped to have a look at the XML Files. Understanding of Data Models, Time Off and Configuring & Amending Data is also important. Not all the questions in the Delta Exam of EC are just theory based. You have to know where features are in Employee Central, and how to change and work with Data and Configuration changes. But more about this later.
My Employee Central Delta Exam Experience
I was a bit nervous about the Exam as I had no idea about the questions. I had just finished an MDF Demo Showcase a week before for a client and it turned out that this was the best preparation for the exam. I spend around 2-3 days reviewing the Delta Exam documentation and the Implementation Handbook. It’s very hard to say if you are well prepared or not as you can’t study all 600 pages from the EC Flipbook by heart.
In my opinion, you should take care of your overall understanding how EC works and where to configure different things. I am not an expert in all topics and in my case I had to carefully repeat Time off and Import / Export. If you have implemented EC before, and regularly work with configuration then it’s not that hard to pass the Delta Exam. You just have to pass 40 multiple choice questions and with a pass mark of 63% (26 questions). That doesn’t sound much, but don’t underestimate it because there are lots of questions where 2 or 3 answers are correct. If you miss one correct answer, then you do not get any points for that question.
There are some questions I found tricky and had to check afterwards. Maybe it’s because I am not a native english speaker or I never read or heard something be referred to like that in EC.
In general I recommand you to have a close look at the mentioned topics for Employee Central.
Where can I get more information?
There are a number of places to get more information. The two SAP Training and Certification shop links below contain useful information, as well as the two SCN blogs:
- SAP Certification in the Cloud (includes FAQs)
- The Training and Certification Shop
- Exciting Changes in SAP Cloud Certification Blog
- SuccessFactors Certification Plans for 2015 Blog
- SAP SuccessFactors Professional Certification Level Blog
Partners can get information from SAP Partner Edge (make sure you are logged in);
When do I need to do the Delta Certification?
- Just added this blog following some reader questions:
Hi Chris,
I would like to know the details about SuccessFactors certification for a module.
As i’m verifying online for the SuccessFactors certification training got your mail id.
I’m just learned this course from a tutorial. But they haven;t guide me how to proceed with certification. So It would be helpful to me if you provide the details for the same.
Thanks in advance
Shreekanya
The Certification is straight forward. Signing up for a date through Certification Hub. SAP provides guiding material.
what is the cost of the exam? Do we have to pay for subsequent delta’s as well?
You have to pay for the yearly subscription of the Learning Hub. Normally you Company will pay for it. If you are a Freelancer K2 has a offer for your case.
what is the cost of the exam?
Need PM GM Question Bank for certification. Kindly help
Dear Jayant,
if you attend the course or follwo the program on the SAP Learning Hub, and do most of the exercises, you will pass the certification test easily without cheating and getting the questions from somewhere.
If you cam’t pass the test without having had access to the questions, this proves that you are not ready. Thyat would be teh equivalent of sending someone else to do your driving test in your name and then drive without actually being able to thus risking other people’s health.
If your employer pushes you to do this, report them to SAP via education@sap.com.
The certification is basic enough as it is. People trying to pass it without actually learning something about SuccessFactors get customers into trouble, give SuccessFactors and consulting partners a bad name and often make innocent people losing their jobs by crashing projects.
So, I hope you’ve done the course properly – then you won’t need the questions.
And after passing the certification, please remember this doesn’t make you an expert yet. Your employer should provide an experience consultant to coach you for the first projects.
Hi ,
Please help in doing the SF certification, is onboarding module comes under EC?
am having knowledge on Onboarding,
Hi Chris,
I would like to write RCM certification , there is no proctored exam in Certification hub . Where do I need to write RCM certification ?
Thank you
Kandra
Hello Kandra,
you just need to finish the RCM Course in the Learning Hub.
KR,
Chris
I cant see this content added in my Learning room- Employee Central HCM Academy Learning Room. Can someone send me the invite please?
You mean the Learning Room? If yes, give it some minutes. An Admin have to add you to the group. If this doesn’t happen write an ticket in the Education center.
