In this episode of DevOps Diaries, host Jack McCurdy welcomes Paul Battisson to discuss his 15-year journey in Salesforce. They explore the importance of saying yes to challenges, the evolution of the Salesforce platform, and the balance between simplicity and complexity.

Paul shares insights on innovation, problem-solving, and the significance of good processes and communication in successful project delivery. In this conversation, Paul and Jack discuss the challenges and strategies involved in implementing change within organizations, particularly in the context of DevOps and consulting. They emphasize the importance of transparency, building trust, and involving stakeholders in the process to overcome resistance.

The discussion also touches on the human element of consulting, the impact of technology on job security, and the necessity of consistency and detail in achieving success.

Learn more:
DevOps for the Salesforce enterprise
Transforming Salesforce DevOps in financial services
How to deploy Salesforce flows
Groundwork Apps

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:

00:00 The journey of saying yes
06:06 Innovation in a mature platform
09:01 solving problems creatively
12:03 Salesforce: simplicity vs complexity
15:06 The double-edged sword of low technical barriers
18:06 Establishing good processes
20:55 The Importance of communication in teams
26:24 Incremental changes
29:15 Building trust through transparency
32:37 Overcoming resistance to change
36:44 The human element in consulting
41:40 How AI agents change the job market
53:20 Consistency and detail: keys to success

In this episode of DevOps Diaries we cover some of the outstanding moments from DevOps Diaries in 2024. Hear about everything from artificial intelligence and Salesforce Flows, to Heroku and QA testing.

You can expect snippets of conversation with: Julián Duque, Steve Fouracre, Alba Rivas, Dave Carroll, Jon Robinson, Todd Halfpenny and Andy Utkan. Thank you to all our guests this year for sharing wonderful insights and knowledge!

All episodes from this year can be found on Gearset's YouTube channel as well as audio platforms.

Learn more:
- Deploy Salesforce Flows easily
- Salesforce DevOps for enterprise organizations
- Easy backup and restore solutions for Salesforce
- How successful are teams using Gearset?

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Julián Duque — Heroku and Salesforce
03:55 Steve Fouracre — Impact of AI on Salesforce Development
08:02 Andy Utkan — Why Salesforce Developers should care about Salesforce Flows 
10:58 Todd Halfpenny — The future role of Salesforce Developers
15:12 Dave Carroll — The best learning method for Salesforce professionals
19:38 Alba Rivas — How does Agentforce work?
25:38 Jon Robinson — How to implement a good Salesforce QA strategy

In this episode of DevOps Diaries, Jack McCurdy interviews John Robinson, a seasoned QA professional. They discus the significance of quality assurance (QA) in the Salesforce ecosystem, exploring the evolution of QA, the misconceptions surrounding it, and the necessity for dedicated QA roles within teams.

John emphasizes the importance of understanding testing practices at their core, the role of tooling, and why there's the need for education to elevate the QA standards in Salesforce implementations.

Jack and Jon's conversation highlights the challenges faced by teams in adopting effective QA processes and the critical need for a proactive approach to ensure quality in software delivery. They delve into the critical aspects of testing and quality assurance (QA) within the Salesforce ecosystem. They chat about the misconceptions surrounding testing, the importance of understanding user perspectives, and the need for a robust QA strategy.

Jon also shares his take on the shift left ideology and the necessity of collaboration between QA and business analysts.

Learn more:
- What is Salesforce test automation?
- How to integrate testing into your Salesforce deployment pipeline
- What are the best practices for Salesforce testing?

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to QA and Its Importance in Salesforce Development
06:03 The Role of Salesforce Tooling in QA
12:14 Educating the Salesforce Community in QA
17:46 Challenges of Salesforce QA and Perception of Testing
29:23 Understanding Good Salesforce Testing Practices
37:13 The Shift Left Ideology in Salesforce Testing
43:30 Resources for Quality Assurance in Salesforce

In this episode of DevOps Diaries, Jack McCurdy speaks with Alba Rivas, Principal Developer Advocate at Salesforce. They discuss Alba's journey in the Salesforce ecosystem, her role in engaging the developer community, and the evolving landscape of Salesforce technologies.

Alba dives in to the nuances of artificial intelligence and Salesforce's new Data Cloud. She shares insights on the differences between Agentforce and Einstein Copilot, the importance of hands-on experience, and how to effectively test AI applications.

Their conversation emphasizes the need for developers to embrace new technologies, engage with the community for growth and learning, and how to submit a great session for TrailblazerDX.

