For processing a customer order, a company has to pass on the requirement to various departments. Most of the time, data cannot be transferred as it is. It has to be converted into metadata. It becomes difficult to transfer metadata, as it requires deployment connection. However, Salesforce changesets offer much flexibility.
There are certain tips that you need to follow while using Salesforce changesets for transferring customizations to affiliated organizations.
- Maintaining log
- Viewing dependencies
- Defining manual steps
- Validation of change set
Maintaining Log
You should maintain log of every component that you have developed by using the categories, change set developer uses. You have sort by item names alphabetically for making it efficient for building your change set. All items can be checked off, when you proceed and making sure that everything is included.
Viewing Dependencies
Add or view button is of great help. You have to use search option to see that you are working with all primary objects. Ensure that you have not missed any configuration or other field. You can also use search option for easily finding the related components and adding them in fewer clicks.
Define the Manual Procedures
You have to describe the steps, which are required to appear in correct order. Divide the steps into “after change set” and “before change set” categories. Refine the procedures and add them to the list during deployment.
Take Help of Deferred Sharing
Large companies have to deal with huge volumes of data including changes in roles, memberships or rules. This needs recalculation of sharing rules that consume too much time. You have to become cautious if you have to deal with sharing related changes while executing manual steps. By changing the time of sharing, you can avoid waiting period and make deployment a success.
Keep on Practicing
You should take staging of deployment seriously. By doing so, you will get chances for catching things, which you have missed in your deployment plan. This will also help you in overcoming production issues. Distribute the roles to your team members for gaining accuracy.
Validation of Change Set
You have to validate the change set in staging environment before deployment date. Repeat the same step for production deployment. Chances are there that you may be caught in conflict during production.
In order to avoid conflict, you have to do the following things. Note down the manual prerequisites or missing change set components. Identify failing test classes or code conflicts, which will hold up deployment later. With the fresh deployment status page, it becomes easier for you to track issues with the change set. It is crucial for validating again in production as test coverage is enforced in production and discrepancies may occur, which did not take place during staging.
Conduct Test in Every Environment
As coverage requirements and test failures are enforced during production, you have to manually track failures and test coverage in developer sandbox before they mar production.
Conduct every test in developer sandbox and repeat the same during staging. Note down failures and ensure that tests are not failing in production. Before going for deployment, conduct tests in production for long time, so that you get fair results. This is important for environments having multiple development teams.
These are the above said tips, which will help you to stage deployment of change sets. With effective deployment, you can make better business decisions.