Salesforce Change Management Best Practices

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Salesforce Change Management Best Practices

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Salesforce Change Management

• Business Driver
• Best Practice Overview
• Topics of Discussion
• Managing change on-demand
• Principles of on-demand change management
• Maintaining a quality implementation
• Additional Information

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Business Driver

• Managing change in an on-demand environment is
  similar but different than in a traditional IT
  client-server environment. It is important to
  understand the key concepts and best practices
  around managing change within salesforce.com in
  order to effectively and efficiently manage your
  organizations application.

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Best Practice Overview

• Every successful implementation of salesforce.com
  should have a well-defined change management
  strategy in place. This presentation outlines
  the key aspects of managing change in an
  on-demand environment.

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Salesforce Change Management
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Topics of Discussion

• Managing change on-demand
• Principles of on-demand change management
• Maintaining a quality implementation
• Questions feedback

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Change ManagementDefined

• Change Management is the process by which your
  organization identifies, prioritizes, assigns,
  executes and communicates change
• In a Salesforce deployment this could result
  from
• Organizational change
• Business process changes
• Addition or subtraction of processes
• Modeling modifications
• Salesforce release of new features and
  capabilities
• Introduction of new custom applications or
  integrations

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Change Management A process of continuous
evolution
Continuously analyze your current state, collect
User feedback and implement change when
appropriate

• Vision Strategy
• Establish program vision
• Define strategy to achieve
• Develop objectives to ensure progress

• Initiate/Plan
• Identify key Salesforce capabilities required
• Develop a roadmap to implement
• Tie capabilities to program objectives

Initiate/Plan
Vision Strategy Objectives

• Operationalize
• Build, configure and deploy application
• Manage organizational change (release mgmt,
  training, etc)
• Drive adoption of new features

• Validate
• Audit Salesforce data
• Monitor performance metrics
• Use results to drive behavior or process change
  within the organization where appropriate

Validate
Operationalize
Validation
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On-Demand Development Methodology A more
flexible approach

• Minor Release Simple configuration changes
  that do not impact day to day business or require
  training.
• As Required (Target Monthly)
• Major Release New Initiatives and other
  changes that require training or testing.
• Dates determined by Steering Committee
• (Target Quarterly)

• Reports
• Dashboards
• List View Management
• Documentation Management
• User Administration
• Solution Management
• Communication Templates
• Email Templates

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Release Definitions
For consistent implementation and support,
investment requests should be categorized as
immediate, minor or major based on level of effort
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Change Management Process FlowExample
Submits change request
User notified
Reviews request
Approved?
Determines release timeframe
Communicates changes to end-users
IT required?
Sandbox required?
Configures feature/ functionality
Analyzes request and timeframe
SFDC Admin
Notifies CMM request completed
Configures feature/ functionality
Conducts Testing (end-user IT)
Moves changes to production environment
IT
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Principles of Change ManagementManaging the
process
1
2
Collect ideas and requests from Users
Analyze and prioritize requests
3
4
Communicate to end-Users about new or changed
functionality
Configure/develop and deploy using Sandbox
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User Feedback RequestsSuggestions on managing
enhancement requests

• Implement Salesforce Ideas

• Use Salesforce Cases

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Principles of Change ManagementManaging the
process
1
2
Collect ideas and requests from Users
Analyze and prioritize requests
3
4
Communicate to end-Users about new or changed
functionality
Configure/develop and deploy using Sandbox
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Prioritizing RequestsDetermining whats important

• An oversight committee should be established to
  review, analyze and prioritize change requests.
  The committee should be comprised of members of
  the
• Administration team
• Executive Sponsor
• Cross-functional business leads
• The committee should meet on a regular basis
  (e.g. monthly or quarterly) to discuss the change
  requests received including review current
  metrics
• Adoption
• Usage
• Performance

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Principles of Change ManagementManaging the
process
1
2
Collect ideas and requests from Users
Analyze and prioritize requests
3
4
Communicate to end-Users about new or changed
functionality
Configure/develop and deploy using Sandbox
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Managing Configuration ChangesBest Practices
Development
Testing Training
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Refreshable Sandbox EnvironmentThe process
Source Control
User testing in full UAT sandbox
Updated production configuration
Start
One-Click Refresh
Refresh sandboxes
Parallel development in config only dev
orgs
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Implementing Change RequestsForce.com
configuration/code migration tools
Eclipse Force.com IDE
Force.com Sandbox
Force.com Code Share
Metadata API
Instantly Set Up Dev Environments
Everything You Need to Build Apps
Easy to Collaborate on Projects
Easy Access to Code and Schema
Force.com Migration Tool Guide _at_
http//wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Migration_Too
l
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Using the Metadata APIWhat is available?

