The process of software development requires the most skillful and knowledgeable programmers. The implementation of different software development methods is not an easy task. The most widespread technology nowadays is Cloud systems. Developers are constantly working on creating Cloud systems inside larger Cloud ecosystems. This is an important solution for Salesforce development. Especially because every Salesforce application goes through complete development in a Cloud environment. Every app is coded, tested and launched there.
The most famous environment for developing Salesforce applications is Force.com. It is created through an Integrated Development Environment. This means that it can be integrated effortlessly with the help of a plugin. There are plenty of tools that allow developers to create Salesforce apps. Some of them are Apex, Lightning, metadata components, Visualforce and so on. The data is preserved in a local storage system. The developers can manipulate the data by moving it into a source control repository if necessary. After implementing the changes, they can transfer it back. SVN and Git are the most commonly used source control systems.
It takes many specialists in different fields to handle the process of software development. Each of them is in charge of a specific portion of this process. These are some of the most essential people involved in the creation of every app:
- Product managers – these are the people responsible for confirming and corresponding to business requirements;
- Release managers – they are in charge of everything related to release dates;
- Salesforce developers – the key specialists, which work directly with the coding of the app;
- Quality Assurance managers – their job is extremely important because they are responsible for testing the app for bugs and errors;
- Salesforce consultants – these specialists work on building the business process and its optimization.
The lifecycle of Salesforce app development requires going through a number of stages.
First and foremost, there is a need to create a separate Source Control repository. Additionally, there are multiple benefits to having a Git repository as well. There are advantages to creating master branches for every project. This also applies to the metadata storage.
As mentioned above, there is a need to have many different specialists working on a Salesforce App. Each feature should have a respective branch. These are created by the Release managers and handled by different developers. Moreover, these professionals help with making package.xml manifest, inputting the metadata and transferring it by means of Force.com.
The development itself starts in writing codes in a sandbox. In Salesforce development, all the sandboxes are independent. This means they are not connected to the whole production. Because of this, all the actions taken in a sandbox are sure to not interfere with the production process.
The developers retrieve the metadata to a sandbox using the Integrated Development Environment of Force.com. Firstly, they run initial tests of the unit. After that, the code can be forwarded to the Git storage.
The newly written code is retrieved to the sandboxes for more development. The finishing coding is done in the repository. Before adding the code, the developers must verify that no other programmers are working on it simultaneously. This is an important measure taken to prevent possible errors.
The following stage is code testing. Quality Assurance engineers much like the programmers open their separate sandboxes and move the code there. The QA specialists are required to test specific features every now and then. In this case, they have to create Partial sandboxes for only these certain parts of the code.
In the process, there is a possibility of splitting one sandbox between a few specialists. This measure helps to conduct more in-depth testing. If they manage to find at least one mistake, the process starts from the beginning.
The last task in terms of testing is examining user response. Both release and project managers open new partial sandboxes for this purpose. Some further testing is done there. After finishing that, the product should be prepared for presentation. If any issues arise on this stage, the process still needs to be started over.
After the app is finally released, the specialists have to test its performance. At this stage, an intermediate sandbox is required. It represents the most common features of the application, unlike a partial sandbox. If the app passes the final testing without any issues, it is ready for the grand release.
