Salesforce Deployment Best Practices
You'll likely make numerous enhancements to your Salesforce instance over time to maintain and improve its functionality. These changes may range from minor updates to significant new application development initiatives.
Regardless of the scale, deployment is the common final step where these changes go live. It's a critical phase, and following best practices ensures your deployment is smooth and successful. This guide outlines deployment methods and provides a comprehensive set of best practices.
What is Deployment in Salesforce?
Deployment refers to the process of releasing applications, modules, updates, or patches to users. The effectiveness of your development, testing, and release strategy directly impacts adaptability and user satisfaction.
A Salesforce org (short for organization) is a unique Salesforce environment tailored to a specific tenant. These terms—org, organization, and environment—are used interchangeably.
Different Deployment Methods
Salesforce supports various deployment options:
Force.com / Eclipse
A popular Eclipse-based IDE for Salesforce development.
Synchronizes metadata between orgs.
Limitations:
Unstable on Windows with large component volumes.
Manual addition of dependencies.
Destructive changes are supported but cumbersome.
Change Sets
Point-and-click interface for metadata migration between connected Salesforce orgs.
Limitations:
Restricted to connected orgs (e.g., sandbox to production).
Not supported in Developer editions.
No support for destructive changes.
Force.com Migration Tool (ANT)
Command-line tool that uses metadata API for deployments via scripts.
Limitations:
Manual editing of XML files is required.
All dependencies must be manually added.
Salesforce Deployment Best Practices
Before Deployment
Plan Thoroughly: Coordinate deployment across multiple sandboxes with a detailed, shared plan.
Avoid Development in Production: Use sandboxes to replicate the production environment and test changes.
Backup Your Org: Export production data and metadata to ensure you can revert in case of issues.
Conduct End-to-End Testing: Use the Apex framework to verify code quality, functionality, and coverage (minimum 75%).
Implement Version Control: Track changes, manage branches, and enable collaboration using tools like Git.
Create a Release Strategy: Define release cycles, approval workflows, and rollback procedures.
Adopt CI/CD Practices: Automate integration, testing, and deployment to reduce risk and accelerate delivery.
Disable Conflicting Components: Temporarily deactivate rules, flows, and triggers that may block deployment.
After Deployment
Validate Functionality: Confirm all changes work as intended and perform post-deployment testing.
Reactivate Rules and Workflows: Restore any deactivated components to ensure business logic is reinstated.
What Can AutoRABIT Do for You?
AutoRABIT's release management solution streamlines deployments by offering:
Automated transfers of metadata and Apex components.
CI/CD workflows integrating user stories, version control, and sandbox environments.
One-click deployments across environments.
Rollbacks for failed or erroneous deployments.
Comprehensive deployment logs and validation reports.
Automated removal of incompatible metadata to prevent failures.
Deployment Types:
Sandbox-to-sandbox
Deployments via AutoRABIT builds
Package.xml-based deployments
Reuse of previous builds for new targets
Revision-based deployments from version control
Conclusion
Deployments between Salesforce environments can be complex and resource-intensive. Choosing the right tools and following best practices—such as those supported by AutoRABIT—can streamline your process, minimize risks, and enhance deployment success.
Last updated
Was this helpful?