Salesforce Architect - DevOps & Deployment (CI/CD, Release)

Explore how waterfall and agile frameworks shape Salesforce project planning and delivery, from requirements to iterative releases. Understand Scrum roles, the definition of done, and Lean principles for efficient deployments.

Explore the four Salesforce sandbox types: developer, developer pro, partial copy, and full sandbox, and how templates, storage limits, and refresh intervals enable safe development and testing.

Understand how Salesforce sandboxes use unique org IDs, different servers, and altered user data to protect production. Learn to verify sandbox instances, manage email deliverability, and monitor health with status.salesforce.com.

Configure full sandboxes with selective data (field history tracking, chatter data) and secure access (deactivate unused users, sandbox domain login, MFA with per-sandbox permission sets).

Enable source tracking in developer and developer pro sandboxes to let Salesforce DX tooling detect new or modified metadata and improve conflict resolution, via production org or per sandbox.

Learn how Salesforce data resides in first-party data centers, Hyperforce with AWS, GCP, and Azure, and government cloud, with encryption in transit and at rest, cloud-native scalability, security, and compliance.

Learn to manage sandbox storage by cleaning data or upgrading; metadata types don’t count toward storage, while dev sandboxes double to 400 MB and dev pro to 2 GB.

Explore how preview versus non-preview sandboxes affect Salesforce upgrade timing, enabling early access to features about six weeks before production and aligned release planning.

Manage sandbox usage within your Salesforce license by understanding the compliance timeline, where over allocation locks sandboxes and triggers eventual permanent deletion.

Learn how to create, refresh, and clone Salesforce sandboxes efficiently by understanding sandbox types, timing factors, and best practices like templates and post-copy automation.

Discover how Salesforce DataMask protects sensitive data in sandboxes by obfuscating PII and financial details. Follow practices for configurations, data filters, and bypassing workflows and triggers to ensure efficient masking.

Explore Salesforce data masking in sandboxes, learning when to use random data, library values, pattern-based masking, and delete data to protect sensitive data while supporting testing.

Install the DataMask managed package in production and assign permissions. Configure org-level settings, masking rules, filters, schedules, and custom libraries.

Understand scratch orgs, disposable Salesforce environments managed by Dev Hub, enabling fast development and CI/CD automation via CLI or GUI, with daily limits and regional hosting.

Master unlocked packages and second-generation managed packages to streamline metadata across multiple orgs with a source-driven, version-controlled DevOps workflow.

Manage scratch orgs from the dev hub and enable org shape to mirror production, sandbox, or packaging orgs, tracking active orgs and scratch org info history.

Explore version control basics with centralized and distributed systems, including Git and GitHub, and learn core concepts like commits, branches, merges, and pull requests.

Learn how to create a repository, manage branches, and open a pull request to collaborate with GitHub, preserving version history and safely merging feature changes into the main branch.

Explore how GitHub workflows drive collaborative development, using branches, commits, pull requests, reviews, testing, and merging into main, while understanding Git history, SHA-1 and SHA-256, trees, blobs, and diffs.

Use git revert to safely undo a specific commit by creating a new reversal commit that preserves history and avoids rewriting history, especially on shared branches like main or develop.

Explore the single master branch approach for Salesforce version control, merging feature branches into one master for UAT and production, highlighting simplicity alongside potential coordination and release bottlenecks.

Adopt a one-branch-per-environment approach with a feature branch per user story, using UAT and master branches for automated, predictable deployments via Copado CI/CD.

Adopt two feature branches per feature with environment branches, using feature_X from master and feature_X from UAT to enable frequent, automated releases with declarative workflows and fewer merge conflicts.

Learn how metadata defines your Salesforce org and how the metadata API moves configurations between environments using deploy/retrieve calls or source-tracking commands, aided by VS Code and the Salesforce CLI.

Master deploying and retrieving Salesforce metadata using zip packages, package.xml manifests, and component folders to move configurations between orgs; leverage Salesforce Inspector for streamlined CI/CD and version control workflows.

Learn to use the Salesforce Tooling API for fine-grained metadata access, precise deployments, and CI pipeline feedback, with field definition, entity definition, Apex class/trigger/page/component members, and code coverage tooling.

Explore how Salesforce Tooling API objects—system fields, programming objects, setup objects, tooling objects, and operational objects—work together to manage metadata, Apex classes, and deployments.

Explore unit testing in Salesforce, write apex tests, and learn why early testing saves time. Create reliable test data with brute force, factories, setup methods, and csv files.

Create a central test factory class in Apex to generate accounts, contacts, opportunities, and users, with doInsert flags for flexible, reusable test data.

Use the atTestSetup annotation to create reusable test data in Salesforce Apex, with data reset between tests to ensure isolation and clean, independent test runs.

Master unit testing patterns by implementing positive, negative, and permission-based tests that validate correct outputs, handle invalid input gracefully, and enforce access controls in enterprise applications.