Preparing for the CEPA

Most of the Certified Enterprise PDM Administrator (CEPA) exam is basic EPDM administrator troubleshooting. You’ll build a vault, import some users and workflows from a provided import file then fix the vault as described in the exam. Be sure to study the administration guide on workflows, transitions and revisions, these topics are most of the exam.

For most people the most concerning thing about the exam is that it includes questions about basic project management.

From my experience, the average EPDM administrator has never had a formal class in project management, even the actual SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM Administrator class skips this topic! So how should you prepare for this exam? First, take the sample exam to get a feeling for the difficulty of the questions. Most people find the level of project management questions are rather “common sense” and they do not find a need for further study. If you do need to brush up on the topic, in the SOLIDWORKS forum, Gagan posted the following two links to help you study:

• http://www.pmi.org/default.aspx
• http://www.nickjenkins.net/prose/projectPrimer.pdf (I like this one!)

Two last points:

• You will be working with some SOLIDWORKS files; however the machine you take the test on does not need to have SOLIDWORKS installed.
• You will be creating a new vault and vault view. Ensure you have enough access rights on your computer(s).

Good luck!