CLA exam tips

[Barionics]

Dear All,

  I am working towards the CLA exam. I would be grateful to hear any hints and tips which you might have.

I looked at the Actor framework, but the level of knowledge for this excludes it for me right now.  Hence I am planning to use the producer/consumer with Queued message handler architecture.

  I have no problem with the architecture, but getting it down to 4 hours is proving to be a challenge.The first time I scored around 52% but I didn't get to put in very many requirements.

  Regards,

  Ian

[swatts · Accepted solution]

This is what I did....

I stripped bare our standard template, so that I reproduce the functionality in about 90 minutes.

I then didn't pick up the requirements until I could reproduce this. (essentially a Q-based state machine, Q-based UI, Q Based Error handling and Event Structure)

With my functional architecture working I would then pick up the requirements and start applying them to the architecture. Doing it this way helped me to concentrate on the small parts rather than the big picture.

Hope this helps

[James_McN]

Heard a good tip for requirements - I actually can't remember now whether I used it or not!

If you create all of the tags for the requirements coverage into a text file, you can cut and paste them in. That way any left in the text file you still need to cover.

Other than that remember that architecture and requirements placeholders are the critical elements - don't get bogged down into getting functionality implemented unless it is necessary to one of these elements.

[psmorris]

From memory, they give you a text file now with all the requirements tags so you can copy/paste directly.

The way I saved time was to practice writing the common parts of a common architecture in a nice library structure, and then used a build specification to basically duplicate that once per required module. Then I could just go through and add the module specific bits to each one in turn without having to re-do the boilerplate stuff. Using a well structured .lvlib this was really quick as you can rename the lvlib file in the build spec (to the module specific name) and then not have to worry about renaming everything. You can also very quickly give each libraries VIs their own icon banner.

Cheers

Paul

[TomHolden]

I don't think I did it for the CLA, but the NI prep day for the CLD was very good.  They had a couple of guys that used to mark the exams leading it and gave some good tips on how to prioritise your time.  My big thing for the CLA was just doing the practice papers over and over again until I could throw together the basic architecture in my sleep.  Start from the top.  Throw down your messaging system of choice, set up cases & subVIs for your functionality and just write a quick note in there to say what it does with your requirements tag.  I think you're supposed to be pretending that you're setting things up for a junior developer to take on and flesh out with actual functionality so leave lots of notes for this imaginary dev.  You can implements bits of the functionality if you've got time at the end but only where it's needed to demonstrate how you're intending it all to work.  You're not aiming for anything close to a complete solution, just something that could be taken on and completed by someone who doesn't understand the intricacies of how your messaging works.

[doyles]

Hi Paul, I have not used a build spec to create a library.  Do you have any tips on creating "the common parts of a common architecture in a nice library structure" so that duplicating the library with a build spec works smoothly?

Thanks

Scott

[swatts]

Sounds like perfect presentation material to me!

[JÞB]

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@doyles wrote:

Hi Paul, I have not used a build spec to create a library.  Do you have any tips on creating "the common parts of a common architecture in a nice library structure" so that duplicating the library with a build spec works smoothly?

Thanks

Scott

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Thats a good question to bring up on the Certification Board 

And Scott, you do not create a library from a build spec.

[JÞB]

Wow, Short edit time

The link to Ben's soon to be famous "Exploiting Libraries Nugget"

[Ahmed99]

can any one tell me if i make xcontrol in the exam is it enough to have points or should i make programming on it