Tag Archives: VCS

The enter key on a computer keyboard with the word oops on it representing version control for Salesforce CPQ configuration.
Salesforce CPQ, Salesforce DevOps, Version Control

Benefits of Version Control for Salesforce CPQ

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In this blog, we discuss the benefits of version control for Salesforce CPQ configuration, such as the fact that it lets you roll back to prior states with laser precision. In addition, it helps you meet SOX requirements, collaborate more effectively, and implement an agile release management process.

Easily Roll Back to Prior States With Laser Precision

With a version control system (or “oops button,” as we like to call it), you can quickly and easily roll back a specific change or many changes to a mission-critical system like Salesforce CPQ.

The enter key on a computer keyboard with the word oops on it representing version control for Salesforce CPQ configuration.

Let’s say you’re having issues with a Price Rule. Your production org may have dozens or even hundreds of Price Rules, so figuring out which one contains the bug will take time. Do you really want to do that in production… while the downtime prevents sales reps from closing opportunities?

With a version control system (VCS), you have a running log of every change to your Salesforce CPQ configuration. This log is the source of truth for your CPQ implementation, which is why it’s called source code. In the case of CPQ, this includes configuration data. 

So if there’s an issue, you simply hit the “oops button” and roll back the change to the previous version of the code. Now you’ve restored the system for users, you can do your debugging in a sandbox where you can’t do any damage.

Meet SOX Compliance Requirements

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is designed to help protect investors from fraudulent financial reporting by public corporations. For companies using Salesforce CPQ, this means they have to comply with two main requirements:

  1. They must maintain a complete audit trail of changes to all financial data, including pricing and products.
  2. They must maintain separation of duties.

Failing to meet SOX regulations can result in steep financial penalties, as well as prison sentences. For example, accountants and auditors who are not in compliance can face up to a decade behind bars. 

Recently, auditors have started to catch on that record data falls within the scope of compliance requirements. Record data provides configuration for Salesforce CPQ.

Version control for Salesforce CPQ provides an immutable record of what changes were made, by whom, and who checked them in. And you need a version control system. Why? Because even if you haven’t heard anything from the auditors, you’re breaking the law if you’re not SOX compliant. That’s why it’s advisable to get ahead of the situation and implement version control (VC) as soon as possible.

Collaborate More Effectively With Version Control for Salesforce CPQ

A version control tool for Salesforce CPQ lets you collaborate more efficiently and effectively with your team. Everybody should configure their specific changes in their own environments. Once they’re done, they should check in their work to the source. As a result, every team member can work on their part of the project without fear of wiping out each other’s work. 

In addition, with a version control system (VCS) for Salesforce CPQ, you can thoroughly review all proposed changes before deploying them. This gives you the opportunity to identify conflicts and errors. If there are any, you can resolve them before they go into production.

Implement an Agile Release Management Process

Clearly, Salesforce CPQ version control effectively facilitates an agile release management process. It helps you reduce development time and time spent troubleshooting. As a result, you can deploy successful changes faster.

Discover the Leading Version Control System for Salesforce CPQ—Request a Demo!

FAQs

What is version control?

Version control is a data management practice that’s also referred to as source control or revision control. It’s a critical tool for tracking changes to your Salesforce CPQ configuration data or record data as you move it through the release pipeline. This is especially true in an agile environment where you make changes quickly and dynamically. Learn more about version control.

What is a VCS and how does it work?

VCS stands for version control system. When you integrate Salesforce CPQ with a version control system, you can record and manage the changes you make to your configuration data. 

You check a file out of the VCS, update it with the changes you’ve made, and check it back in. If any of the changes you made don’t work during testing, you can refer back to the source configuration file to revert the configuration back to the earlier version. Learn more about version control systems. 

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Salesforce admin using version control.
Salesforce DevOps, Version Control

Version Control: What Salesforce Admins Need to Know

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Version control is a critical aspect of software development, and it’s becoming increasingly important in Salesforce change management. In this blog, we discuss what version control is and how it can benefit Salesforce admins.

