Top 5 Common Salesforce Development Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Salesforce is a powerful platform for CRM and business process automation, but developing on Salesforce can come with its own set of challenges. Avoiding common mistakes is essential for building efficient, scalable, and maintainable solutions.

We will look at the five most common mistakes developers make in Salesforce and how to avoid them.

1. Ignoring Governor Limits Salesforce and traditional software development platforms is the presence of Governor Limits. These are restrictions placed by Salesforce to ensure that resources are shared fairly across all users and applications. They include limits on API calls, SOQL queries, DML operations, and memory usage.

Mistake: New developers, especially those transitioning from other platforms, often overlook these limits, leading to errors in their applications when they hit a ceiling during runtime.

How to Avoid: To avoid running into governor limits:

Plan your data operations carefully. Consider using batch processing for large datasets and breaking down complex processes into smaller, manageable chunks.
Optimize SOQL queries. Use selective filters, avoid using “SELECT *”, and query only the fields you need.
Use bulkification techniques when processing records in triggers or batch jobs, allowing you to handle larger volumes of records within limits.
Monitor logs in the Developer Console or set up monitoring tools to identify where limits are being approached.
Understanding and working within Salesforce governor limits is critical to successful development.

1. Not Writing Bulkified Code In Salesforce, your code is expected to handle operations for many records at once, whether you're working with a few records or thousands. Bulkified code refers to code that can process multiple records in a single execution, rather than one-by-one, which helps avoid running into limits like CPU time or query limits.

Mistake: A common mistake is failing to bulky Apex code, particularly in triggers, which leads to performance issues or even runtime errors when processing larger datasets.

How to Avoid:

Use Collections: When writing queries or performing DML operations, always work with collections (e.g., Lists, Sets, Maps) rather than individual records.
Use For Loops Carefully: Avoid SOQL or DML statements inside loops. Instead, gather the data or make the updates outside the loop.
Write Bulkified Triggers: Use Trigger.new or Trigger.old to handle all records in a bulk transaction. Also, make sure to add proper conditional logic to avoid unnecessary operations.
By bulkifying your code, you ensure that it can scale effectively, regardless of the number of records being processed.

1. Mismanagement of Profiles and Permission Sets Salesforce's security model is robust, offering granular control over user permissions, but mismanagement of profiles and permission sets can lead to data exposure, security breaches, or access issues.

Mistake: Relying too heavily on profiles for access control and not leveraging permission sets and roles correctly can cause security flaws or operational inefficiencies. Similarly, failing to use Permission Sets can result in complex profile configurations that are difficult to manage.

How to Avoid:

Follow the Principle of Least Privilege: Ensure that users only have access to the data and functionality they need. Use profiles for broad access control and permission sets for specific access.
Use Permission Sets for Flexibility: Assign permissions to users based on their roles or specific job functions. This allows you to grant granular permissions without having to create multiple profiles.
Regularly Audit Access Control: Regularly review who has access to what, and ensure that permissions align with business needs and security policies. Tools like Salesforce Shield can be helpful in monitoring and auditing permissions.
A solid security setup ensures that your Salesforce instance remains secure and compliant with regulations.

1. Not Leveraging Declarative Tools Salesforce is known for its "clicks, not code" approach, offering many declarative tools (such as Process Builder, Flow, and Lightning App Builder) that allow admins and developers to create complex automation and UI changes without writing code. However, many developers default to writing custom code, even for scenarios that could be handled with declarative tools.

Mistake: Writing unnecessary Apex code for automation and logic that could be implemented declaratively. This leads to increased complexity, higher maintenance costs, and longer development times.

How to Avoid:

Use Declarative Tools First: Before writing code, explore what can be accomplished using Process Builder, Flow, Approval Processes, and other declarative tools. They are easier to maintain and scale and can be more reliable than custom code.
Integrate Code and Declarative Tools: If you need more complex logic, use a combination of declarative tools and code. For example, you can call an Apex class from Flow to handle advanced operations that can't be done through clicks alone.
Keep It Simple: Avoid over-complicating solutions by only using code when it’s truly necessary. Use managed packages and AppExchange apps when possible, as they offer tested, customizable solutions.
Leveraging declarative tools can save time, reduce technical debt, and make it easier for admins to maintain solutions.

1. Lack of Proper Testing and Test Coverage Testing is crucial to ensuring the stability and reliability of your code in Salesforce. Salesforce requires a minimum of 75% code coverage for deployments, but aiming for that minimum is not enough to guarantee a quality product.

Mistake: Developers sometimes write inadequate tests just to pass the code coverage threshold without considering the quality of the tests themselves. This leads to bugs slipping into production and an inability to catch issues during regression testing.

How to Avoid:

Write Meaningful Unit Tests: Write tests that cover different scenarios, including positive, negative, and edge cases. Your tests should validate the logic and not just aim to increase coverage.
Use Test-Driven Development (TDD): Consider writing tests before writing the actual code. This practice can help ensure that your code is reliable and adheres to business requirements.
Create Separate Test Data: Use the @TestSetup annotation in test classes to create test data that is reused across multiple test methods. Avoid using actual production data in tests to ensure consistency and reliability.
Use the IsTest Annotation and the SeeAllData=False Flag: This ensures that your test classes do not depend on the existing data in the org and are completely self-contained.
Proper testing reduces the risk of errors in production and makes it easier to maintain and extend your code.

Conclusion
Salesforce development, while powerful, can be full of pitfalls. Ignoring governor limits, failing to bulky code, mishandling security, neglecting declarative tools, and writing insufficient tests are common mistakes that developers make. By being aware of these pitfalls and following best practices, you can avoid these mistakes and ensure that your Salesforce solutions are efficient, scalable, secure, and maintainable.