Becoming a Salesforce Leader Blog Series: 6 Key Questions

In our last post, Beyond Salesforce Go-Live: Tips for Salesforce Implementation User Requests, we discussed how to manage and prioritize end-user requests post Salesforce go-live. So now that you have determined how you will prioritize and filter out your user requests, we can begin to take a look at how you are managing these releases internally. What is the best way to release your updates in a way that does not disrupt user work-flow? And what are some strategies to ensure that each release is properly vetted for quality standards?  

In this second post in our blog series, we will focus on the next 2 questions that you need to ask yourself to ensure that your Salesforce instance is achieving maximum ROI and that you can become a Salesforce innovation leader.

Question 3: What is my innovation cadence?
Once you determine how to track and prioritize your user requests, you will need to establish how you want to pace your releases. If you have a set and predictable schedule your internal resources can group initiatives in a more organized fashion and end users can have a consistent and realistic expectation. Additionally, you will be able to build out your training and adoption strategy around each new change in a more proactive fashion.

Strategy:  Scheduling quarterly releases is a great way to deploy large requests and you can also deliver monthly releases for smaller user requests. Put a notice on your homepage or send out an internal email blast to announce the changes and what training options your organization has to offer. Your users will appreciate the transparency and will feel consistent progress on their requests. You can also schedule quarterly training classes to make sure that your teams are properly training to begin utilizing new features.

Question 4: How do I ensure quality?
As you are working on requests for your upcoming internal release, you want to make sure that each change you push out is tested so that there are no unintended consequences. Your organization will benefit from a consistent way to test and report each release in order to manage your live environment.

Strategy:  Managing quality is crucial to productivity. Our managed service team, Bluewolf Beyond, has created a methodology for consistent cyclical iteration to ensure quality standards called BUTR: Build, Upload, Test, Report. We apply this framework to both our customer and our own Salesforce instance. By utilizing tools that integrate in Salesforce you can create your own testing environment that will test releases while they are in a sandbox, so that you are not doing live testing. Before you roll out your releases, make sure that each change passes your own organizational quality standards. This will help ensure that your teams remain productive and have a good user experience.  

Maintaining a realistic release cadence and quality standards will help ensure that your post-live environment is running smoothly and with consistency. This is a crucial part as you begin introducing processes into your organization to sustain your and maximize your investment.

Learn more by watching the Dreamforce '11 session Become a Leader: Maximize ROI Beyond Go-Live below. Watch Bluewolf CTO Lou Fox and Jesse Endo, Director of Bluewolf Beyond, moderate an engaging panel of client guests - including Derald Sue of InsideTrack and Angela Stewart of Manhattan Associates - as they offer insight on their agile journey at Dreamforce '11.

Check out our Bluewolf Beyond Infographic. Didn't get a chance to read the first post in this series? Read it here.