Salesforce is one of the leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms, enabling businesses to automate processes, enhance customer relationships, and foster business growth. Salesforce developers play a pivotal role in customizing and extending the platform's functionalities to suit a company's unique needs. While Salesforce provides an extensive range of tools and features, adhering to certain development best practices is essential to ensure efficient, maintainable, and scalable solutions. In this article, we'll explore the top Salesforce development best practices every developer should follow.

1. Follow Governor Limits

Salesforce has specific governor limits that prevent any one user or process from consuming too many system resources. These limits apply to various aspects of the platform, including database queries, DML operations, and the execution time of Apex code. Ignoring these limits can lead to performance issues, errors, and even system failures.

Best Practice: Always be mindful of these governor limits. Some of the most important limits to track include:

• SOQL Queries: A maximum of 100 SOQL queries can be executed in a single transaction.
• DML Statements: Only 150 DML statements are allowed in a single transaction.
• Heap Size: The heap size limit for synchronous transactions is 6 MB, and for asynchronous transactions, it is 12 MB.

To manage governor limits effectively:

• Optimize SOQL queries to return only the data you need.
• Use Batch Apex and Queueable Apex for processing large amounts of data asynchronously.
• Utilize Bulkification to ensure your code processes records in batches instead of handling one record at a time.

2. Bulkify Your Code

In Salesforce, bulkification is the practice of ensuring that your Apex code can handle multiple records at once, rather than one record at a time. Writing bulk-safe code ensures that it can handle scenarios when large volumes of data are processed (e.g., bulk data imports or mass updates).

Best Practice:

• Avoid SOQL or DML operations inside loops. Instead, collect the necessary records in a list and perform the operations outside the loop.
• Use Collections (lists, sets, or maps) to handle bulk data efficiently.
• Keep the logic in your code scalable to prevent hitting governor limits when dealing with a large set of records.

3. Use Apex Triggers Efficiently

Apex Triggers are used to automatically execute custom logic when specific events occur on Salesforce records (e.g., insertions, updates, deletions). Writing efficient Apex triggers is key to ensuring that your Salesforce org remains scalable and performant.

Best Practice:

• One Trigger Per Object: For each Salesforce object, create only one trigger. This simplifies maintenance and avoids conflicts between triggers.
• Trigger Handler Classes: Use trigger handler classes to separate business logic from trigger logic. This makes your code more modular, easier to test, and reduces complexity.
• Use isBefore and isAfter: Be mindful of when the trigger should run (before or after the record is saved). For example, if you need to validate data before it is committed to the database, use isBefore. If you need to update related records after the record is saved, use isAfter.
• Bulkify Triggers: As with all Apex code, ensure that triggers can handle bulk records effectively by processing records in batches.

4. Write Comprehensive Unit Tests

Unit testing is crucial in Salesforce development. Salesforce requires developers to write unit tests for their Apex code before deploying it to production. Well-written unit tests ensure that your code is reliable, performs as expected, and maintains functionality after future changes or upgrades.

Best Practice:

• 100% Code Coverage: Salesforce mandates that at least 75% of your Apex code is covered by tests before deploying it to production. However, aim for 100% code coverage to ensure robustness.
• Test Different Scenarios: Ensure your tests cover a range of positive and negative scenarios, including bulk inserts, updates, and deletes.
• Use Test.startTest() and Test.stopTest(): These methods allow you to separate test setup from the actual test execution and improve test performance.

5. Optimize SOQL Queries

SOQL queries are essential in Salesforce development, but improper queries can lead to performance bottlenecks. Writing efficient and optimized queries is key to maintaining the performance of your application.

Best Practice:

• Limit Query Results: Always use WHERE clauses to filter your queries and avoid returning unnecessary data.
• Use Selective Queries: Ensure that your queries are selective by indexing fields and avoiding queries on non-indexed fields.
• Use Relationship Queries: Take advantage of relationship queries (i.e., parent-to-child or child-to-parent relationships) to retrieve related data in a single query.

6. Utilize Custom Metadata Types and Custom Settings

Custom Metadata Types and Custom Settings are useful for storing configuration data, such as system settings or reusable values, without hardcoding them in your Apex code. This improves flexibility and maintainability.

Best Practice:

• Use Custom Metadata Types to store reusable configuration settings that can be deployed across environments.
• Use Custom Settings for storing data that is specific to an org or needs to be accessed frequently by Apex code.

7. Leverage Declarative Tools Whenever Possible

Salesforce provides a range of declarative tools like Process Builder, Flow Builder, and Workflow Rules to automate business processes. Before jumping into writing code, check if you can achieve the desired functionality using these declarative tools.

Best Practice:

• Use Flow Builder to create sophisticated workflows and automate business logic without code.
• Use Process Builder for automating simple to moderately complex workflows.
• Use Validation Rules to enforce data quality without writing Apex code.

8. Document Your Code

Documentation is an often-overlooked aspect of Salesforce development. Clear and concise documentation ensures that other developers can easily understand and modify your code when necessary.

Best Practice:

• Comment Your Code: Always write clear comments explaining complex logic or workarounds.
• Document Business Logic: Write documentation that describes the purpose and behavior of your Apex classes, triggers, and workflows.
• Maintain README Files: For larger projects, maintain README files that outline the architecture, flow, and other important details.

9. Stay Up-to-Date with Salesforce Releases

Salesforce releases new features and updates three times a year. Staying up-to-date with the latest releases helps you take advantage of new tools, features, and improvements that can make your development work easier and more efficient.

Best Practice:

• Regularly check Salesforce Release Notes to identify features that can simplify your development tasks or improve performance.
• Participate in Salesforce developer forums and communities to keep learning from the experiences of other developers.

Conclusion

Salesforce development requires a blend of coding skills, platform knowledge, and best practices to create high-quality, maintainable, and scalable solutions. By following these best practices — such as adhering to governor limits, bulkifying your code, writing comprehensive tests, and leveraging Salesforce’s declarative tools — you can ensure your Salesforce solutions meet the needs of your organization while maintaining optimal performance and reliability.