Navigating the Detail Page & Best Practices
Introduction
Salesforce Projects are our way of managing internal requests for various administration tasks and for development requests and requests for updates to pages. In this article, we will focus on detailing what examples of good development requests look like, best practices for managing your pending development request, and tips that will help to ensure that your development request gets reviewed and hopefully approved for development in the quickest amount of time possible
Note: It is incredibly important that Salesforce Projects are as accurate and detailed as possible, as every request for development will need to be approved at the executive level before they can be acted on. Answering questions promptly, making updates to the record, and notifying developers of these changes in the shortest amount of time possible will help to ensure that your request is able to be reviewed and processed a lot quicker than a request that has vague requirements and limited availability by the requester to answer questions and gather the information required to move forward with development
The Salesforce Project Detail Page
1. Related Users & Page Overview
The Salesforce Project Detail Page is the place where communication on a Salesforce Project's status takes place. You can see a list of related users in the landing tab - "Related Users". This list can include Developers, Key Stake Holders, Executives, Power Users, and more
On the right, information about the start and end date(1), current stage(2) and departments involved(3) is displayed
Files can also be uploaded directly to the record in the Files / Attachments area(4). All files that are uploaded are related to the record, and then displayed as items in the same section. You can download an uploaded file by simply clicking on it
It's a good idea to get the User List populated with any users that will be helpful or are involved in the decision making process for the development request that you have submitted. Doing this when you first create a record will ensure that any involved users aren't accidentally left out of the decision making process
1.1. Notes & Custom Emails
For communication on Salesforce Projects, the custom Notes system allows any related user to create and send a note to any other related user. This feature also logs when the most recent notification was sent to a user, and what notification that was. Key Stakeholders should make notes for any updates they make to the key requirements, end goal, or overview fields to ensure that the revisions get looked at and understood fully. Developers will send notes to Key Stakeholders when they have updates on progress, or when they need something clarified. To get started, let's go over how to create a new note. First, click "+ CREATE NEW NOTE"(1)
Below is a screenshot of the Create New Note popup. The Type field's available options are:
Note: General correspondence about items related to Form Request
Meeting Note: A summarized version of any takeaways from meetings after the initial Form Request was created. These are to be filled out by Key Stake Holders from the requesting department whenever a meeting is held.
Requirements Gathering Request: A request for additional information relating to the form request. Is typically saved then sent out via "Send Message" to the related users this pertains to
Change Log: A summarized list of changes made to the original scope. Is typically added by the System Administrator responsible for fulfilling the form request but does not have to be.
Approval Request: A request to approve the current outcomes described in the Form Request. Fulfillment of the Form Request may be withheld until all Key Stake Holders Approve the development.
Announcement: Any announcements related to this Form Request. Can be used for notifying all related users of development fulfillment or any other scenario where related users need to receive information.
Upon saving a note, it will become available for sending as a custom notification in the Notes section
To send a note as a custom notification, first click the Send Message(1) button. The Outbound Message(2) field will become visible above the User table after you click this button. You can edit the Outbound message by clicking the pencil on the right side of the message and making any changes you would like to before sending. When you're ready to send, click the notification button(3) to the left of any user's name that you want to receive the notification.
Above the User Table, next to the Add New Related User button, there is a button "Send Custom Email" that will open the pop-up wizard shown below. From here, you are able to compose an email by filling in the required fields. To start, type a Subject and Body, then click Next
In Step 2, click the button next to a user's name to add them to the email recipient list. You can search by profile type, role name, and the user's name itself by using the 3 search filters on the top right side of the table(1). When you have all of the recipients added, click Next to go to the final step
From here, you can review the email and recipient list before clicking Send Email to send the email to every recipient added
2. Record Details
This tab is where the key information about a Salesforce Project is displayed. Pictured below is a Development Project that has a well-defined scope and list of requirements. Note the specificity of the requirements: every item outlines exactly what is supposed to happen, and when.
The Overview, End Goal, and Key Requirements fields can be changed at any time to include the latest information, and it's a good practice to get into the habit of updating these after having meetings to discuss what requirements you would like to have for the development. When you make changes to these fields, create a note summarizing the changes and send this to the developer(s) who are on the project.
Field Breakdown and Best Practices:
Overview: This field should summarize what you would like to have changed or created, and it can be brief but should be specific enough that someone looking at it will understand exactly what the request is about. Note in the below project that the Overview establishes what action they would like to occur (a notification to the support team), when they would like it to occur (when a new or upsell subscription closes in SFDC), and how this action ties into the existing process (In this case, the notification would be to notify an admin to activate the opportunity in the content provider platform)
Key Requirements: A good Key Requirements section would outline anything that will be important for the developer to know when they're developing this project. Bullet points are a good way to write a section like this, because it doesn't need to be a very wordy section, but it does need to convey multiple items for consideration when developing. In the below key requirements example, there's specific details about what types of opportunities are eligible for this process, what stage the process should trigger for, what line item statuses are required for the automation to trigger, who should be receiving the emails, what followup actions should be created with logic-based automation, and other caveats that would include or exclude an opportunity from the development request. As a side note, the below example is actually missing some key information that would help with the development, and that is who should be receiving the notifications specifically. The Support Team is named, and if everyone on the support team was the target of these emails, the requirement below would be fine, but if certain types of opportunities should go to certain support team members, that would be another bullet point that you would want to include on this field
End Goal: This field is for, at a high level, documenting what impact and value this development request has. The below example states very clearly that this would eliminate the need for an additional manual step that the reps have to take on many opportunities, so it's a time savings measure that also eliminates a manual step where the process could break down.
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