Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, companies have been accelerating their digital product and service strategies to meet new and growing demands from customers. In order to keep pace, modernizing Salesforce DevOps practices has been critical. There are major productivity and compliance gains to be made through employing Salesforce DevOps, but many companies – whether they are early in their Salesforce DevOps journey or in a more mature state – are struggling to improve their team efficiency and auditing capabilities.
In Salesforce DevOps, a team’s ability to produce faster without compromising quality and security is what steers the ship. It’s the benchmark that organizations use to identify project success ratios, analyze software delivery, team performance, and remediate issues in their existing workflow. Without speed, quality, and security posture, organizations are stuck with inefficient workflows and systems in silos.
Let’s examine four key practices to ensure that both productivity and compliance are met and managed in Salesforce DevOps strategies.
How to Ensure Productivity and Compliance
When managed correctly, Salesforce DevOps allows companies to build better products, transform internal business processes, and produce greater value for customers. However, bloated systems and unorganized structures can lead to a Salesforce organization that is misaligned with end users’ needs and expectations.
Here are some proven tips to make sure that both productivity and compliance are integral to the Salesforce DevOps journey:
1. Evolve your mindset along with your toolchain
“Why do most Salesforce DevOps processes have a lack of productivity and compliance?”
When it comes to answering this question, many reasons can be traced back to a poor mindset and poor tools. Both are crucial parts of the software development lifecycle.
Of course, a Salesforce DevOps team might have the DevOps tools, processes, and systems in place, but has there been a radical shift in mindset among team members? Do they have transparency across the pipeline? Do they have the tools to make their work easier and let them handle complex projects seamlessly?
These are some critical questions that should be asked within the Salesforce organization. Having the right security-focused mindset, along with a powerful arsenal of tools, can make all the difference when it comes to release velocity, security, and quality.
2. Build no-code pipelines
Using no-code platforms is quickly becoming the de facto method for quickly delivering applications in a Salesforce DevOps environment. In the early days, developers could simply write code, choose a handful of tools, and build a pipeline.
However, with layers of tools, stacks, integrations, environments, and hundreds of pipelines, it’s become impossible to maintain observability throughout all the stages of development. Much of a developer’s time is spent building, integrating, and maintaining tools and connections for pipelines.
Back in 2019, Gartner estimated that “by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity.” As a solution with the potential to significantly reduce development time, it’s a no-brainer as to why more organizations are inclining towards no-code development platforms. With these platforms, the Salesforce DevOps team can instantly build software without worrying about learning the ropes of various tools, integrations, and pipeline-building activities.
3. Unify data and logs from all tools in a single dashboard
Different teams use different tools to collect their data and share their information with others. This leads to data fragmentation and duplicated work that stymies progress and success.
It’s important to synthesize information from multiple sources, channels, tools, and platforms to make critical decisions faster – this is where a centralized platform comes in.
From a Salesforce DevOps perspective, it’s important to adopt software that can extend across the application and infrastructure stacks. Think of it as the hub of a wheel – it connects different tools and sources of information to help teams make more informed decisions faster.
The benefits of a unified platform go beyond the direct operational needs of a Salesforce DevOps team – a unified platform is also vital for productivity and compliance. Especially in a remote, asynchronous environment, having a tool that acts as a single source of truth streamlines processes and keeps teams updated.
Put simply, having a unified dataset for IT teams is a recipe for long-term success. Without the right data being accessible at the right time, it’s hard for teams to present evidence for auditors.
4. Ensure end-to-end visibility and radical transparency
Ever go back to pull changelogs, only to see that you don’t have access to it? Not having proper access management or information about why certain changes were made doesn’t make for a very transparent development workflow.
Companies that have streamlined development processes consistently meet or surpass their goals. Processes include visibility of project progress and data analytics, risk management, quality and security postures, and measurement of various KPIs.
Final Thoughts
The past couple of years have seen businesses adapt to a highly digital world, which means that Salesforce DevOps strategies and approaches must also adapt in step. Organizations can reap the benefits of increased productivity and on-the-nose compliance if they navigate the waters correctly.
Adopting the right mindset, no-code tools and pipelines, and ensuring that data and work are visible to all within the organization are critical steps for getting Salesforce DevOps practices right. Salesforce DevOps will continue to play an important role for business-led IT practices, so be sure to consider these tips to stay ahead of the curve.
