Benefits of Salesforce CI/CD For CDOs

A low-code environment, extensive customization, and robust platform; it's easy to see why Salesforce works naturally with CI/CD. While it’s exciting to see Salesforce accelerate change and customization, for Chief Data Officers (CDOs), having a CI/CD solution is a must to keep these changes from spiraling out of control. 

Of course, CDOs care about progress, improvement, and innovation. But CDOs are responsible for leveraging the data the organization has to bring more value to the business. Maintaining the quality of the organization’s customer data is the major priority.

Salesforce’s low-code platform can dramatically speed up release cycles. But it’s Copado that will maintain quality, with strict data and security controls.

Let's look at some of the benefits of Salesforce CI/CD for CDOs.

Streamline the Development Process with Salesforce CI/CD

Salesforce CI/CD streamlines and controls the development process. Developers can push commits quickly, roll out releases frequently, and mitigate issues before they have an impact. The CI/CD process inherently stabilizes data management — smaller, more iterative commits are less likely to be risky or disruptive.

Low-code development tools, automation, and a naturally robust and customizable platform make changes within the Salesforce ecosystem manageable and secure. And that’s made Salesforce incredibly popular.

Today, many companies are using Salesforce as their cornerstone technology for customer data. However, they often have trouble integrating their changes and keeping sandboxes in sync as development teams grow. CI/CD acts as an automation framework, so releasing software becomes more manageable and less risky.

1. Make Releases More Predictable

With Salesforce CI/CD, CDOs can release software more frequently and with greater confidence. CDOs and other stakeholders have a better idea of what to expect in terms of new features and functionality—and can launch commits and move on to the next ones with greater agility.

CI/CD for Salesforce faster, iterative releases through Salesforce’s low-code platform, taking advantage of Salesforce’s wide breadth of pre-existing integrations and customizations. The entire team can orchestrate releases while testing, and quality gates uphold the organization's quality standards.

2. Deploy Features Efficiently

By automating the build, test, and deployment process, CDOs can increase confidence in new features and functions. Features are deployed faster with less risk. Automation reduces each feature's deployment time while providing critical data management processes.

The Salesforce CI/CD process integrates feedback at every stage, thereby improving the ultimate accuracy of the end product. Teams spend more time developing new features and less time dealing with administrative tasks due to automation and the system's increased efficiency. For CDOs, the ability to swiftly release new features improves both quality and innovation.

3. Improve the Quality of Your Releases

Automated processes within Salesforce CI/CD help maintain product quality, data validity, and compliance. By running tests automatically as part of the build process, CDOs catch issues early on — and prevent them from causing problems in the future. Ultimately, this leads to a system with greater reliability and fewer disruptions. Developers worry less about having to catch errors in their code and instead focus on innovation and improvement. Data regulations can be built into your CI/CD pipeline to ensure continuous compliance.

4. Involve Everyone in the Development Process

Salesforce's low-code environment, paired with CI/CD processes, encourages all stakeholders to increase their product ownership. In Salesforce, even non-technical team members can design and develop features without outside help.

Increased ownership naturally leads to faster processes and more features. The entire team works together to create a product that they feel adequately supports the organization and its clients. All this is achieved while still maintaining control of the organization’s data through fixed Salesforce CI/CD processes.

5. Control Quality through the Pipeline

Through CI/CD, teams can get new features ready for production faster. Faster development means applications that respond better to the customer are more connected throughout the business and are more meaningful in the data they collect.

CDOs get end-user data that helps them stay ahead of the competition, keep users happy, and make employees more efficient. However, these features must be checked against quality and security standards throughout the pipeline.Commits that do not pass quality checks return up the pipeline. 

6. Achieve Greater Levels of Transparency

CI/CD processes provide greater transparency into the software development process, bolstering efficiency. CDOs and other stakeholders better understand how the software is developed, what is working, and what isn't. Through this, they can plan for better agility and responsiveness.

Within the CI/CD process, CDOs must constantly look for areas of improvement — whether these areas are in the realm of efficiency, stability, or innovation. Better transparency and faster feedback provide the essential building blocks CDOs use to improve and innovate. Visibility into the entire development process makes identifying risks and protecting sensitive data easier.

7. Foster Communication and Collaboration

Improve communication between developers, users, and stakeholders. Salesforce CI/CD keeps everyone in the loop and ensures that data flows freely.

Collaboration ultimately leads to innovation, which is necessary for organizations that want to remain competitive in the modern market. Further, collaboration and product quality go hand-in-hand. CDOs can foster communication and collaboration with Salesforce’s centralized system.

8. Faster Time to Value and Faster Time to ROI

CI/CD makes software delivery more resilient and agile. A digital business can respond to insights and change requests that come from the CDO more effectively and with greater reliability. The CDO’s business insights can improve the organization's ROI, but only if they can be delivered across the organization efficiently and effectively. Organizations will see the benefits of their investments immediately and may also pivot as needed if they don't see the expected returns.

Leverage the Benefits of Salesforce CI/CD for CDOs

Today’s organizations run on data. For CDOs, the benefits of Salesforce CI/CD are clear: greater efficiency, improved quality, and faster time to production all streamline the development process and improve product quality. This means that the organization can respond to data-driven insights in time to make a difference. Salesforce’s CI/CD processes kickstart development without compromising data management, privacy, or compliance. Ultimately, this leads to secure systems and secure data.