Learn more:
- How to pick the right Salesforce DevOps solution for your needs
- What is Platform Engineering and how does it impact Salesforce DevOps?
- Salesforce CI/CD Pipelines that include LWC testing DevOps
- Salesforce DevOps for AI Enterprise

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters: 
00:00 Introduction to Alba and Her Role
03:02 The Developer Advocate Journey
06:06 Engaging the Developer Community
10:00 Navigating the Evolving Salesforce Ecosystem
14:23 Embracing AI and Data Cloud
16:45 Generative AI: Surprises and Insights
22:04 Understanding Agent Force vs. Copilot
27:53 Hands-On Experience with Agent Force
37:45 Testing and Evaluating AI Applications
40:04 Data Cloud Innovations and DevOps
45:47 Final Thoughts and Learning Recommendations

In this episode of DevOps Diaries, Jack McCurdy sits down with Dave Carroll, a veteran in the Salesforce ecosystem. They discuss Dave's journey from being a Salesforce ISV partner to a key player at Salesforce for 21 years. Dave's mission has been to help develop the tools and practices that empower Salesforce developers to be successful, and has graciously stepped out of retirement briefly to appear on DevOps Diaries.

Jack and Dave's conversation covers the evolution of Salesforce, the importance of customization and integrated solutions, as well as the challenges faced by developers across the development lifecycle.

Dave shares insights on what it takes to build a successful developer evangelism team through experimentation, and offers valuable advice for aspiring developers looking to navigate the Salesforce ecosystem successfully.

Dave Carroll was a Senior Director at Salesforce, managing product development for Salesforce DX, Salesforce Einstein, and was the founding member of the Salesforce developer relations programme.

Learn more:
How to pick the right Salesforce DevOps solution for your needs
What is Platform Engineering and how does it impact Salesforce DevOps?
Salesforce DevOps for Enterprise customers
Improve the quality, performance, and security of your Apex code

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Dave Carroll and His Journey
02:54 The Evolution of Salesforce and Developer Tools
05:52 Customizability and Integration in Salesforce
08:59 Developing for the AppExchange Platform
11:51 Salesforce DX and Developer Tooling
17:52 Challenges in Developer Experience and Testing
23:48 The Role of AI and Machine Learning in Salesforce
29:

Todd Halfpenny is a Salesforce MVP, Golden Hoodie recipient, and community leader. His impact on the UK Salesforce community is extensive and far reaching. Todd co-leads the London Salesforce Developers user group, is an organizer of Salesforce community conference London's Calling, and a co-founder of charitable clothing organization, Shirtforce.

In this episode Jack and Todd discuss Todd's journey from a telecoms engineer to a prominent figure in the Salesforce ecosystem, emphasizing the importance of luck, opportunity, and community engagement.

Throughout the conversation, Todd explores the dynamic between declarative and programmatic development, the evolving roles of admins and developers, and the significance of empathy in collaboration.

Todd shares insights on the growth of business analysis roles, the challenges of managing complex Salesforce orgs, and the value of open source contributions.

They also touch on the impact of AI on future roles, the importance of building resilient applications, and investing in community relationships.

Learn More:
Gearset acquires Salesforce code analysis platform, Clayton
How to deploy Salesforce Flow with ease
Join the Salesforce community at DevOps Dreamin'
Discover Shirtforce

About DevOps Diaries:
Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
03:00 The Role of Luck and Opportunity in Career Development
06:06 Transitioning from Telecoms to Salesforce Development
08:57 The Dynamic Between Declarative and Programmatic Development
12:04 The Importance of Empathy in Admin and Developer Roles
15:01 The Evolution of Business Analysis in Salesforce
17:47 Navigating Complexity in Salesforce Orgs
21:01 The Balance Between Over-Engineering and Practical Solutions
23:59 The Value of Documentation and Flexibility in Development
27:11 Open Source Contributions and Community Collaboration
30:09 The Impact of Open Source on Developer Creativity
32:59 The Role of Shirtforce in the Salesforce Community
36:13 Building Resilient Applications in the Face of Outages
39:01 The Future of AI and Its Impact on Salesforce Roles
51:57 Final Thoughts

This week on DevOps Diaries, catch up on the recording of a game-changing moment in the world of Salesforce DevOps — Gearset has officially acquired Clayton.

Join Jack McCurdy as he chats with Kevin Boyle (Gearset CEO and Co-Founder) and Lorenzo Frattini (Clayton CEO and Founder) about their vision for the future. They discuss how this acquisition will transform the DevOps experience for Salesforce professionals, enhance product offerings, and unlock powerful new capabilities for customers.

Expect insights into:
- Why this acquisition? How Gearset and Clayton came together to redefine releases on the Salesforce platform
- What is code scanning for Salesforce?
- What’s next? An early sneak peek into the future of what to expect from Gearset
- Your role in this exciting new chapter!

This is your chance to hear directly from the leaders shaping the future of Salesforce DevOps. Whether you’re a current Gearset or Clayton user, a Salesforce expert, or simply passionate about Salesforce, you won’t want to miss this.

