Build Well-Architected Solutions
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain common challenges Salesforce architects face when designing and developing solutions.
- Describe the three core capabilities of a well-architected Salesforce solution.
Say Hello to Salesforce Well-Architected
How do you know you’re building your solution in the right way? Architects need to ensure a solution protects your business and stakeholders, delivers value quickly, and can adapt to the ever-changing needs of the business.
That’s where the Salesforce Well-Architected framework comes in. It helps architects design and build solutions that are trusted, easy, and adaptable. Use it as a go-to resource for architect-tested best practices, patterns (successful examples), and anti-patterns (not-so-successful examples) to ensure you’re building the best possible solution for your organization. This module takes you through the framework’s core values and explains why they’re important.
Make sure you also explore Salesforce Well-Architected where you can drill down into even more details and examples. And remember, everything in Well-Architected is in priority order, so you always know where you need to focus your attention as an architect.
Let’s dive into the common challenges that architects face and how Salesforce Well-Architected addresses them.
Build a Well-Architected Solution
With Salesforce, you can use standard functionality or extend prebuilt solutions using declarative and programmatic tools. When solutions are built, they’re usually a mix of both. This type of flexibility is great, but with so many choices how can you be sure you make the right ones? Not to mention that every customer uses Salesforce in a slightly different way. No wonder architects struggle to identify common architectural benchmarks across implementations!
Salesforce Well-Architected is a collection of prescriptive guidance, resources, and tools built by experts to help you validate your architectural decisions and know where to spend your time as an architect. These experts include
- Engineers who build the platform
- Leaders who guide product strategy
- Architects who work with our most complex customers
- Salesforce customers and partners like you
You can trust Well-Architected because experts stand behind it. Salesforce stands behind it. And it is a living thing that is constantly getting updates that match Salesforce innovation and changes in technology.
It’s also important to recognize that the structure of the Well-Architected Framework has meaning. Let’s take a closer look at the structure (taxonomy) of Well-Architected. All the guidance in Well-Architected is organized around three concepts: trusted, easy, and adaptable. Each of these concepts represents a capability that a healthy Salesforce solution demonstrates.
How do you know if your solution is capable of being trusted, easy, or adaptable? That’s where the second level of the Well-Architected taxonomy comes in. Underneath that, the second level in the taxonomy is referred to as behaviors. Each behavior has a corresponding white paper (more on this later) where you can find two more levels of the taxonomy: dimensions to prioritize, and considerations you should review when architecting a solution.
Trusted: A solution well-architected to be trusted behaves in ways that are secure, compliant, and reliable.
- Secure solutions control access and protect data.
- Compliant solutions follow legal and ethical guidelines.
- Reliable solutions operate efficiently and dependably.
Easy: A solution well-architected to be easy behaves in ways that are intentional, automated, and engaging.
- Intentional solutions deliver business value immediately and over time.
- Automated solutions meet goals and objectives faster, at scale.
- Engaging solutions delight users and drive adoption.
Adaptable: A solution well-architected to be adaptable behaves in ways that are resilient and composable.
- Resilient solutions handle change well.
- Composable solutions adjust quickly and with greater stability.
The Well-Architected framework provides guidance and best practices for each of these behaviors, helping technical professionals create trusted, easy, and adaptable solutions on the Salesforce Platform. In the following units, you dive deeper into each of these capabilities and explore best practices.