Best Practices for Salesforce Releases and Deployments
In any Salesforce project, having a smooth release and deployment strategy is critical for maintaining stability, team collaboration, and overall project success. Whether you’re working in a sandbox, staging, or production environment, adhering to the right practices helps avoid unnecessary rollbacks, data inconsistencies, and deployment failures. Below are some key aspects and habits every Salesforce developer and admin should follow while working on release-based development.
Release-based Development
The first question to ask is: how is the release organized, and where should your development be pushed? It’s important to understand the release branching strategy—know which repository or branch is meant for features, hotfixes, or production. Make informed decisions before pushing any changes, and never assume the default repo is the correct one without checking.
Pull Before Push
If you’re sharing a branch or repository with teammates, always pull from the remote before pushing your own changes. This avoids overwriting someone else’s work and prevents merge conflicts. A good daily habit is to start your day by pulling the latest code from the remote repo. It keeps your local environment up to date and minimizes surprises.
Commit Only Your Changes
If a file has been modified by multiple developers, avoid committing the entire file. Instead, carefully stage and commit only the specific lines or blocks of code you’ve worked on. This minimizes the risk of unintentionally undoing another developer’s work and keeps your commits clean and easy to review.
Keep the Repo Clean
Don’t let your branches pile up. Once your feature or functionality is developed, tested, and deployed, clean up the branch. Adopt the habit of using one branch per feature, and delete it after merging. This makes it easier to track progress, understand context during reviews, and audit past changes when needed.
Code Review
Always get your pull requests reviewed by another developer or tech lead. Peer reviews not only improve code quality but also help catch issues early—before they make it to production. Take review comments positively—they’re an opportunity to learn and grow as a developer. The goal is clean, reliable, maintainable code.
VS Code Extensions
Use tools like GitLens or Git History in Visual Studio Code. These extensions allow you to track, compare, and understand past commits, making it easier to understand how features evolved over time. It also helps you identify whether the new implementation is an enhancement or a replacement for an older logic, which is key for backward compatibility.
By following these practices, you ensure smoother releases, fewer bugs, and more collaboration across your Salesforce team.