Salesforce Releases
Salesforce has three regular releases each year (Spring, Summer & Winter). These releases are jammed packed with new features & functionality to learn/implement in your Salesforce orgs. Details about each release is available from Salesforce a couple months in advance of the deployment date. Scheduled deployment dates can be found on the Salesforce Trust site.
If you have any custom Apex code in your Salesforce org, it is critical to make sure to validate/test these processes to make sure they will work in the new Salesforce version. Custom Apex is the responsibility of the customer to maintain with limited support from Salesforce.
The Salesforce org I currently manage has several thousand Apex classes & triggers. This is due to a custom vaccination solution that was developed prior to my employment. We have established the following schedule for Salesforce releases:
Ten Weeks Out
- Keep an eye out for the Salesforce admin blog post announcing release key dates.
- Keep an eye on Release Readiness Trailblazers community group for updates.
- Salesforce Ben site is also a great resource to use for Salesforce release knowledge.
Nine Weeks Out
- Make sure Preview sandbox will get picked up by Salesforce for upgrading to new release. Use the Sandbox Preview Guide site to check & request the upgrade.
- Review Preview sandbox to see if data needs refreshed from Production environment or any data clean-ups are needed from last release testing.
- Sign-up for a pre-release sandbox trial if you would like to have separate playground from company sandboxes to review. This sandbox will not include any customizations.
Eight Weeks Out
- Review release notes when available. These will be posted in Salesforce Help.
- Reconcile customizations made in DEV sandbox to Preview sandbox since last release.
- Review existing testing case template. Add new test cases for any new functionality added since last release.
- Communicate to business users about release & deployment date. Suggest new test cases for their UAT template if applicable.
Six Weeks Out
- Preview sandbox will be upgraded to latest release by Salesforce.
- Once refresh happens, go thru test cases to verify custom functionality still works. Make sure to prioritize this accordingly as limited time to test!
- Run any automated testing re: Apex test classes.
- Coordinate with business users on any UAT testing activities. Remind them of deadline.
- Review additional release materials when available to get more up-to-speed on release changes. Example: Release in a Box, Release Trailhead module, Release Overview Deck, etc.
Four Weeks Out
- If any issues with testing, fixes should start during this time frame to ensure enough time to verify prior to release deployment.
Two Weeks Out
- Finish last minute regression testing in Preview sandbox.
- Check schedule for Release Readiness Live sessions. Attend sessions related to clouds in use.
One Week Out
- Week before deployment date is considered the Burn In week. All tasks & changes should be done before that week.
Post Deployment
- Do a quick smoke test to make sure the system is functioning as expected.