Hi Chris,
whats the difference between Delta ECM and the ECM ?
I just passed my ECM through the proctor exam on certification hub and i have the Delta exam for ECM Q2/2015 available. Am i supposed to write that immediately?
Hi Joshua,
if you have your certifications registered in the SAP credentials registry / consultant finder, you’ll be alerted, when a Delta exam is required.
You would also so an expiration date next to your certification in teh credentials registry.
I’ll add a screenshot of how that looks like to the artcle above.
Useful information but still I don’t understand what is the reason for posting your certificate Is that shows that you are certified.
Anyways, Good Information
Just for making this post attractive with some pictures =)
Hi Chris,
Thanks a lot for sharing Good Information.
I had passed my Employee Central Certification in Oct, 2014. Is it mandatory for me to pass the delta exam ? If So, how can I, as I have changed my company and my new one is not a SF partner ?
Thanks
Normally you get an E-Mail, which says that you have to do the Delta Exam. Its truely a tricky question how to keep you Certification, when you are not working in a SF Partner Company anymore.Honetly, I would write a mail to the Education Team asking what they expect to do.
Thanks for sharing great information in your blog. Got to learn new things from your Blog . It was very nice blog to learn about SAP SF.
Hi Vijay,
there is a separate training and certification for Onboarding. It’s only one week on the SAP LearningHub and much easier than EC. I did teh certification recently.
Please note: the most flexible and cost-efficient way to keep up to date and keep your certifications is to subscribe to the SAP Learning Hub, as an annual subscription is already cheaper than most courses. It alsi gives you teh flexibility to do the work whenever you have time and to repeat virtual classroom sessions later, if you need to.
Individuals can now get their own Learning Hub access without being affiliated with a Partner or Customer and if you use this link, you’ll be able to get the subscription at a very good discount, if you use „iprocon“ as referral code: http://ow.ly/4mZuHu
Hi Chris,
Awesome job with the blog. It really gives a great deal of much needed information regarding the delta exam. I had one question regarding the delta documents you have mentioned, are these only available if you enroll for THR81 course with SAP or independent consultants can also get the same?
Thanks again for all the help by writing this blog and sharing your experience.
Neha
Documents are available for every trainee, who enroll for THR81.
Thanks, very helpful. I recently completed RCM in Q4 2015 and am certified (it wasn’t proxy’d yet, still isn’t). I assume I still must take deltas. How do I keep up with deltas if I don’t have a hub subscription?
I just did RCM RCM in Q2 2015. Correctly, there is no proctored exam or delta out yet… The Proctored Exam should come this year, but you got already you Certification so no worries. I think a Delta Exam for RCM will come in maybe 2-3 years… Didn’t saw that much stuff going on there, but you never know… If there will be a Delta Exam in RMC you will get a Notification E-Mail asking you to do the Delta Exam in the next 6 month. If so, you need a Subscription Hub! You may also need the Learning Hub Subscription to prepare for the exam. If you are regulary in projects you may not need it as you will have enough hands on practise…
Great detailing, Chris. Thanks for sharing
Hi Chris, Congratulations ! I had completed EC Delta during 3rd week of Nov, 2015. The topics in 1508 still relate to the 1505 certification exam. The only topics will not be tested on are external integration and benefits. Everything else is relevant. Catch All we had read event in rules xml. Catch All will be always at the end. Yes, SAP certifications question was always tricky :). Thanks.
Thank you very much… Yes, Integration and Benefits are the big topics, but for example Generation document or other „small“ features where no topic in the EC Delta Exam… I would be interested why they leave Integegration out as it is kind of a big and important topic for customers… At least some basic questions like „What are systems you can use for Integration“ … PI, Dell Boomi, HCI
Thanks so much for the great detail. Not just the content, but the process information will be useful to others.
Thank you Chris for this useful article on SF certification and congratulations for taking your certification(s). ;-)
Nice one – looking forward to my own delta exam
best regards
Anders