Have you ever wondered how your org stacks up against your peers? Do they have the same amount of complexity, automation, and technical debt? As a scientist who’s been in the Salesforce ecosystem for over nine years, I’ve always been fascinated by the insights we could unlock by asking the right questions.
We all act as if our own Salesforce org is the only one in the ecosystem. Why are we not leveraging the insights from all the metadata available? If we can analyze the metadata from all orgs, we’ll be able to unlock insights to raise up the entire ecosystem.
For example, how much automation, workflow, and process is within the average org? How well are orgs following best practices for objects, triggers, and Flow migration? Ultimately, how are organizations actually using the Salesforce platform?
Drawing from the aggregated metadata we collected from hundreds of Salesforce orgs, we set out on a journey to answer these questions, uncovering a few interesting and surprising trends along the way. Here are our top four key findings:
Finding 1: Declarative Automation
The average org only has about 12% of declarative automation migrated to Flow
One of the most anticipated announcements in the Spring ‘22 release was the updates to Salesforce’s point-and-click automation tool, Salesforce Flow. With these enhanced features, Salesforce also announced the retirement of Workflow Rules and Process Builder Creation.
So what does this mean for the average Salesforce org? Based on analysis of our aggregate data, we found that the average Salesforce org:
- Has only 12% of declarative automation migrated to Salesforce Flow.
- Has approx. 150 active workflows and processes to migrate.
- Includes approx. 50 inactive workflows to be evaluated for removal.
- Will require a minimum of approx. 150 hours of effort per org depending on code complexity.
- Has approx. 19 million hours of workflow rule migration and approx. 5 million hours of Process Builder migration effort required across the entire Salesforce ecosystem.
This presents an interesting challenge for the ecosystem; the high volumes we see across our sample suggest there will be a large impact on maintenance timelines to address this technical debt and increase business agility.
When scanning an individual org, the larger the number of workflows and objects with workflow, the higher the risk of technical debt issues. It’s important that admins and consultants begin building an inventory of your workflow and process (ideally, sooner rather than later) to plan their migration accordingly.
Finding 2: Workflow Rules
On average, every object with at least one active workflow rule has 6 workflow rules on it
Workflow rule migration to Flow can sometimes be a simple 1:1 migration. This scenario is aided by the Salesforce workflow migration tool, which is designed for 1:1 migrations. However, it’s often much more complex.
As we see in the image, when objects have workflow, they rarely have just one. According to our research, across the ecosystem there are typically six workflows on objects with Workflow. Best practice recommendation for flows is to keep the amount of flows to a minimum.
The migration to Flow may present an opportunity to consolidate multiple Workflow Rules on a single object into a single flow or trigger, so the order of operations can be better controlled. To reconcile this gap, an admin likely needs to work together with the appropriate business unit stakeholders to validate the business process.
Finding 3: Triggers
Most orgs have at least one object with more than one trigger for the same event
Triggers are powerful tools to automate business processes when used properly.
A trigger is Apex code which executes before or after an event in Salesforce and is used to build custom automation on record insertions, updates, or deletions. Best practice automation uses a single trigger per object for the same event. Deviation from this best practice means you may not have control over the order of those triggers firing – resulting in potential technical debt and further implications across the business.
So does the ecosystem adhere to best practice? On average, no. For the entire ecosystem, we found, on average, each object has 1.3 triggers.
It’s not all bad news though. We predict huge efficiencies can be gained by organizations that are deviating from best practice. It’s important that admins and consultants review the trigger counts on their objects. If more than one trigger per object is found, investigate the context that they are firing and determine whether they are managed/unmanaged. The results will aid planning and prioritization of remediation efforts.
Finding 4: Technical Debt
The average org has more than 125 hours of technical debt analysis effort lurking inside it
As you likely know, technical debt is a very common issue within the Salesforce ecosystem, and identifying where it’s hiding can be equally challenging (especially for time-strapped admins and consultants).
By counting the number of metadata items in a Salesforce org, we gain an understanding of org size. However, org size does not directly relate to the amount of technical debt that must be addressed or indicate the level of effort to analyze it prior to a remediation project. Small orgs can accrue more liabilities than larger, better managed orgs.
Having scanned the metadata of hundreds of Salesforce orgs, we estimate that:
- The average org has 125+ hours of technical debt analysis work ahead, just to address the declarative automation migration. (This represents the level of effort required simply to discover technical debt – not the effort required to remediate.)
- There is over $3B in technical debt remediation required within the Salesforce ecosystem.
Salesforce provides the core standard objects to build your business on. Customizations are what make a business unique. However, our results show that the average org has technical debt that will reduce agility during those customization projects. It’s imperative that admins and consultants engaged in Salesforce customization projects understand the impact of technical debt on their business goals.
It can be difficult to know how much complexity lies within your org without scanning it using an org intelligence tool or manually tallying it. But organizations need to be prioritizing technical debt remediation to ensure they’re getting the most out of their Salesforce investment.
Summary
The findings outlined above draw from the Hubbl Diagnostics Benchmark Report, a summary of the aggregated metadata from hundreds of Salesforce orgs. With this new perspective, we’ve begun to unravel a view into the Salesforce ecosystem that’s never been seen before; one that tangibly relates the objects, triggers, and flows in your org to better business results for you and the entire Salesforce ecosystem.