The article discusses how product managers can use Salesforce DX (SFDX) to collaborate with developers, understand the development process, manage customizations, test new features, automate tasks, and package applications.
It outlines the limitations and challenges of using SFDX, such as the need for technical expertise, additional development work, deployment challenges, version control management, and ensuring security and compliance.
Hutte is presented as a user-friendly tool that simplifies working with SFDX for product managers, offering a web-based interface for Salesforce version control, easy management of scratch orgs and sandboxes, and integration with Git hosting tools without the need to learn Git.
As a product manager, you maynot be writing code, but you still need to understand how the application works, how it's built, and how it can be customized to meet your customers’ needs.
Product managers can use SFDX for a variety of purposes, including:
Collaborating with developers
SFDX provides a common set of tools and processes for product managers and developers, making it easier to collaborate on Salesforce projects.
Understanding the development process
SFDX uses a source-driven development model, meaning all code and metadata are stored in a version control system. Product managers can use SFDX to review developers' changes, track progress, and better understand the development process.
Managing customization
Product managers can create and manage sandboxes. This makes it simpler to customize Salesforce applications without affecting the production environment.
Testing new features
Product managers can use SFDX to create scratch orgs. Testing new features and configurations is easier in isolation from other developers.
Automating tasks
SFDX includes a powerful command-line interface for automating tasks, running tests, and deploying changes to Salesforce environments. Product managers can use this to streamline their workflow and save time.
Packaging and distributing applications
SFDX provides a packaging system that allows product managers to bundle their applications and dependencies into a package installed in other Salesforce environments. This is useful for distributing the application to customers or deploying it to production.
Product managers need to be mindful of the drawbacks of SFDX
SFDX does have its limitations, including the following:
SFDX can require a certain level of technical expertise
Product managers unfamiliar with software development may need to invest time in learning how to use the toolset effectively.
Customizing a Salesforce application using SFDX may require additional development work
This includes creating custom code or installing third-party packages. Product managers may need to work closely with developers to ensure all dependencies are accounted for and properly managed.
Deploying changes made using SFDX to a production environment can be challenging
Product managers may need to carefully plan and coordinate the deployment process to avoid conflicts – especially if multiple developers are working on the same application. They also need to ensure that everything is properly tested.
SFDX relies heavily on version control
This can be difficult to manage if product managers are unfamiliar with Git or other version control systems.
While SFDX provides many useful tools and features for customizing Salesforce applications, it may not meet all of the needs of product managers
Product managers may need to supplement SFDX with other tools or processes depending on the application's requirements.
Using SFDX effectively requires a significant investment of time and resources
Product managers may need to balance their use of SFDX with other responsibilities and priorities.
Salesforce applications often contain sensitive data, such as customer information or financial data
Product managers may need to ensure that SFDX is used in a way that meets security and compliance requirements.
Customizing a Salesforce application using SFDX may impact user adoption
This is especially true if changes are not communicated properly or the user experience is negatively affected. Product managers may need to work with end users to ensure that any changes made using SFDX are well-received and do not disrupt business operations.
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Overall, as a product manager, you want a tool to help you spin up environments and hand them over with a one-click login format. That’s where solutions like Hutte come to the rescue.
Product management made simple with Hutte
If you're a product manager looking for a user-friendly solution to work with SFDX, Hutte has you covered. Our web-based interface simplifies Salesforce version control, so you don't have to worry about pesky command-line interfaces (CLI) or other bottlenecks.
We give you everything you need right at your fingertips, making you more productive than ever before. With Hutte, creating and managing Salesforce scratch orgs and sandboxes is a breeze.
Check out our demo to get your eyes on how Hutte looks and feels:
Plus, we've integrated our UI with popular Git hosting tools, so you don't have to worry about learning Git. You can view changes directly from these hosting providers in a line-by-line comparison format.
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Hutte generates and integrates all the necessary data, so you don’t have to waste your time manually replicating anything.
Start your Hutte journey with our free 30-day trial. Once you’ve created your account, continue reading about how Hutte simplifies product management with SFDX.
Hutte is truly one of the best tools that we use. Product owners, Salesforce solution architects, business analysts — anyone on our team can easily and visually accomplish the tasks that would otherwise take a lot of clicks, time, and coding.
Sebastian Lechner
Product Management Director of IPfolio
Utilize Scratch Orgs And Sandboxes
Create your scratch orgs or sandbox environments from a clean UI using custom buttons.
You can also use different seed datasets to shape development environments that fit the organization's needs.
For example, these could be sample data sets for demos or sets for training you want to share with the team.
You, as a product manager, can then:
One-click login to these environments
Do your desired work in the native SFDX environment
You can change the data model, including list views, page layouts, and formula flows.
For ISVs, Hutte allows you to inspect sources that are otherwise hidden. You build your package with your hidden code. So, the metadata of your org becomes inspectable.
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It can be beneficial to use scratch orgs from Hutte as they can be inspected for instances where you need to help your team educate your customers on your product, for example.
Without Hutte, your team will need to use Git, which is difficult to read. With Hutte, you can see how your team has built calculations. This will then equip you to build a better understanding for product training purposes.
Create a pull request
You will see all of the metadata you have touched. You can also opt out of any changes you don’t want to be included.
You can create a pull request from an easy UI without having to learn Git.
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You will ship your changes to Hutte, where your team or automaton will pick them up and process them according to the development lifecycle.
The lifecycle can include the following:
Automation kicking in
Tests being executed on changes
Merging the changes with the primary source of truth (continuous integration).
Hutte empowers product managers to participate in the overall lifecycle without installing additional tooling, waiting for environments to be provisioned from their machines, and offloading the tasks to our clouding infrastructure.
Take your product management to new heights
Product managers must keep stakeholders in the loop regarding their busy schedules. However, SFDX can often complicate this process, requiring additional understanding and knowledge.
Using Hutte, any product manager can show their changes and create pull requests in one intuitive place.
Harald is the Co-Founder of Hutte, bringing his vision of no-code DevOps to life. His passion enables teams and individuals to focus on what matters most – bringing value to the users they build for.
Samantha is Hutte's Content Manager and Chief Editor. She has over six years of experience as both a content writer and a copywriter. Bringing the written word to life is the name of her game.
