Salesforce DevOps Professionals’ Training Needs – Charlotte Humberston, Gearset

This is Textron tv. Hey guys, thanks for the throw. We're here with Charlotte Berton, who is editor in chief for something called DevOps Launchpad, which has been created by the folks at Gear Set, which is providing educational tools and training for the folks in the Salesforce community that are trying to learn DevOps.

Charlotte, welcome to show. Hi, Mike. Thanks for having me.

What are you seeing as kind of the fundamental challenge with bringing DevOps to the Salesforce community? A lot of these folks are not, shall we say, software engineers by nature, and so are we trying to teach them DevOps and what are you seeing from these folks? So I think one of the fundamental challenges is that, like you said, it's Salesforce is a little bit later in adopting DevOps as compared to other ecosystems.

So a lot of people that come into the ecosystem don't have that technical background. Um, so Salesforce itself actually takes, takes care of some of the complexities within DevOps. So standard DevOps training can be confusing because it, it refers to a lot of things that aren't necessarily relevant in the Salesforce DevOps community.

Um, so I think one of the, the main challenges is that perhaps they're, they're told that they need to adopt DevOps and they don't really understand why or how. Um, and there there might be some people in the team, like maybe the developers will understand it, the admins that are actually implementing the changes day by day don't necessarily understand, um, the concepts behind DevOps. So that's, that's why we, we developed the platform to kind of meet that need of people that, that there's DevOps training available, there's Salesforce training available, but there's not necessarily anything that brings, brings the two together.

How much are you seeing maybe DevOps professionals being brought into the Salesforce environment, which of course is unique in its own right, because a lot of the attributes are low code driven and there's a unique object model within Salesforce. So, um, but are we starting to see DevOps professionals be brought into this to make up for the lack of skills in the traditional developer community for Salesforce? I Think partly, yes.

Um, so on our platform, there's definitely a really strong developer base. Um, so if it was only kind of traditional Salesforce, uh, professionals that were, that were there, we would expect to see less developers on the platform. We obviously don't know everyone's exact background, but I think that, that there's a mix.

There's, there's people that don't come from the technical background such as admins who are upskilling and maybe moving into the we term IT admin ER type role. Um, whether they're taking on more of the coding and, and DevOps platforms can help 'em do that. Um, and I think there is an element of, uh, people that are more skilled DevOps coming into Salesforce ecosystem and then having to learn how it works in Salesforce.

And I think fundamentally it's bringing the rest of the team on board when that does happen. So obviously a really important element of DevOps is the collaboration element, and we can't have kind of half the team knowing how it works and half the team not, because then you're gonna, uh, you're gonna get to stumbling blocks and you're just not gonna have a successful implementation. So what exactly is the training program like for these folks?

I mean, where do they start? Where do they begin? Can you describe a little bit of the, um, the actual courses they might wind up taking?

Yeah, certainly. So we've got quite a range of different courses. We've built it up quite a lot over the past year.

Um, so we, we time kind of try to appeal to people all across the spectrum. So we have real fundamental, um, courses. So we've actually got fundamental certificate, which takes people an introduction to Salesforce DevOps.

So all the basic terms covering things like, um, the, the, the characteristics that deployments need to have before you start automating them, for example, um, implementing virtual control, GI branching, those kinds of things. And, um, we've got, people can either take a full certificate or they can just, uh, pick up modules so they might understand the concepts of DevOps, but they don't understand much about backup, for example. So they can just take the, the programs on backup.

Um, we've also, um, more recently we've implemented some other courses, um, more aimed at leadership. So rather than, um, the people that are perhaps getting kind of hands-on with, with DevOps, the people that are managing those teams and leading those teams and the important aspects that people need to consider building a DevOps culture, for example, taking the time with DevOps implementation. So there's a mixture.

We've also got some gear set specific training on there, but the majority of our content is, is aimed at the, um, at general users. So no matter what you're working with in the Salesforce ecosystem, or even if you're, you're brand new to Salesforce ecosystem or looking for a role in the Salesforce ecosystem, um, there, there's a program that can suit you. We've also got some courses on there which aren't necessarily DevOps related, but we find a lot of people, there might be certain terminology that they're coming across.

Um, and it's helpful to have that, have that defined, even though it's not necessarily DevOps related. For example, there's lightning web components or Salesforce C P Q, which aren't directly, um, DevOps related, but, but people are coming across those terms. So yeah, there, there's lots of content on there and we're, we're kind of listening to our users all the time and what they, what they want to learn more about.

So from your experience so far, what do you see as the most challenging aspect of kind of bringing this community into the DevOps vernacular and best practices? I think there's a few key challenges. Um, as I kind of alluded to previously, there's the cultural aspect is, is one of the, the most difficult.

So I think people underestimating the cultural aspects, they're kind of being handed, handed a, a tool or a platform and being told to run with it and not taking the time to kind of build that culture and the understanding and it's the level playing field across the team. Um, I think that's, that's one of the challenges. Um, time.

I think more than ever in today's kind of environments, people are under more pressure, teams are under more pressure to kind of do more with less. So carving out that time and actually spending time on, on professional development, on training, on finding those resources. There's, there's loads of resources out there, but I think unless it's coming from the management level, um, the, the people need to prioritize this, then it, it, it can fall by the wayside.

Um, so I think that yeah, the, the different levels of, um, of expertise is, is a challenge, especially when you've got, I mean, people with completely no technical background at all, and they're coming in as admins and then, um, kind of being expected to pick up more and more of, of the development type work, especially if you've got things like DevOps Center coming into Salesforce where DevOps is becoming much more of a standard way to develop. Um, so yeah, there, there's, there's lots of different factors at play. I think time, time and um, yeah, just building that expertise in the right areas are probably the, the two biggest challenges.

