Everyone knows that release day can be stressful. No matter how much you tested your changes, moving something from sandbox to production brings fears of red deployment circles and user complaints. This does not have to be the case. With the right amount of preparation and planning, release day can go from deployment fish to done in peace.
The first step to a successful Salesforce deployment is developing the changes with the release in mind.
Getting new functionality to work can be incredibly exciting, but that does not mean that it is ready to be released. Testing is very possibly the most important action you can take in order to set yourself up for a succesful release. Both the developer and the end users are responsible to test to ensure that the requirements were met and will work as expected. Here are some suggested ways for both developers and end users to test with release success in mind:
The importance of testing well before a release cannot be stressed enough. No matter what size of the project, testing should be completed by both the developer and the end users in order to ensure that when the functionality is released, nothing unexpected happens.
Even though you have developed with release in mind and tested for release success, it is also important to prepare for release day. The best way to prepare for release day to make sure that your change set(s) are validated before the day of release. This will help you identify missing change set items, fix erroring tests and remove the need to wait for validation on day of release. Another great way to prepare for release day is to document the steps that you will take. Answering the following questions and writing down your answers will help you make sure that you have thought through everything that needs to be done:
Not only do these questions help you to feel more confident about what needs to be done, but it also makes it possible for you to hand off the release to someone else if an emergency arises.
Now, you have done all the work needed to have a smooth release day and the last item to figure out is when you will release.
Releases can be stressful, but if you begin to develop, test, and prepare for a release in these ways then your releases will be successful and your end users will be happy!
If you are trying to plan out a succesful project, make sure to also check out our article on the incredible drawbacks of mixing Salseforce technologies.
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