Today I completed the Architecture Excellence expert program and here’s what I learned. If you consider to take this class, feel free to reach out in the comment section or in DM.
Registration at SN University
Learn more about ArchX, a must for CTA and CMA from 2026.
Overview
It’s a 4-week course running on the Intrepid portal and where you'll connect with around 80-90 classmates from all over the world. Everyone bring something different to the talbe and you can meet with developers, analysts, architects, managers and many other roles. What makes the class special is the interaction of people sharing ideas, experiences and their feedbacks one to another.
Official ServiceNow engagement talks about 8-12 hours per week to complete the class, I agree with that but the more you give to it the better…
Prerequisites
The CSA is required and having at least one CIS is recommended, as well as 2 years of experience with the ServiceNow platform.
Objectives
(not sharing too many details here so you can enjoy the full experience if you decide to join)
- Key roles and responsibilities
- Common frameworks and methodologies
- Change management organisations
- Architectural blueprints and gather requirements
- Documentation and communication, feedback strategies
- Data strategies and governance
- ServiceNow Workflows and Integrations
About 2-3 modules are unlocked per each week and are ready to complete in your own pace.
Completion
For every module it is required to complete eLearning content (text and videos that is well known from the SN University) and completing the related assignments. That grants you badge that are 13 in total, plus two extra badges (engagement and super start).
There were different types of activities, for example selecting your recommended capabilities for a given use case, building strategies, roadmaps, blueprints or notification templates based on the module’s requirement.
The wildest part for me was recording an audio message within a given time limit. I’m often fine speaking with clients but talking all alone while sneakily watching the stopwatch.. tick tock tick tock.. it was surprisingly intense and I must say stressful. After completion, as a reward you get AI-powered feedback about your recording with rating of aspects such as how confident or stressed your voice sound or whether you covered all the key points, what was forgotten or how many filler you used (ah..yes… I definitely had a few uhhs and ehm moments there).
It was a bit anxious but also a great learning experience, especially when you hear native speakers smashing it in fraction of time that I needed for it…
Completing all modules above and having 13 badges qualifies you for the final assessment which is an unproctored exam and it serves as a great recap of the whole program. It is s a parallel of a bigger micro-certification, I would say. Not too easy but also nothing impossible.
Summary
The Class is an excellent introduction into architectural thinking, the outcome we learn strongly depends on the participants and their (active) engagement. Unfortunately in my cohort, not so many classmates were active towards their peer, simply submitting their assignments, not discussing with others, not replying to the feedbacks they received. Which was a pity.
Also, there were two main down sides from my perspective.
First, the overuse of AI everywhere even for introducing yourself to others, talking about weekend plans or selecting your favourite colour, it feels like we cannot express ourselves without AI anymore. That can be also spotted in this Community more and more...
And second, unfortunately plagiarism was also present in the class of aspirants to become architects… copying assignment from others in hope that nobody will notice it and just to get their certification quickly and without any efforts. That was very disappointing for me
Despite the full potential was not met due to lower number of active participants it was absolutely worthy to attend it and I am very grateful for this chance. Learning new things as well as meeting interesting people and some of them are even from my current organisation.
If you have completed this program, I woud like to hear about your experience, how was it?
If you are deciding, I am here to answer your questions.
EDIT: corrected typos and formatting updates.
ahoy @TejaswiredA,
thank you for your comment, for applying to the program, CSA is required, one more CIS is highly recommended as well as at least 2 years of experience with ServiceNow.
It will most likely be possible to pass it without the recommended parts but it will give you much more if following that.
The course is not much technical, not teaching you how to code or what script to use, rather it is about communication, presentation and overall justifying your decisions that you are going to make.
You are given a fictional use case and you must find a solution to it, but it can be very high level - you just recommend some feature with explanation why this is the right thing in your opinion but you don't need to know how to configure or how to use it into the smallest details. So as an example you can recommend using Now Assist or Strategic Portfolio management even if you never worked with them but of course the more you know about that the better for you. And that's when it is good to have some years of experience before taking this class to be able to decide when to use what capability.
Also, I am currently taking the CTA and ArchX (mandatory requirement after 2026) was a great source of information to understand how the CTA class is organised, what's expected from us and what you need to do to delivery your assignments.
What you can always work on is communication and presentation skills, there are assignments when you need to record yourself and talk about given topic in defined time slot (usually 1-3 or 3-5 min) and then you get AI generated evaluation describing how confident you were, how fast you spoke, using fillers, checking factional content, recommend you what to improve, etc. It was a shocking part of the class and it seems that most of the attendees I spoke with had the same issue with this and I believe it is something you can start focusing on as it will be always useful in any position inside or outside of ServiceNow :))
It's great that you have this in your horizon but I would recommend you to continue learning more, go to SN University or select any of the pre-defined journeys and paths (can be combined) following your role of your personal preferences or matching your skills the most before taking this program.
ServiceNow Career Journeys & ServiceNow Career Paths
- Pick a ServiceNow Career Path that matches your interests.
- We’ll help you start at the right level based on your skills.
- A ServiceNow Credential gives you industry recognition.
- It proves your investment and boosts your professional value.
Feel free to discuss something in more details further
