If you’ve already read this year’s The State of Salesforce Review, you might be under the impression that the majority of salesforce.com customers have or are working towards an cloud governance program. Just look at the numbers; 93% said they believe governance is critical to accelerating innovation, and 61% have a group dedicated to cloud governance.
In reality, Salesforce cloud governance comes in as many varieties and levels of effectiveness as there are salesforce.com customers. However, within this variety there are several key elements that make an effective cloud governance program (see the infographic). Perfect for starting a conversation on cloud governance—below are four specific recommendations for sustained innovation:
Change Management
1. Expose project prioritization
From the milestones of a year long initiative to the quick dashboard fix, everyone who cares to know where any project is, should easily be able to find out. Whiteboards, google spreadsheets, and Salesforce Ideas are all viable options. Letting project ideas disappear into a ticketing system black hole is a quick way to frustrate users.
2. Celebrate contributions
When a change goes live, tie it back to the individual who submitted the original idea. One Bluewolf client puts employee headshots next to release features on tips sheets and promotes those same employees as innovators. Not only does this encourage more ideas but provides an opportunity for users to take ownership of their Salesforce org.
The Release Process
3. Make time for functional testing with affected users
Whether users are submitting recorded sessions of themselves completing actions in a sandbox or someone familiar with the technical side of the release is shadowing users, it is essential to test prior to releasing. Even simple releases can have surprises.
4. Stay on top of field dependencies
Manually keeping a spreadsheet with who made the change, a change description, where and when the change was made is a valid solution—alongside the developer tools salesforce.com provides (like audit trail). If you’re working with multiple integrations, developers, or regularly adding custom code consider investing a more enterprise approach.
See how others are innovating on the Salesforce platform in the State of Salesforce Annual Review. Download the free report and benchmark yourself against the latest industry trends.