Who has the aha moment that says we need to kind of move to DevOps? I mean, is it the senior leadership that gets this, or is it the admins who get this, who kind of wakes up one day and says, you know, the way we're building these applications just isn't gonna scale at this rate. We See it from both sides.

So there's, I think more and more it's, it's coming from the kind of bottom up, um, as you say, so it's the people that are the hands-on the, the ones that are fighting with change sets, which is the, the kind of method of development, um, on Salesforce. But when you're not, you're not working for a DevOps methodology. So the people that are kind of spending their weekends, um, trying to get a deployment through, and it's just getting errors and I think there must be something else, but another way to do this.

Um, I think others, it's, it's becoming a much more a part of the mainstream vocabulary within Salesforce, especially the fact that Salesforce themselves have now brought out DevOps center. I think that's got senior leadership's attention more so. But again, you might then have the issue of just, oh, they've, they've brought in DevOps center, we all need to do DevOps now.

Um, rather than understanding how to implement it successfully and, and taking that time. So I think it's a bit of both. I think the DevOps center becoming available to tail end of last year, I think that's been a big shift into kind of the leadership and the people, um, at the kind of top of the organization saying, right, we need to do DevOps.

Um, and so sometimes it's building the business case from the bottom up for the admin. It's like, we need to do this and this is why. And other times it's kind of, okay, let's implement this.

Sometimes it's done very well from the top. Other times there's a building blocks that needs to be put in place first. Hmm.

How much support are you seeing from Salesforce itself in terms of promoting the notion that DevOps is a thing that the community should be adopting or, um, I know historically you guys have been providing those tools for a while, but are you seeing more support from the mothership, as they say? Oh, absolutely. As I said, with with DevOps Center becoming available, it is now a kind of, it's less a question of, of if DevOps, it's more how, how teams should do DevOps.

So, um, yeah, Salesforce itself is, is has made the platform available and it's, it's free to all, it's it's users. I don't believe there's any additional licensing fee. Um, so there, there's a strong push from Salesforce towards the DevOps methodology.

They of course have their own training platforms and there, there's DevOps elements in there, but we've always worked as a kind of complimentary, um, element to Trailhead is, is the Salesforce, um, training platform and DevOps launchpad is, that is designed to compliment it, not to replace it by any means. I think there's address thinking how many hundreds of thousands of courses they've got. Um, but we're, um, we are definitely seeing that Salesforce are becoming more, um, just more, more a part of the DevOps, um, conversation.

And, um, yeah, we just wanted to work as to compliment that. And there's clearly a real thirst for learning and education in the Salesforce ecosystem just generally. So the more that we can kind of help that community, um, upskill, I think it's, it's good or round.

So how often are the people taking your training? Are they newbies or have they had some experience with the Salesforce training and then they come to you for, uh, for lack of a better description and graduate program? I think that there's, there's a mixture.

So we are actually running a survey at the moment to, um, to learn a bit more about our users, and we are really seeing that there's, there's a full spectrum of use. There's some people that have heard that Salesforce is a really great ecosystem to, they really want to find a job. And so there may be, they might be doing both in parallel, so they might be doing something like Salesforce Trailhead modules, kind of learning about Salesforce, learning about the platform, and learning how to develop on the platform.

At the same time, other people that, we've got users that have been in the Salesforce ecosystem for five, 10 long years longer than that, and they're, they're maybe seeing that they want to upskill in a particular area. Some people might have the skills, but they want to prove them. So they might want to, to have the certificates to put on their cv to put on their LinkedIn profile.

We are definitely seeing in the, um, in the general ecosystem that job adverts for kind of standard Salesforce admins or Salesforce developers are now specifying experience in DevOps in some of the job advertisements. So if they can have certificates that they can add to their profiles and show that they, they've achieved the, these, these kind of, these skills, um, then that's gonna help boost their cv. So I think it's a real mix.

There's, there's some people that are coming brand new into the Salesforce ecosystem, and then DevOps is, is kind of, it's there already, whereas some people have worked at Salesforce for years and they're now having to change the way that they're working to, to adopt the DevOps, DevOps methodologies. So what are you seeing among the people who succeed with this training? What do they bring to the table?

I mean, what would be your best advice to folks who are gonna take this training to get prepared for it, to get the most out of it? Um, you know, it seems to me you get students of all kinds of capabilities. So if you could talk to 'em beforehand, what would you say?

I would say just come with an open mind and just to, to kind of embrace, like figure out what level that you want to, what level of skills you want to build on first. We get lots of people that come and they want to complete every single course kind of as quickly as possible. But my advice would be to kind of take the time to understand what your training needs are.

And the other, the other really important thing is if you're working in a team as a part of people, get them along as well and kind of do it together so that then you can take the, the kind of practical advice that we're, we are giving, and then take that into your day-to-day processes. So, um, yeah, I think taking, taking, taking knowledge and, and taking the time to implement that in your processes, I think that's probably the, the way that people can get the most out of the training. Um, and it is, it is like DevOps itself kind of incremental improvements are the way forward.

So make taking the time to really understand the concept, going away and practicing it, and then coming onto the next thing would be the, the way to succeed, I think. And then coming back and doing the leadership modules when you're in a position to lead a team later on. All right, folks, you heard it here.

As always, if you want a job in a space, no matter how much, you know, you're probably gonna have to get a certificate to get past the HR department, but at the very least, you might learn something new and different you didn't know beforehand. Charlotte, thank you for being on the show. Thanks so much for having me, Mike.

All right. And back to you guys in the studio.