Branching Strategies for Salesforce Teams
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Apply Module 14's branching discipline to a Salesforce-specific team workflow
- Recognize how branches map onto orgs (scratch, sandbox, production)
- Explain the role of a long-lived integration branch
Prerequisites: "Change Sets vs Modern Deployment"
A common Salesforce branching model
main → deploys to production
└── develop → deploys to a staging/integration sandbox
└── feature/loyalty-discount → deploys to its own scratch org
└── feature/case-routing → deploys to its own scratch orgEach feature/* branch (Module 14's branching pattern) gets its own scratch org (this module's second lesson); merging into develop deploys to a shared integration sandbox for combined testing; merging develop into main deploys to production — branches and environments move together.
Why an integration branch matters
Two features developed in complete isolation (their own scratch orgs) might work perfectly alone but conflict once combined — say, two triggers on the same object neither developer knew about. A shared develop branch, deployed to a shared sandbox before reaching production, is where that kind of conflict gets caught early, rather than for the first time in production.
Following Module 14's pull-request discipline throughout
Every merge in this model — feature/* into develop, develop into main — follows Module 14's pull-request process: a clear description, code review, resolved feedback, before merging. This is genuinely the same Git discipline from Module 14, just with each branch corresponding to a real, distinct Salesforce environment.
Exercise
As a comment, explain why merging two independently-developed features into a shared develop branch before production matters, using a concrete example.
Show hint
Think of two features that might touch the same object or trigger without either developer knowing.
Branching Strategies for Salesforce Teams Quiz
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Summary
This lesson applies Module 14's branching discipline specifically to Salesforce development, where branches naturally map onto different environments in the deployment pipeline.