NED19: Automate all the things
September 16, 2019•451 words
Know your process
People stuff first, you have to know the people and what they do and WHY
Process learning techniques
- SABWA
- Salesforce Admin by walking around
- ask to see common process
- not to check if they are "correct", but just to chech reality
- mobile, desktop, virtual, doesn't have to be in person
- KATIE shadowing opportunities
- The 5 Whys
- story of the Lincoln Memorial with bird poop and lights
- get past obvious (Root Cause Analysis)
- ie Finance spreadsheets
- OpenEnded Questions
- requires a response different than yes or no
- ask things like "how", "why", "what"
- how is the information collected
- what reports do you need regulary
- why does your data get formatted that way
Process Mapping Techniques
Low tech: whiteboards, sticky notes
- assemble cross-functional teams
- determine individual process setps and who does
- identify key areas:
- optimization hot spots
- deliverables and outputs
- handoffs between teams
- "secret spreadsheets"
- duplicate effort
Middle Tech: Cross-functional flowcharts
- often used software Visio lucidchart
- each "swim-lane" represnets a function
- breezetree article flow
High Tech: Process Mapping Software
- Elements.cloud (Ian Gotts)
- Nintex
Choose the Right Tools
- Quick Actions
- simple to create
- great for mobile and desktop
- useful for common tasks
- "Custom buttons" for the Lightning Era
- Approval Processes (!!!)
- good for simple processes
- (interface leaves something to be desired)
- may want to use Roles or custom user fields for hierarchies
- can use custom fields to handle escalation
- can have criteria set up about which record should enter the stage
- can prevent record changes while in approval process
- maybe for Budget Line Items
- maybe for Volunteer Registrations
- can use it just to make sure each step is used like an assembly process, less about "approval" per se
- Process Builder
- great for creating or updating records
- Immediate or Time-delayed actions
- Easy to understand
- Don't go overboard
- 1 main process per object - use sub-processes to control order of operations) (Salesforce best practice) - invocable sub-processes
- Flow Builder
- Enables rich user input
- Allows record deletion
- More complicated than PB, but still visual
- The new hotness
- Macros (!!!)
- Recordable by end users
- Great for repeated tasks
- Editable and shareable
- Not console only
- Can have step logic
- Can do emails
- can insert at cursor, after/before/replace
- must implement for Patrick
- Code: Apex Triggers/Lightning Components
- sample gallery
- Automation Home (Beta)
