Expanding your DevSecOps capabilities includes utilizing new tools. This process can seem daunting, but knowing what to expect helps you put systems in place right from the start that will provide benefits as you grow more comfortable with your new capabilities.
Salesforce Version Control integration is an essential step in creating a fast and reliable DevSecOps pipeline.
Version Control is an aspect of source code management. It is the cornerstone of a production org and a critical component of a successful DevSecOps strategy. Team-based development speeds along the process of creating and launching new updates and applications, and Salesforce Version Control integration is a way to coordinate this effort.
Managing software revisions or updates over time will help avoid overwrites, redundant work, and mistakes.
So how do you get the most from Salesforce Version Control integration?
Here are 7 tips to optimize the results of utilizing Version Control, and adhere to Salesforce version control best practices:
1. Use a Reliable Salesforce Version Control System
The tools you use to accomplish various aspects of your DevSecOps pipeline will have a huge impact on your levels of success. A proper Version Control tool will allow you to customize various aspects of the product to best fit your particular needs.
Utilize a Version Control system that is integrated with a full DevSecOps platform to ensure it integrates smoothly with other aspects of your pipeline.
Does it make it easy to compare, restore, and merge updates to the source code? What are the branching capabilities? Is the interface intuitive?
Salesforce Version Control integration should be one aspect of a complete Automated Release Management system. Find one that offers everything you need to accomplish your DevSecOps and release management goals.
2. Organize Commits by Goal
There are likely multiple aspects of producing quality releases that will need your team’s attention. The ability to maintain clear goals with each commit will reduce errors and keep your team on track.
Break up your team’s commits into smaller changes that are grouped by a unified goal.
Changes to your code repository can become convoluted over time. These changes often need to be walked back or re-addressed should an issue be found in how it interacts with other lines of codes.
It will be made more simple to locate and rework a piece of code if similar changes are grouped together. Breaking up these code commits by shared purposes streamlines the process and ensures greater success from your Version Control efforts.
3. Make Small, Frequent Commits
The size and frequency of your team’s commits will impact their ability to guarantee a stable structure of the project as a whole. Commit large sections of code into the shared repository from your Version Control system makes it more difficult for team members to find, address, and resolve conflicts.
Keeping your commits small—perhaps less than 400 lines of code—will help your team members to review your code.
Small commits make it less likely that a merge conflict will go undetected. This saves your team the trouble of finding these issues later in the development pipeline, when the problems have had a chance to grow and impact surrounding areas.
Aligning each commit with a singular purpose—as discussed above—works alongside this effort to make future processes easier on your team.
4. Put Together a Branching Strategy
A branching strategy provides a framework to help your development team improve collaboration. These strategies work in tandem with Salesforce Version Control integration to provide guidance. A proper branching strategy will keep an error from a singular developer from affecting the efforts of the whole team.
Ensure your team has the knowledge to test and verify the validity of code updates in separate branches before merging updates with the shared repository.
There are a few methods of performing this consideration:
- Release Branching
- Feature Branching
- Task Branching
- No Branching
Examine the benefits and features of each type of branching to find the strategy that best fits your needs. Integrate this with your Version Control efforts to maintain speed and quality levels in each development project.
5. Only Commit Tested Code
The quality of your code dictates the level of success for each development project. Faulty lines of code can create functionality issues as well as data security vulnerabilities. It’s essential to keep these lines of code as secure as possible as early as possible in the development pipeline.
Utilize a code analysis tool to guarantee high code quality in your Version Control environments before committing changes to the shared repository.
Test the functionality of your lines of code before committing them to give your project the best chance of avoiding misfires. Preventing or solving these problems early in the process will reduce costs and save your team members time that can be put to better use.
6. Maintain Accountability
Salesforce Version Control integration will allow a series of new capabilities. It is up to your team to use these features properly to get the most from integrating the tool. One such capability is to increase levels of accountability on multi-developer teams.
Keep track of time stamps and personal identifiers so you know who is making changes, what they are, and when they happen.
This information makes it easier to manage software revisions and updates. Sometimes developers make the same mistake multiple times. This is an opportunity to help these developer learn from their mistakes and become a stronger contributors, which will ultimately benefit development teams as a whole.
7. Continue Testing After Merging
Utilizing Version Control is one aspect of a full DevSecOps pipeline. The code will go through more stages and changes on its way toward deployment.
Continue testing your code to ensure proper functionality and maintained data security considerations.
Many of these processes can be automated, but it takes a powerful platform and intentional setup to make sure you’re getting the most from your efforts.
Integrating Version Control into Salesforce can provide a variety of benefits to your development team. Following these tips will help you achieve stronger and faster development practices.
FAQs
Version control is an aspect of source code management that tracks changes made during development.
DevOps teams will need to integrate a version control system into their Salesforce environment.
AutoRABIT ARM provides version control capabilities along with a series of other automated tools to optimize Salesforce development.
