Copado DevOps Platform (CI/CD) automates the Deployment process and more flexible compare to Change Set/Ant

One of our clients is using Change Sets/ Ant Migration Tool to deploy changes from one org to other related orgs. Change Set is more of a manual process and Ant Migration is not completely automatic.
See how Copado DevOps platform helps in more automation in CI/CD process.

The Challenge

One of our clients is using Change Sets and Ant Migration tools for deploying changes from one environment to another. This process is causing the following disadvantages -

Change Sets Limitations

• Change sets do not offer the capability to search components by name or type
• Time consuming process, can not add/remove fields at a time
• Does not provide traceability for the requirement and changes
• Difficulty keeping environments in sync
• Need to refresh orgs frequently which causes data loss.
• Do not enable CI/CD

Ant Migration Tool

• Does not provide traceability
• Knowledge required on Command Line Utility
• Needed to refresh sandboxes to keep in sync that resulted data loss
• Need to use Data loader for migrating data
• Limited quality check on changes
• Developers are struggling with Git in remembering to rebase the code, resolve merge conflicts, merge to the right branch etc.

With these limitations, the Deployment Manager spends lots of time on deployments with less confidence. It is difficult to track the changes going in the deployment. Removing a feature from the release is not a trivial task.

The Solution

Salesforce CI/CD managed packages like Copado, Flowsum etc come in rescue. We have implemented Copado at our client place which provides pipeline configuration consisting of graphical flow of moving changes across environments.

• Copado is a Salesforce managed package and only need to install it in one Org, which will act as Governance Org. Copado will connect to other Salesforce orgs using an OAuth authentication access method.
• With Copado Continuous Delivery, automate quality testing and create connection behaviors with quality gates to ensure all your changes are passing the relevant quality checks while moving across the different environments in pipeline.
• Pipeline Wizard helps in defining pipelines at once with all the related environments.
• The Pipeline Manager is a user interface that allows you to orchestrate all your metadata changes through your environment landscape.
• In Copado, a user story is also used as a container object to develop, commit, promote, and deploy development work (metadata, Apex code, etc).
• Work with Git for version control. Eash promotion creates branches and merges the code automatically. Provides a very good graphical interface to create pull requests. This will free the developers from merge issues etc.
• Pipeline Manager Graphical Interface shows each environment status with ahead and behind stories list so that we can easily move the changes (Back Promotion) from environment to environment with a simple click.
• This implementation provided good traceability from the requirements (User Story) to all the changes traversing between environments.
• We can schedule automatic deployments during after office hours to have minimum impact
• Rollback is easier with Copado
• No need to create deployment scripts (package.xml) or destructiveChanges.xml and manual changes to production.
• Do not need frequent refreshes (or NONE if maintained correctly) as all the environments are being kept in sync.

Any tool will not be foolproof with complete automation for all the scenarios. We defined the process in such a way that we make Copado more effective with our needs.

The Results

After this implementation - Smooth deployments within a short span of time with more confidence. Back Promotion feature with graphical representation makes it easier to keep environments sync. Removing features from the planned release is easier now. Defining quality gates improves code quality and maintainability.