Learn more:
- Develop and deploy secure, well-architected Salesforce solutions using Clayton from Gearset
- Clayton’s 2024 State of Salesforce Development Report
- The State of Salesforce DevOps 2024 Report
- 10 common engineering mistakes Salesforce teams still make

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
03:10 What is Clayton and how did it come about?
07:00 Kevin’s background and how it resonates with Clayton
11:01 How does Clayton help Salesforce customers? 
17:46 Clayton is for everyone and shifting-left
24:23 The cost of vulnerabilities and the importance of security 
27:38 How Clayton helps catch vulnerabilities
32:00 Why Salesforce customers should adopt a more security-based mindset in an AI-driven world
38:54 Why Gearset acquired Clayton
47:10 What the future holds 
51:08 Outlook for Gearset and Clayton customers and closing

Andy Utkan is a Salesforce MVP, founder of Flow Canvas Academy, and a Salesforce Flows expert. His newsletter, Salesforce Break, has over 10,000 subscribers. His involvement in the Salesforce community has been profound, providing support and guidance for thousands of professionals brining declarative automation to their Salesforce orgs.

In this episode, Andy and Jack chat about the power and potential of Salesforce Flows for automating business processes. He shares the benefits of visual programming and the ability to simplify complex technical concepts.

Andy emphasizes the importance of collaboration between admins and developers and its importance in being able leveraging the strengths of Flows and Apex.

He also addresses the challenges of using version control, testing, and deploying Salesforce Flows. He advocates for improved testing capabilities, using Gearset's Flow Navigator, and questions whether a Salesforce Flow certification is necessary.

Learn more:
- Gearset acquires Clayton
- How to deploy Salesforce Flows successfully
- Discover Gearset's Flow Navigator
- Discover best in class code analysis for Salesforce

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and Background
03:17 The Power of Visual Programming
09:01 Collaboration Between Admins and Developers
19:58 Challenges and Solutions in Flow Development
24:26 The Future of Flows: Specialization and Certification
35:34 Exciting Flow Updates in the Winter '25 Release

Steve Fouracre is the founder of Self Evolving Software (SES), and Head of Salesforce Delivery at Metacube. Steve started his career in the Salesforce ecosystem as a Salesforce Developer, and grew to managing Salesforce development teams for some of the largest businesses in the UK.

In this episode, Steve and Jack dive deep into the merits of using artificial intelligence to support Salesforce development. Steve's company SES provides a way to introduce AI into the development process in an impactful way — Steve shares what that means, and where in the software development lifecycle AI can have a positive and transformative effect.

Steve shares how we can make AI more useful for gathering requirements, as well as how the ability for AI to generate code is going to change the way that developers work. While it's easy to overlook the human aspect of this process, Jack and Steve discuss how people can make the biggest difference in the successful adoption and impact of AI.

Learn more:
- Where to find Gearset at Dreamforce
- How to automate your Salesforce tests
- Transform your AI enterprise with enterprise DevOps
- Connect with Steve

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel: https://grst.co/4cTAAxm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gearset
X/Twitter: https://x.com/GearsetHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Opportunities and considerations of using AI in Salesforce development
08:48 Streamlining the software Delivery lifecycle with AI
11:16 The role of human collaboration in AI development
27:17 The impact of AI on developers' careers
31:40 The future of AI products in the Salesforce ecosystem

Julián Duque is Principal Developer Advocate for Heroku at Salesforce. His background in Node.js allows him to think objectively about development on the Salesforce platform and how it scales. His work with Heroku gives him a unique perspective on where traditional software engineering, DevOps, and Salesforce development intersects.

In this episode, Julián and Jack discuss the importance of community in software development. Julián dives into how his career has developed in the Developer Relations space, and how sharing knowledge benefits the teacher and the student, building great relationships.

Julián teaches Jack what Heroku is, and shares some of the common applications. He explains how Heroku benefits Salesforce teams, and provides the foundation for integrating applications, enabling one source of truth for data so businesses can make data-driven decisions across their tech stacks.

Heroku is constantly evolving. Julián sheds light on the future roadmap, why he’s excited for the future of Salesforce and what we’ll be achieving with new technologies.

Learn more

Build applications with Heroku
Where to find Gearset at Dreamforce
How Gearset integrates with your tech stack
Salesforce DevOps for Data Cloud

About DevOps Diaries

Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

Subscribe to Gearset's YouTube channel.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/gearset
Facebook: facebook.com/gearsethq

About Gearset
 
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:

00:00 Get to know Julián
09:09 The Importance of Community in Software Development
19:38 What is Heroku?
24:09 Integrating Salesforce & Heroku
32:54 Common Use Cases for Heroku
36:25 The Future of Heroku: Next-Generation Platform
46:02 Advice for Developers Transitioning to Heroku