The Salesforce development platform can help a company to produce high quality updates and applications and address their customers’ evolving needs. However, like any other process or procedure in the business world, there are varying degrees of success in this endeavor.
Code quality tools helps Salesforce developers produce the best possible products in a variety of ways.
DevOps involves the utilization of a wide range of available tools. Automation has become an essential aspect of an optimized Salesforce DevOps pipeline. The tools that will most benefit your team members will depend on your specific Salesforce environment’s needs.
However, there is one aspect of every Salesforce DevOps environment that needs to be optimized in every way possible: the code. Simply put, you are unable to produce worthwhile products that justify the necessary expenditures without high quality code.
This is why code quality tools are an essential aspect of Salesforce DevOps efforts. But what exact benefits will you see from instituting this technology? How will your DevOps pipeline improve?
Here are 7 ways code quality tools support a successful Salesforce DevOps pipeline:
1. Errors Are Cheaper to Fix When Found Early
Errors in the coding structure of your update or application will take the form of bugs or glitches. These bugs degrade the user experience and threaten the functionality of the update should the bug remain undetected through deployment and production.
Code quality tools find coding errors as they occur, ensuring proper functionality and reducing the cost of fixing them.
Bugs and errors become increasingly costly to fix the longer they are allowed to remain in the system. In fact, it’s estimated that a bug will be 150 times more expensive to fix if it makes it to production compared to if it’s found immediately.
Code quality tools find these errors the moment they are written so your team members can take care of any bugs before they grow into larger issues.
2. Creates a Reliable Experience for End User
Consistency is key to creating trust in the marketplace. You can’t solidify yourself as a leader in your industry if you aren’t able to adequately meet your customers’ demands every time. This is a major goal of Salesforce DevOps pipelines: create a positive experience your customers can rely upon.
The absence of bugs and errors through guaranteed proper coding structures removes a large source of user frustrations.
Nothing degrades the customer experience like an application that doesn’t function the way a customer thinks it should. Conversely, an intuitive application that functions smoothly every time creates a positive impression of your company as a whole.
Strong and proper coding structures are an essential aspect of creating this experience, and code quality tools support this effort.
3. Facilitates Quicker Release Rates
Technology is constantly evolving. Your company needs to keep pace with your competition if you want to avoid being left behind. The needs, tastes, and expectations of customers are always shifting, and your services need to reflect these changes. A streamlined Salesforce DevOps pipeline will help you stay ahead of the curve.
Providing your team members with the tools they need to do the job right the first time helps your DevOps projects progress through your pipeline quickly without sacrificing quality.
Finding, rectifying, and re-testing errors in your code can eat up a lot of developer time. Making sure your code is healthy before moving it to the next stage of your DevOps pipeline saves this time and allows your team members to shift their focus to the next project.
4. Reduces Failed Deployments
A failed deployment can impact a lot more than the release itself. System crashes and lengthy fixes can cost a company a lot of money. There are a variety of measures in place to catch any errors that might contribute to a failed deployment such as continuous integration and continuous delivery, but these powerful tools can’t completely guarantee a deployment’s success.
Coding errors are one of the main contributors to a failed deployment. Better code drastically increases chances of a successful deployment.
Testing measures are going to be in place at various stages of your DevOps pipeline. Thorough testing earlier in the pipeline will assist later tests by reducing the total load and responsibility they will face. Code quality tools test code as it’s written so later tests can devote more time to potentially problematic processes.
5. Allows Developers to Focus on Innovation
You’re not going to be able to build a house if part of it is always on fire. Likewise, your developers are not going to be able to be as productive and creative as you might like if they are busy fixing bugs and errors. An abundance of corrections will distract your team members from creating new and innovative software development projects.
Avoiding the additional step of correcting bugs and errors late in the DevOps process give team members the time they need to come up with the next big thing.
Freeing up your team members not only allows them to produce more work, it allows them the time to produce more thoughtful work.
6. Stronger Code Increases Data Security
Data security needs to be a major concern for every company. Cybercriminals are attacking companies of all sizes with increasing regularity. In fact, cybercrime is projected to cost $6 trillion this year. Protecting your system against hackers needs to be an intentional effort throughout your Salesforce DevOps pipeline.
Coding errors can create vulnerabilities that can be used by cybercriminals to gain access to your system.
Strong code needs to be a constant effort along with other data security measures. These attacks are becoming more sophisticated. It’s imperative your company utilizes every possible way to protect your system. Code quality tools eliminate the errors that could create the opening a cybercriminal needs to attack your Salesforce environment.
7. Reduces Technical Debt
Technical debt is the idea that you can take the easy way now and make up for it later. This might help you to get a product to market much faster, but it almost guarantees you’ll have problems. These issues will need to be resolved at some point, and it’s going to degrade user experience until then.
Code quality tools correct issues as they arise and help your team to quickly address them without creating technical debt to be repaid later.
The most important aspect of your Salesforce development project is the code that makes it up. Faulty code will lead to a faulty software release. Guarantee a successful application or update by ensuring your code is healthy, secure, and stable with the help of code quality tools.