What Is Version Control?

Version control, sometimes called source control, involves tracking and managing changes to software code to ensure developers are always working on the latest version. 

If you only have one software developer writing code, it’s easy for them to keep track of the changes they’re making and how they impact the existing code. However, when multiple developers are working on different parts of the code, it requires much more effort and communication to keep the changes straight. 

A version control system or VCS is a tool that makes tracking and managing changes to the code easier for teams. 

Teams maintaining Salesforce encounter the same challenges as software developers. There are lots of people working on different parts of the Salesforce instance. Some are pro-code developers working in Apex, while others are admins and citizen developers. 

With all these different people working in the same environment, sometimes work is lost or overwritten, and it can be difficult to fix mistakes. 

Clearly, for admins following an agile release management methodology, version control is essential. 

Salesforce admin using version control.

How Can Admins Benefit from Version Control?

The most important advantage to using a VCS is that it becomes the source of truth—instead of the production org. 

This eliminates questions about which version is correct and provides several additional benefits for admins. 

Identify Conflicts as They Occur

When you’re working with multiple versions of your project, a VCS lets you make changes without worrying you’ll overwrite work another member of your team is doing. By enabling source control, you remove the anxiety of creating conflict when you implement changes. 

Track the Revision History of Changes Over Time

Sometimes, when you’re making changes, you need to refer back to a specific change you scrapped previously. A version control system stores a history of all changes made to the code, so you can easily look them up.

With Prodly, you can effectively “move backward in time.” Then you can pluck out the configurations you need and reconfigure your changes as simply as pointing and clicking. 

Work in a Truly Agile Environment

Agile release methodology is based on close collaboration and continuous improvement that you achieve by means of tight feedback cycles. For this methodology to be effective, both developers and admins need to work from the same source code and follow the same process for introducing change. 

To achieve this collaborative efficiency, you must reconfigure your workflow. It should be easy for pro-code developers to follow—plus, it should be easily consumable for admins and other no-code team members. 

Prodly Makes Version Control Simple

Prodly DevOps is designed to work in conjunction with your Salesforce deployment system, so you don’t have to load up on multiple tools to get the benefits of version control. If you’re an admin, you can simply point and click to complete versioning tasks—as well as version both your data and code. 

Request a personalized demo to learn more about implementing Prodly for your team!

Three consecutive circles depicting the process of agile app development in Salesforce.
Agile, Build, Salesforce DevOps

How to Implement Agile App Development in Salesforce

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Agile app development enables low-code/no code admins and IT teams to deliver more consistent, reliable, and error-free features and applications in their Salesforce instances. But how do you apply agile in the powerful Salesforce CRM platform? Here, we examine six best practices you can implement to achieve agile app development in Salesforce.

6 Best Practices for Agile App Development in Salesforce

1. Establish a Process for Merging Changes

Adhere to the agile process of merging changes from multiple environments before deploying them up the release pipeline. You’ll preserve critical development steps and facilitate the rapid delivery your users demand. 

Many Salesforce admins rush to push changes from their development environment to production. In their hurry, they forget to test, review, and QA these changes. And that all too often results in bugs in production—which can have a negative impact on sales. 

To establish a robust process for merging changes in Salesforce, begin by taking inventory of all your available orgs. In addition to production, you might have a Full Copy sandbox, a couple of Partial Copy sandboxes, and several Developer Pro sandboxes. You might also have Developer sandboxes and scratch orgs.  

After taking inventory, establish a role for each environment in the overall delivery pipeline.

The workflow might look like this: Have one Developer Pro sandbox for each team member to configure initial changes. Then merge the changes to a Partial Copy that the team shares to ensure the build works with all the other changes in that release. 

From there, promote the changes to a Full Copy sandbox that you use as a staging environment for UAT before promoting them to production. Each pipeline stage gives you the opportunity to review your changes for conflicts and errors. If you find any you can’t resolve, you can pull in IT resources for additional support before rolling the changes out to end users.

2. Divide Continuous Work into Sprints

Three consecutive circles depicting the process of agile app development in Salesforce.