• Custom buttons
• Static resources
• Custom links
• Workflows
• Page layouts
• Page layout assignments
• Home page components
• Home page layouts
• Validation rules
• Approval processes

• Custom report types
• Tab and field renaming
• Button overrides
• Field dependencies
• Picklists
• Dashboards
• Reports
• List views
• Queues
• Public groups
• Email attachments
• Tag API New!

• Custom fields
• Custom objects
• Apex classes
• Apex triggers
• Apex components
• Visualforce pages
• S-controls
• Record Types
• Profiles
• Field level security

• Custom applications (tabsets)
• Custom tabs
• Documents
• Folders
• Package
• Weblink
• Email template
• Letterhead
• Picklist/Record Type map

Other Enhancements to our MetaData API are
planned for the future
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Migrating ChangesMoving data from Sandbox to
Production Force.com tools
Multiple Sandbox Environments
Production Deployment
IDE
Version Control
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Migrating ChangesMoving data from Sandbox to
Production partner tool

• Save snapshots of configuration
• Metadata read from WSDL
• Written to local XML files
• No user data read/stored, only metadata
• Benefit track and document org changes
• Compare side-by-side
• Multiple snapshots 2 or more
• See similarities, differences, both
• Evaluate changes over time
• View configuration of entirely different orgs
• Dissect changes in user privileges object
  permissions, security settings, field visibility

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Controlling ChangeMitigating risk when
introducing change

• Before migrating any data changes from Sandbox to
  production you should always make a back-up copy
  of your production organization data
• Data back-ups Setup Data Management Data
  Export
• Data exports can be run immediately or scheduled
• Use the Data Loader to restore the data to the
  previous state
• Appropriate for territory changes, assignment
  changes (i.e. account or case transfers), etc.
• Copies of your configuration can be made using
  tools such as Snapshot
• Control administrative access to your org
• Allow only a certain number of users full access
  to make configuration and data changes
• Implement an oversight committee to
  review/approve changes before they are made
• Flip the profile for Users if necessary to
  toggle between admin and standard user privileges
  use custom profiles to define specific
  parameters for what a User can do without full
  fledged Admin access

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Maintaining Compliance (CobIT, ITIL,
International Organization of Standardization ISO
standards)

• Typical compliance requirements for change
  management are
• Changes are appropriately tested and validated
• Only approved changes are deployed into
  production
• Records are maintained to indicate the successful
  test, validation and approval of the change prior
  to deployment

Typical change management process
Review and approve the change
Deploy into production
Typical compliance documentation requirements
Records of approval from appropriate approval
authority
Records of changes deployed into production
Records of testing and validation results
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Principles of Change ManagementManaging the
process
1
2
Collect ideas and requests from Users
Analyze and prioritize requests
3
4
Communicate to end-Users about new or changed
functionality
Configure/develop and deploy using Sandbox
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Communication Strategy Best practice Assessing
your organizations needs

• A comprehensive communication strategy
• Is targeted training for specific groups or roles
• Assesses needs of each audience and is based on
  functional, cultural or geographical needs
• Allows users to prepare before hand (e.g., web
  based tutorials, etc.)
• Provides formal and informal training programs
  for continuous improvement
• Utilizes the right type of training/communication
  tool for the size and scope of the release
• Suggested training and communication tools
• Class room training
• Web-based training/recordings
• Newsletter communications/Tips Tricks
• Home page Messages Alerts

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Maintaining a Quality ImplementationMaking the
pieces work together
S E C U R I T Y
Configuration
App Extension/Integration
Data Quality
Capabilities
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Questions Feedback
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Additional Information
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Sandbox Definitions Availability
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Additional Links References

• Salesforce.com Community Sandbox Best Practice
  Posting
• http//www.salesforce.com/community/crm-best-pract
  ices/it-professionals/release-management/sandbox-r
  elease-management.jsp
• Salesforce.com Community Force.com IDE
  Information
• http//wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Force.com_IDE
  
• Force.com Migration Tool
• http//wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Migration_Too
  l_Guide