DevOps Diaries

Blanca Leon-Carter is a DevOps Architect and Principal Consultant at Slalom. Blanca has experience working with teams of all shapes and sizes with varying complexities of DevOps challenges. She is based in Chicago and is a Salesforce MVP, Golden Hoodie Recipient, Architect User Group Leader and advocate for diversity and women in tech.

In this episode Jack chats with Blanca about her journey through the technology space, and how she came to be the pillar of the Salesforce ecosystem that she is — traversing the world of non-profit organizations, higher-education, and eventually consulting via RAD Women Code. Blanca also shares with us how she gives back to the community that she has benefited from and become invested in, and how the community revitalized her career.

Blanca gives her take on some of the biggest findings from the State of Salesforce DevOps 2023 report. She predicts what we can expect from Salesforce DevOps and the wider ecosystem this year, as well as some of the challenges that Salesforce teams practicing DevOps are facing and how to overcome them.

Useful Links:
RAD Women Code: https://radwomen.org
The State of Salesforce DevOps Report: https://grst.co/3od3uUR 

Blanca:
https://twitter.com/blancavleon
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bvleoncarter/ 

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Sam and Jack chat about the documentation that supports a great DevOps process. Tune in to hear about what documents you can add to support your delivery process, why good documentation is needed, and how you can keep documentation relevant in your orgs.

Sam is a DevOps Architect at Gearset helping enterprise customers with their Salesforce delivery processes, and self-confessed PowerShell pro.

Sam Crossland
Twitter: @crossland92
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelcrossland/

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Jack and Jodi talk about the ever evolving role of the Salesforce Admin. Tune in to hear about how an Admin can rock their role, question everything, deliver value, and pick the path that's right for you.

Jodi is author of "Rock Your Role as a Salesforce Admin", a long-standing community member, and is a Senior Director for Salesforce Center of Excellence in her organization.

Jodi Hrbek
Twitter: @jodihrbek
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodihrbek/
Web: sfadminbook.com

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Jack and Ben chat about the origins of Salesforce Ben, and how it's developed to be the media platform it is today. Tune in to hear Ben's predictions for the ecosystem in the coming year, the kind of content you can expect to see from the recently re-launched SFBen YouTube channel, and his thoughts on where the community should be focussing their learning.

Ben McCarthy is the founder of Salesforce Ben, a non-exec director and strategy advisor, and an ex-Salesforce Consultant.

Ben McCarthy
Twitter: @SalesforceBen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salesforceben/

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Jack and Tracy (they/Tracy) talk about burnout in the workplace, what you can do to protect your mental health, and how you can make sure you continue to bring your best self to work. They also chat about working at NASA, self-reflection, and the support of the Salesforce community.

Tracy has 20 years experience in software engineering with a background in computer science, and self-confessed Flownatic.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

- 3 tips for building your Salesforce DevOps support network
- Seeking less work stress? Salesforce DevOps could be your answer
- How can Salesforce DevOps boost your work-life balance?
- How to improve collaboration: the key to success with Salesforce DevOps

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Ian and Jack talk about the functions of a Center of Excellence and how they contribute to successfully managing Salesforce implementations of all shapes and sizes. They chat about what they are, how to manage the CoE itself, and the benefits of having a set of standards to deliver business objectives.

Ian is CEO and co-founder of change intelligence platform elements.cloud, and a long-standing member of the Salesforce Ecosystem with over two-decades experience managing enterprise applications.

Useful links based on key themes in this episode:

- How to build a DevOps Center of Excellence at enterprise scale
- Free ebook: Salesforce DevOps at enterprise scale
- How to prepare your Salesforce instance for an IPO
- Why 43% of enterprises fail to see Salesforce’s true value

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Francis and Jack discuss the DevOps process map, and how teams can think objectively about their process by relating it back to Salesforce. They also chat about learning mechanisms, metrics, and the theory of constraints.

Francis is a Salesforce MVP, founder of AdmintoArchitect.com, and Co-organizer of Salesforce community conference, London's Calling.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

- Why awesome admins should upskill in Salesforce DevOps
- How DevOps improves your Salesforce release management process
- Velocity versus resilience: what’s more important in Salesforce releases?
- How to use DevOps metrics to improve your Salesforce releases

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Andy and Jack chat about what it means to be a DevOps Architect at Gearset — how to challenge and change a team’s delivery mindset, testing being an integral part of a safe DevOps process, traffic lights, and how continuous iteration is the name of the game.

Andy Barrick is a DevOps Architect at Gearset, the leading Salesforce DevOps platform. Andy has extensive experience in Salesforce delivery methodologies across ISV’s, end-users, and professional services.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

- Big picture decisions; small, iterative steps — an interview with DevOps Architects Amrut Patil and Sam Crossland
- Salesforce test automation
- Shifting left with Apex static code analysis using VSCode PMD
- The benefits of taking your time with Salesforce DevOps implementation
- Choosing the right Git branching strategy for your Salesforce team

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

Matt and Jack chat about developing high-performing DevOps teams and how mentorship plays a huge part in being successful, breaking things (in a good way!), as well as the importance of patience and giving back as an Engineering leader.

Matt Pieper is Director of Business Systems Engineering at CareRev and has been in the Salesforce ecosystem for 10 years.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

- In conversation with Matt Pieper: A journey to Salesforce CI/CD
- Salesforce CI/CD best practices
- How to create an agile CI/CD pipeline with a release branch strategy
- 10 common engineering mistakes Salesforce teams still make
- How to prepare for your DevOps Engineer interviews

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.

In this episode Eric and Jack talk about how Salesforce has changed over the years, the relevance of Apex given the changes to the Salesforce platform, the importance of version control, and how a DevOps journey evolves when replacing change sets.

Eric Kintzer is a top 10 contributor on the Salesforce StackExchange, and has a software development career spanning 30+ years.

Useful links based on key themes from this episode:

- Which Git hosting provider is right for your Salesforce team?
- Salesforce version control best practices
- Version control for Salesforce
- Build a seamless Salesforce DevOps process with full version control integration

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Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset, the complete Salesforce DevOps platform. Try Gearset free for 30 days.