How Does Copado Solve Release Readiness Roadblocks?

Salesforce’s tri-annual platform updates can lead to extra maintenance and broken production environments — if you don’t have a DevOps-driven release readiness strategy. Let’s explore the powerful DevOps capabilities built into the Copado 1 Platform and learn how they accelerate tedious release readiness activities like sandbox refreshes, regression testing and deployment configuration.

Roadblock #1: Sandbox Refreshes Are Tedious & Time-Consuming

Without Copado, a full sandbox refresh and post-refresh configuration steps can take several days (or longer) to complete and demand heavy resources. To prevent pre-production changes from breaking live digital experiences, teams must manually configure sandboxes to mask sensitive data, omit customer emails and point away from production endpoints (like your ERP).

Save Time & Minimize Interruptions by Automating Post-Sandbox Refresh Tasks

Copado’s Sandbox Refresh feature replaces manual steps with automation — giving Salesforce teams the speed and visibility they need to tackle maintenance significantly faster. With Copado, teams don’t have to go offline to tackle sandbox refreshes or worry about losing in-flight work. Leverage our Sandbox Refresh capability to:

• Automate post-refresh activities with Deployment Task Automation.
• Eliminate the need for manual data loading with Test Data Seeding and Masking.
• Create data records and automatically run batch jobs and other Apex activities.
• Update metadata types in batches: Named Credentials, Custom Settings, Custom Metadata Types, etc.
• Ensure development resources have appropriate access to newly refreshed sandboxes via automatic user list updates.

Roadblock #2: Salesforce Changes Break Tests (and Updating Broken Tests Takes All Your Time

Every Salesforce upgrade updates existing platform functionality and adds new features. Any change to code can cause a ripple effect of defects. As a result, teams are forced to focus all their effort on testing changes and updating broken tests. Instead of building new tests, it’s all hands on deck to maintain the status quo.

Automate Regression Tests & Prevent Brittle Tests with Robotic Testing

Not all test automation platforms are created equal! Copado Robotic Testing makes it easy to build future-proof test cases that won’t break during Salesforce releases. Because Copado is built on the open-source Robot Framework, you can replicate the clicks and actions of a human tester and automate end-to-end tests within your sandbox environments.

Our robots leverage computer vision to scan text on the page so they don’t depend on locator IDs (or break when they’re updated with new Salesforce releases). miss updated locator IDs. Self-healing AI flags changes to the text and UI layer and sends you smart predictions for easy updates. Embedded maintainability ensures that your tests work the first time — every time — while end-to-end testing gives you the flexibility you need to support different scenarios across clouds, apps, systems and devices.

Roadblock #3: XML Tag Issues Prevent Deployments

The chaos of Salesforce releases can result in new features and functionality that only exists in Preview Mode sandboxes — which obfuscates the deployment process and forces teams to spend hours manually removing conflicting XML tags.

Easily Remove XML Tags with Customizable “Find and Replace” Rules

Copado’s Find and Replace feature enables you to set up rules and add them to your development pipeline. This automatically resolves XML tag discrepancies between sandbox environments on Preview Mode and Production.

Roadblock #4: It’s Difficult to Manually Enforce Endpoint URLs

Endpoint URLs aren’t 100% reliable if you have to manually enforce them. The wrong URL can break customer trust or even leak sensitive data — and it can take hours to set up and maintain integration endpoints during each release.

Update Endpoints & Keep Them Intact with Environment Variables

Copado makes it easy to set and enforce endpoint URLs and API integrations. With Environment Variables, you can leverage a container that stores data strings unique to each environment, including Salesforce IDs, integration endpoints and usernames. This enables teams to make commits, deployments, branch validation and test cases environment agnostic.

Salesforce Release Readiness in Action

Want to see how a DevOps-driven release readiness strategy plays out in real life? Here’s an example: Windstream (a leading network communications company) was spending far too much time managing and maintaining their production environments. With 14 sandboxes to refresh, Windstream’s IT team devoted 32 hours every single week to the post-refresh process. This took developers away from high-value activities and slowed the company’s value stream delivery.

After implementing the Copado 1 Platform and integrating it with the release cycle, Windstream reduced the time it takes to refresh sandboxes to less than an hour per week — helping the company take advantage of the latest Salesforce innovations much faster.

How much more productive could your dev team be if they weren’t bogged down with maintenance and manual configuration?

The solutions you implement are only as effective as the people who operate them — and that’s where DevOps best practices come in. With faster feedback loops and more frequent releases, you can break down the silos, shift quality left and level up communication and collaboration across your business. Wield the power of Copado 1 Platform to overhaul your Salesforce release readiness process and take the burden off of your team!