Break work up into sprints so you can release smaller sets of changes on a more frequent basis. A sprint—originally referred to in agile as “iteration”—is a period of time during which you develop a part of an app or feature. Using sprints, you can deliver complex projects in bite-sized increments.

Short sprints, which are at the heart of agile framework, help you ship high-quality apps with fewer headaches. You no longer wait to release a whole new functionality in one go. Instead, you deliver working improvements frequently and regularly—usually in two-week timelines. This helps minimize bugs and provides more frequent feedback opportunities that facilitate faster changes and quicker fixes.

3. Establish a Process for Accepting New Feature Requests

With an agile workflow, you put new feature requests in a backlog—a list of to-do items—where they get prioritized based on well-defined criteria. During sprint planning, your team collaboratively pulls new features from the backlog to work on based on careful estimates regarding each person’s capacity.

By doing so, you can commit to the amount of work you take on and successfully deliver the new builds by the end of the sprint. Consequently, the business gains a clear idea of what to expect at the end of the sprint.

This approach has many advantages. One main benefit is that it gives the business a clear process for requesting new features without interrupting your current development flow. Why? Because you always act according to the priority in the backlog as opposed to reacting to new feature requests immediately.

4. Communicate the Plan Across the Business

Agile is a mindset and philosophy. And to be successful, the whole organization needs to subscribe to this mindset.

You can provide clarity and visibility for your end users by sharing the release process for CRM changes. In addition, you should publish a standard release schedule or cadence and standardize change request processes. 

For a successful shift to agile, the whole company must buy in. That’s why it’s important to emphasize the benefits to the business, which include:

  • Frequent incremental improvements to the CRM without making users wait for the big release
  • Fewer bugs and repercussions for end users
  • Prioritization of the most important features to the business
  • Shorter response times to feature requests

5. Implement Automation to Promote Changes and Drive Testing

Automate the deployment process to both promote changes through the release path and continually sync lower level orgs with production. This minimizes the possibility of bugs resulting from manual processes. It also reduces inconsistencies between different environments in the release path. 

Continuous integration and delivery—or CI/CD as this process is known in development terms—saves your team time and effort in the long run. It allows org owners and admins to quickly and safely move a newly-developed functionality up the release pipeline, resulting in a faster time to value. 

6. Adopt Version Control to Track Changes in Your CRM

A version control system (VCS) tracks the changes you make to an app build, including the date of the change, a full revision history, and the owner of each revision. 

Some release management automation solutions—like Prodly DevOps—offer built-in version control solution integrations. This lets you effortlessly track every configuration change. If you need to roll back a change, you can easily do so—without IT intervention.

A VCS makes it easier to view and manage all your configuration data and metadata from a single location. It lets you more easily resolve conflicts if multiple users are working on the same data. Additionally, it simplifies workflows between user stories and sandbox deployments, dramatically improving your time to market with increased release velocity.

Agile for "Clicks, Not Code"

Salesforce end users continue to drive the demand for customized CRM features as their customers’ demands change and the business evolves. Admins can leverage low-code/no-code apps like Prodly DevOps to implement these best practices for agile that were once reserved for software teams.

Now, your Salesforce team can work independently of IT. You have a simple way to manage changes to Salesforce with the same rigor developers apply to traditional software development. You can automatically maintain an audit trail of every change. You can seamlessly deploy data and metadata across different orgs. And you can continuously implement, test, train, and release Salesforce changes faster, more efficiently, and with fewer errors than ever before.

Do you want to learn more about applying agile best practices to your Salesforce app development efforts? Download our checklist “Getting Started with Agile Release Management” or schedule your free, personalized demo.

FAQs

What is agile app development?

Agile software development comprises a philosophy and methodologies based on tight feedback cycles, as well as continuous improvement and continuous delivery. 

More sequential methodologies require teams to fully develop and deploy software before going back and troubleshooting. In contrast, agile is an iterative process in which teams deliver work in small—but consumable—increments. 

