Salesforce Software Development: A Quick Guide for Beginners

"Ever heard of Salesforce?"...

"No", I replied curiously. "What's Salesforce?"

That question changed my life. Having spent years as a teacher, coach, and salesperson (who didn't use a CRM) in a non-tech-related industry, I had no idea what I was getting into.

The transition felt like stepping into a whole new world, unfamiliar with terms like milestones, deliverables, and Agile methodologies & sprints (I did track in college so... athletic & agile person right?!... oh, not that kind of agile).

I felt like a kid staring into a frosty store window wondering, "What do they actually doing in there?" However, as I delved into the realm of Salesforce, I discovered its immense potential and loved the idea of crafting customized solutions like a wizard with stellar Googling skills.

But enough of that... you get my point.

My hope is that this will help you get closer to that "aha" moment.

In this in-depth guide for beginners, let's explore the "cloudy" world of Salesforce software development. We're going to explore the important words and ideas that support the process. We'll make the software creation journey easier to understand and lay out the important steps for building strong applications on the Salesforce platform. I'm hopeful this guide will equip you with the knowledge and resources to embark on a rewarding journey in the Salesforce ecosystem.

Quick overview:

• What is Software Development?
• Key Terms
• Software Development Process
• Software Development Life Cycle (SLDC)

Are you ready? Let's do this ??

What is Salesforce Software Development?

Salesforce is THE cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform (slightly biased opinion ??) and it empowers businesses to manage their customer data, automate processes, and develop custom applications. Salesforce software development involves creating, configuring, and customizing those applications on the Salesforce platform to meet specific business requirements.

Whether you're a developer, administrator, or consultant, understanding the software development process is essential for delivering successful solutions. Next, let's go over some of the key terms.

Key Terms:

1. Milestones: Major checkpoints or achievements in a project that mark the completion of specific deliverables. Milestones act as progress indicators and help ensure projects stay on track and within schedule.
2. Deliverables: Tangible results or outputs produced during the software development process. These can include completed features, user interfaces, custom code, integrations, and documentation.
3. User Stories: Short, simple descriptions of functionality or requirements from the end-user's perspective. User stories are used to define the scope of work and guide development tasks in an Agile environment.
4. Sprints: Time-boxed iterations, usually lasting 1-4 weeks, in which development work is carried out. Each sprint focuses on delivering a set of user stories and results in a potentially shippable product increment.
5. Requirements Gathering: The process of understanding and documenting user needs, business goals, and functional specifications. Clear requirements serve as the foundation for the development process.
6. Design: Creating a high-level plan for the architecture, structure, and user interface of the software. Design decisions influence how the application will function and how users will interact with it.
7. Development: Writing code and implementing the designed features and functionalities. Developers use programming languages (Apex & Lightning Web Components) and frameworks to build the software.
8. Testing: The practice of identifying defects and ensuring the software functions correctly. Testing involves various techniques like unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing.
9. Version Control: A system that manages changes to the source code of a project, enabling collaboration among developers and tracking code modifications over time.
10. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): A development practice that involves automatically building, testing, and deploying code changes. CI/CD ensures rapid and reliable software delivery.
11. Deployment: The process of releasing the software to a production environment, making it available to end-users.

Awesome. Now that we have the jargon down, let's keep this train moving!

*Here's a Salesforce Ben article for info on Agile methods (not sprint workouts)*

Software Development Process

The Software Development Process brings innovation to life. This multi-faceted process has several crucial phases that produce a solution tailored to the business needs.

1. Requirements Gathering: Understanding and documenting the business needs and translating them into functional and technical requirements. This phase involves working with stakeholders to capture their expectations and desired outcomes.
2. Design: Creating a detailed plan for the application's architecture, data model, and user interface. Design decisions are crucial for building a scalable, efficient, and user-friendly solution.
3. Development: Writing custom code, configuring Salesforce components (like objects, fields, flows, etc.), and integrating with other systems. Developers use programming languages like Apex (similar to Java) and Lightning Web Components (LWC) to build custom functionalities.
4. Testing: Rigorous testing to identify and fix defects, ensure functionality aligns with requirements, and verify the application's performance under different conditions. Testing includes unit testing, integration testing, and system testing.
5. Quality Assurance (QA): A broader evaluation of the application's quality, security, and compliance with industry standards. QA aims to ensure the application meets best practices and is ready for user acceptance testing.
6. User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Involving end-users to test the application and provide feedback. UAT helps validate that the solution meets user expectations and business needs.
7. Deployment and Maintenance: Releasing the application to end-users and providing ongoing support and maintenance. Continuous improvement and updates are essential to meet evolving business requirements and to address potential issues.

Software Development Life Cycle:

The journey from concept to a fully functioning solution follows a structured path known as the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) - a series of distinct phases, each contributing to the creation of robust and tailored applications.

1. Initiation: Defining the project scope, goals, and requirements. This phase involves conducting feasibility studies and determining the resources needed for the project.
2. Planning: Creating a detailed project plan, including timelines, milestones, and resource allocation. Additionally, defining the roles and responsibilities of team members.
3. Analysis: Gathering and refining requirements, understanding user needs, and translating them into specific features and functionalities.
4. Design: Creating a detailed technical design that outlines the software's architecture, data structures, and user interface.
5. Development: Writing code and implementing the software according to the design specifications.
6. Testing: Executing various testing techniques to identify and fix defects, ensuring the software functions as intended.
7. Deployment: Releasing the software to end-users in a controlled manner.
8. Maintenance: Providing ongoing support, bug fixes, and updates to improve the software's performance and address user feedback.

Phew! That was a lot!

Now for the quiz... just kidding! But I'm hoping this helped demystify the landscape from unfamiliar terms to the Software Development Process and Lifecycle. Now you know more about Salesforce software development, which will help you start your Salesforce journey with confidence.

Thanks for reading!