So you want to build a mobile app. Should you choose native or hybrid mobile application development? Each choice has advantages depending on your projected use and time to market.
Creating a great Salesforce app for your team is only part of the solution; the other part is getting your team to use the app. The best tool in the world is useless if it's not used! You've seen plenty of tips about signs your team has bought into using Salesforce. Your next step is improving Salesforce user adoption, and communication, training, and continuous refinement are the keys.
In a fast-paced, connected world, how can companies keep their clients engaged and satisfied? Even if your business model is selling fungible, disposable widgets, customers look for two-way conversations about their experiences. This is even more true for companies that provide professional services. Clients need to know you'll provide support when needed, yet live support can cause its own problems when resources are stretched thin. Creating a client portal creates a win-win situation for you and your clients.
People resist change, even when it's good. This is especially true when working routines and tools change. Field staffers are no exception; they're constantly on the go, so they need for their productivity tools to be seamless and easy. This is where well-designed mobile workforce apps can really help.
Many companies use Salesforce not only for sales-related CRM but also for managing disparate business processes. Salesforce record types can help administrators fine-tune their orgs and manage business processes for different users effectively.
Sometimes, administrators go a little overboard with custom record types. Even after reading the documentation, it can help to see how other admins utilize Salesforce record types. Here are some tips to help get you started.
Writing software requirements should be easy, right? Right? Of course we know exactly what we need and can tell you exactly what the software should do.
Unfortunately, it's not always so easy. Writing software requirements well takes detailed, deep thought about business requirements. It also takes clear communication between the people who will use the software and the people who will write it.
It isn't always easy to translate between business-speak or industry-speak and developer-speak. This can cause costly confusion. Fortunately, there is a language called Gherkin to help bridge the gap.
So what makes a good set of software requirements, and how can we develop those requirements?
Is your software development team listening to you? Good project communication helps prevent costly rework and ensures that product owners and development teams understand each other.
You may have heard software developers and project managers talk about "technical debt". This term has been around since the 1990s and is growing in popularity. But what is technical debt and why do people keep talking about it?
Legacy system conversion projects are always challenging. Rollout strategy can make a huge difference in successful user adoption and overall project success.
Only when I began writing them down did I realize that I had recurring dreams. I had believed that my dreams were largely random and varied, but instead I learned that I had many frequently recurring themes. Similarly, the process of writing down my thoughts on software development has shown me that there are also recurring themes.
One of these themes is the impact of rollout methodology on a project's success. More specifically, rollouts of legacy system conversion projects. Rollouts of brand new systems into an organization are typically less painful, as you are often automating a paper process, or inventing a new process that improves productivity. However, legacy system conversions are almost always painful, as there are many processes that have emerged around this system. People have developed a form of muscle-memory with the old system that even they themselves scarcely understand.
We have successfully replaced dozens of legacy systems where everyone was happy and all was good with the world. But it's not those projects I want to talk about. I am going to talk about the projects where things went awry, because I don't want to make the same mistakes again. Hopefully, these words will also help the reader to avoid similar problems in their projects.