In agile, everything is evaluated continuously and piecemeal. It’s easier for teams to quickly respond to change while at the same time minimizing critical errors. This makes it perfect for Salesforce administrators and operations teams. 

Salesforce admins are rarely trained in software development. Nevertheless, they’re tasked with managing app development efforts for the CRM as though they were. They need to have specific structures, guard rails, and release policies in place. This is where agile comes in.

When applied to Salesforce, agile can break down operational silos. It facilitates better communication and collaboration between teams, eliminating many of the most costly issues.  As a result, your app development brings greater value to your organization—faster. Learn more about agile development.

Why do you need agile app development in Salesforce?

For many companies, Salesforce is the single source of truth for managing sales pipeline, existing and churned customer accounts, and all other revenue-based operations.

But like most out-of-the-box software, Salesforce needs to be right-sized to the specific needs of each business and team that uses it. It requires ongoing—and sometimes expensive—customizations, as well as the development of additional features. 

In many cases, IT initially manages the initial support of Salesforce, as well as general support.

After that, Salesforce admins must step up to the plate to deliver reliable, high-quality new features and functionality in a timely manner. Learn more about agile in Salesforce.

Version control in Salesforce
Configuration Data, Version Control

What Is Version Control and What Are Its Benefits?

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A version control system (VCS) tracks and manages the changes you make to your data and configuration data. It’s critical to managing changes in low-code Salesforce apps that use complex configuration data, like Salesforce CPQ and Field Service Lightning. 

A VCS offers many benefits, including faster iterations and configurations, improved collaboration within teams, and enhanced compliance. 

Version control in Salesforce

What Is Version Control?

Ever wish you could roll back changes you just made to your production org in error? How about being able to track the revision history of your changes over time?

Version control (also known as revision control or source control) is a methodology that resolves data control and management scenarios like these.

A VCS tracks and manages the changes you make to your data. In Salesforce apps that use configuration data, tracking changes as you move the data from Developer sandbox to QA to UAT to production is paramount. 

Especially in DevOps, where your changes occur fluidly, dynamically, and rapidly, version control is an essential component of configuration data management. That’s why it’s increasingly becoming a necessary element of the release management process.

The Benefits of Prodly With Version Control

Prodly with version control makes agile development a reality for complex, low-code Salesforce apps. Unlike other version control offerings for Salesforce, Prodly manages your configuration data, which makes it perfect for Salesforce CPQ, FSL, Billing, and B2B Commerce.

Prodly version control combines the power of Salesforce orgs and VCS branches. Using Prodly version control as your single source of truth has the following benefits when compared to traditional in-org development:

  1. You can iterate and configure faster in a truly agile environment.
  2. It improves collaboration within and amongst teams.
  3. You can ship complex configuration features faster.
  4. You can identify conflicts head on.
  5. It provides a full change history and audit trail.
  6. It allows you to maintain SOX compliance.
  7. You can easily roll data back to prior states.

How Does Version Control Work in Salesforce?

Version control in Salesforce works like this:

The initial master data commit retrieves your configuration data from your Salesforce production org and stores it in the VCS. At that point, the data in the VCS becomes your single source of truth. Going forward, you initiate all changes to data in your production org through the VCS.

A version in the VCS is a snapshot of your data at a given time. You check data out of the VCS, update it, and check it back in, creating a new version against which further changes are made. Then, if needed in the future, you can roll back your data to any version.

The VCS records all the changes you make so you can easily roll back to an earlier version if necessary due to a bug. At the same time, this change tracking creates an audit trail you can use for compliance purposes.

Does the VCS Replace My Deployment System?

You might be wondering whether the VCS replaces your deployment system. The short answer is no, it does not. 

The VCS works in conjunction with your deployment system through a concept called branching. A branch is a snapshot of your data created in the VCS and then deployed to a separate Salesforce sandbox or development org. 

Similar to how you likely work now, you develop your new features in the separate org to protect the data in your production org. When you’re ready, you check the changes back into the VCS branch, merge the branch back into the master, and deploy the changes to your production org.

To learn more about Prodly, request a demo.