Meeting Goals
- Begin collaborative outline of public facing document (workbook, perhaps?) Aligned with the principles of Well Architected? Companion?
- Where can we plug in existing tools and resources so organizations recognize where they are in progress and adopt/adapt?
- Discuss timeline and next steps - best way to use this Slack channel and let people who weren’t in Chicago jump in as fits their time and expertise?
Attendees
- Heath Parks
- Jake Roesler
- Cassie Supliowski
- Timothy Catalang
- Jess Rosenberg
- Mary Pustejovsky
- Jason Lantz
Notes
- Heath
- This is a big task
- How to be consistent? How to get started?
- Cassie
- Finding time for the work
- There’s always a new tool suggestion
- What is going to take?
- Timothy
- Want to establish a good foundation
- Perhaps a survey of recommended tools
- Mary
- Perhaps checklist?
- Break down to “if you have 1 hour”
- Jason
- Just focus on Application Lifecycle Management section of Well Architected
- Suggests new GPT for building process
- Cassie
- Foundational Learning to get started
Next Steps
- Consider using ReadtheDocs.io
- Judi to review and move to this
- Solo Admin Deployment Best Practices
- Cassie dropped a good framework in Slack Channel
- Start with Foundational Concepts for each - collaborate on as a guide/reference, build from there
Suggested - thanks GPT!
- Understand Sandboxes:
- Salesforce provides different types of sandboxes: Developer, Developer Pro, Partial, and Full.
- Developer and Developer Pro sandboxes are mainly for development and testing, while Partial and Full sandboxes are more suited for testing configuration changes and data migrations.
- Assess Your Needs:
- Determine your organization’s requirements for sandbox environments. Consider factors like the frequency of updates, the size of data sets, and the need for data privacy.
- Create a Sandbox Template:
- Develop a template that reflects your production environment’s structure. Include objects, fields, workflows, and configurations that are essential for your business processes.
- Refresh or Create Sandboxes:
- Regularly refresh sandboxes from the production environment to mirror the latest changes. This ensures that your testing environment closely resembles the production environment.
- Use Multiple Sandboxes:
- Leverage multiple sandboxes for different purposes. For example, use one for development, one for user acceptance testing (UAT), and another for integration testing.
- Establish a Change Management Process:
- Implement a change management process to track and manage changes in your sandbox environments before deploying them to production. This could involve using Salesforce Change Sets or a version control system.
- Test Configurations:
- Before making changes in the production environment, thoroughly test configurations, workflows, and new features in your sandbox. This helps identify and fix issues before they impact end-users.
- Include Users in UAT:
- Involve end-users in the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process. This ensures that changes meet their requirements and helps in identifying potential issues early on.
- Document Changes:
- Keep detailed documentation of changes made in each sandbox. This documentation will be valuable for troubleshooting, audits, and training purposes.
- Data Masking in Sandboxes:
- Implement data masking or anonymization in sandboxes to protect sensitive data. This is especially crucial when dealing with Full and Partial sandboxes.
- Educate Users:
- Train users and stakeholders on the importance of the sandbox strategy, especially in terms of testing and validating changes before they are moved to the production environment.
- Monitor and Iterate:
- Continuously monitor the effectiveness of your sandbox strategy. Seek feedback from users and stakeholders, and be willing to iterate and improve the process based on lessons learned.
By following these steps, you can establish a robust sandbox strategy that enhances the stability and reliability of your Salesforce environment while minimizing the risk of disruptions to your production system.
