A few things which I think dedicated in-house teams can do better than external contractors: 1) Flexibility2) Deep process knowledge3) Protective about the Org4) Quick-Wins5) View the full software lifecycle6) Sceletons in the closet Disclaimer: I completely see the value of external contractors for several reasons. Maybe another post. 1) Flexibility Wednesday afternoon, marketing came …
Op-Ed: Why I like to write installation/user guides myself
You know, end of the project, someone has to write the installation and user guide. Usually not the most popular task to be around. I happily volunteer to write it, at least a first draft. There are a few reasons for it. - Final check- Find missing parts and bugs- Identify complicated things Final check …
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Op-Ed: Base skills as important as technical knowledge
As any Salesforce (Architect) professional, having great Salesforce knowledge is mandatory. I found a few other skills are as important which are often overlooked while super easy to improve.All of the skills are less about learning and more about repeat practice.- Fast typing- English: Written and spoken- Office products- Clean drawing and handwriting- Project management basics- …
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5 learnings from a clown and how it can make me a better architect
Target Group: ArchitectComplexity: HighTopic: Soft-Skills A few days ago I ended up chatting to Hugh Kapernaros, who travels as a clown in a circus for refugees through Europe. We came to work and what makes a good clown. I believe some of what makes a good clown makes me a better architect. 1) Surrender the …
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Interview: Why architects should know code?
Recently I interviewed a software architect I highly respected on why architects should know code.The following is not a complete list or in any way representative of my opinion. It's absolutely not necessary to be a (good) coder to become a Salesforce architect, but I found the input very interesting. I'm curious what you think? …
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What happened OR Why $Record_Prior is my best friend
Topic: Be as specific as possible in your criteria.Example: Every time a Lead is "Closed - Not Converted" we want to send an Email to the customer thanking them for the nice call despite not buying.Quite a simple requirement, we all have built them a thousand times. And I've built them wrong so often until I …
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Put in the effort: Good error messages
The more I work in Salesforce, the more I appreciate vendors, admins, architects, and developers putting in the time and effort for good error messages.Error Message: "Type is required"Recently I worked with a complex flow. The flow has many elements, lots of objects, and many, many Invocable actions involved. One of the elements gave me …
Op-Ed: Business Analyst First – Architect Second
Being a Salesforce Architect is quite a tough job, it's sandwiched between many different roles.Talking to experienced architects, I noticed one thing: An architect is a business analyst first, an architect second.What does that mean?1) First understand the business2) Architecture follows business3) Business value is the goal4) Working trumps perfect (to an extent)5) Bonus: Keep …
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Extend your network – Awesome people to follow/invite
In case you want to extend your LinkedIn network or invite cool people for your next Salesforce event, a shortlist of a few awesome Salesforce people I love to learn from.What are your awesome Salesforce people to follow? Quratulain TariqNina RosenFarah Sherif GhanemNadina D. LisbonLilith Van BiesenMelissa ShepardNeha NagoriNana GreggNarender SinghMark JonesAbhishek SahaMaurizio GioffrèBen DuncombePei …
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Opinion: Async by default via Platform Events
Target Group: Admins, Developers, Architects Complexity: Simple This topic has been haunting me ever since Platform Events was introduced: Why not make async via Platform Events the default solution for transactions within the Salesforce platform? Let me start with a simple example:Every time an Opportunity is set to Closed-Won a set of Tasks needs to be …
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