Presently the software development scenario demands more money and effort to build applications that run fast. It also takes ample capital to create applications that will only concentrate on business requirements instead of development methods. Since organizations work in teams and groups, one team mustn't interfere with another team's modifications. Also, the change should get reverted when the deployed code has problems. The majority of projects follow the agile process. Hence, here teams can resort to the DevOps processes, like Continuous Integration, Continuous Development, and Continuous Delivery for faster and efficient application delivery.
Teams need to have a Salesforce DevOps strategy to address these issues. Let’s see how and why DevOps gets used with Salesforce.
The issue at hand
Every business today witnesses several challenges. It includes everything from a fast-changing business needs to the requirement to scale up within a short time. Many companies make use of the agile methodology to overcome any time-consuming software development process. Simply put, the agile method is a practice that facilitates ongoing iteration of testing and development all through the project's software development lifecycle.
The agile methodology has short development sprints. Hence, a team must work effectively without any unnecessary interference. Furthermore, any execution making use of the conventional salesforce processes like a Change Set isn’t suitable for big applications, for it doesn’t have a code revert mechanism and code repository.
Hence, it is crucial when the teams stay dispersed in various locations. It is here that Salesforce technologies like Continuous Delivery (CD) and Continuous Integration (CI) can be of help. It provides the necessary assistance to the team to attain increased effectiveness, allowing them to offer quick software development changes simultaneously, maintaining system stability and security.
How can Salesforce resolve the issue at hand?
Presently, the releases and updates get developed by using Salesforce Production Org. The bright side of this is that the team gets used to the technologies used and the product lifecycle. However, it can pose a challenge to team coordination. Additionally, the model doesn't assist with continuous integration. There's help needed in creating an individual version module, automate testing, and rolling back the releases. Salesforce comes to use here.
Many companies have various sandboxes developed for a brand-new application testing and development process. With Salesforce, these concerns don’t arise anymore. It’s now possible to generate scratch org. The transition is essential for providing more flexibility and ease to the software application developers. It further includes versioning right in the middle of a workflow for bringing back the org state to any place in the past. Furthermore, developing scratch orgs is fast and easy. In addition to Salesforce, companies can also use CD and CI for automating the deployment and check-in process.
Why there’s DevOps in Salesforce?
Simply put, DevOps is a series of practices that gets widely adopted all through software development. This practice concentrates on the flow for changing from ideation, development, and right into the production stage.
All these practices have evolved in the global software development platform for over a decade now. Salesforces is making it gain the necessary traction. The organizations are changing their mindset from the release management to the DevOps, as it allows quick innovation without sacrificing the trust in the applications. And companies that say yes to it, for them, DevOps has several advantages, such as better communication, unified goals, and maximized transparency.
The essential qualities
In a more widespread software development community, usually, DevOps gets characterized by a standard set of qualities. They are:
- Version control for managing the code movement. Hence, if companies don’t possess it, they lack the DevOps stack, and it's essential to upgrade.
- Virtualization and Infrastructure as a Code for developing reproducible platforms.
- Automation for testing, continuous delivery/ integration, and code promotion.
Essentially, the code is the true source! Earlier, the Salesforce platform found it challenging to adopt DevOps. It was because Salesforce failed to convert the orgs into code and generate code copies. Hence, the codes didn't qualify as the true source. Hence, the investment that Salesforce has in developer experience has enabled it to welcome advanced software development. It comprises of surpassing the issues for adopting DevOps.
The source format introduction gets looked upon as a legacy metadata format. It helps in capturing a traceable version of the configuration history of the org in a compatible way with other version control technologies. The Salesforce command-line tool can pragmatically manage and script the deployments, org configuration, and testing. It also allows the users to place the CICD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) industry-standard tools central to the automation.
The guideline to implement DevOps
Businesses using Salesforce might find it challenging to use DevOps in it. The deployment and management teams need to collaborate on the way to make the deployment easy. The DevOps methodology in Salesforce assists in researching on the lacks and successes of any deployment process. It can resonate with the present delivery challenges, which can help the software development developers by concentrating on using the methods directly. You can apply the methods to assess company needs, which can outline operations. Mentioned below are pointers and questions teams should focus on Salesforce DevOps strategy implementation:
- How can Salesforce DevOps strategy better the conventional software development?
- What are the scopes in business that strategy might address?
- What are the innate and crucial company needs that the Salesforce DevOps strategy should address?
- At what stage should a company say yes to this strategy?
- How much time is essential to minimize the total market cost?
- What process can provide customer delight?
- What’s the degree and type of innovation that can improve user experience?
It is also essential to consider the transition experience of various other organizations. Also, the teams should identify the crucial questions that apply to them. The evolvement of the Salesforce initiative has made it to its peak. Also, the entire platform is taking note of this. There's a distinct difference between the organization and its processes that have shifted from legacy management and adopted the DevOps principles in the Salesforce platform.
Guest post courtesy of Daniel Ng