. The post includes his take on Salesforce data, metadata, and CIO-issued requirements.

You can read it here:

Some excerpts:

"Q: What kinds of requirements are you dealing with in terms of data/metadata integrity, completion, etc?

A: On the data side, history plays a big part. Field tracking may satisfy that for some customer information. But when there’s a financial aspect, organizations require integrity checks. They want to identify the originator of data, to account for its movement, and to detect when it’s modified outside of business processes.

In terms of metadata, engineers just want a normal life with environments for development, staging and production! Classical version control should apply, and the change management process itself shouldn’t be a pain in the ass.

Q: And who is handing down these requirements?

A: Typically CIO or CTO roles.

Q: What happens when these requirements are not met?

A: On a good day, internal staff get flamed for changes made by contractors and vice versa. On a bad day, the need for oversight is quietly forgotten, then data and processes grow more mission-critical. As they slip out of mind under other projects, the game of Russian roulette begins.

For engineers, no system (or a broken system) for metadata management has wide effects beyond environmental stability. Sidelining those requirements results in lack of agility that drives staff away. The ones that stay are treading molasses."

Matt Bingham Blog Post