💃 Confessions of a Recovering Change Set Addict 🕺

An Admin's Guide to DevOps (with Gearset, of course)

Author

Salesforce ChaCha
May 13, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! ☀️ 

My name is SalesforceChaCha, and I used to deploy directly to production with Change Sets.

No backups. 😨 

No version control. 😱 

Just vibes, caffeine, and prayer hands in Slack. 🙏 

But then … I met DevOps. And more importantly, I met Gearset.

This is the story of how I stopped living on the edge, started using Pipelines, and learned that Git isn't just for developers and architects - it’s also for Admins who are ready to work smarter, collaborate better, and sleep at night.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NOT JUST A DEVELOPER THING

WHAT EVEN IS DEVOPS

Let’s cut through the jargon. ✂️ 

DevOps is a culture, process, and toolset that helps teams build, test, and release software quickly, reliably, and collaboratively.

In Salesforce terms, that means:

❌ No more praying over change sets.

❌ No more “surprise” overwrites in production.

❌ No more “who made this change and when?”

DevOps gives you visibility, traceability, and, yes, accountability.

It’s how you stop treating orgs like digital sandcastles and start treating them like living systems. 🤖 

Tools like Gearset are built with Admins in mind. If you’ve ever clicked a checkbox, you’re halfway there. 😉 

BECAUSE CHANGE SETS ARE SO 2012

GEARSET: CHACHA’S CHOICE

Let’s be real - most Admins didn’t sign up for “source control,” “pull requests,” or “CI/CD.” 🫠 

We signed up to make users happy, keep data clean, and maybe build the occasional Flow that saves someone 47 clicks a day.

But Gearset changes the game. 💯 

It’s like having a senior DevOps engineer sitting behind you whispering, “Don’t worry, I got this.”

Here’s what makes Gearset the ultimate sidekick for any Admin looking to level up:

🔍 Org Comparisons That Actually Make Sense

With just a few clicks, Gearset lets you compare a source against a target and shows you exactly what’s different. 🤯 

Fields, flows, validation rules, page layouts - it’s all there in a side-by-side diff viewer. No XML wrangling, no guesswork.

You can even filter what metadata types you want to see and mark things for deployment like you’re checking off a to-do list. 👍️ 

📦 Deployments Without the Drama

Deployments used to be a black box. You’d cross your fingers, hit the button, and hope nothing caught fire. 🧯 

With Gearset, you get:

And if something goes wrong? Gearset gives you a one-click rollback. That’s right - Ctrl+Z for your Salesforce org.

🔁 Pipelines: Your New Release Assembly Line

Pipelines in Gearset are where things get spicy. 🌶️ 

You define your environments (Dev, QA, UAT, Prod), link them together, and set up promotion rules.

Changes flow naturally through each stage - fully visible, fully traceable. 📈 

  • Want approvals before a change moves forward? Add a manual review step.

  • Need to see which branch is about to hit production? It’s right there in your pipeline view.

  • Curious who promoted that Flow last Thursday? Gearset logs it all.

Suddenly, release management isn’t a messy group chat - it’s a visual, repeatable process. 🤙 

🤝 Integration Without Intimidation

  • GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, or Azure DevOps for version control

  • Slack or Microsoft Teams for deployment notifications

  • Jira for linking changes to work items

  • Salesforce DX if you’re ready to dip a toe into the CLI pool

And the best part? You don’t need to learn Git syntax or clone anything locally. 🙌 

Gearset’s UI handles the heavy lifting while teaching you DevOps concepts gently, like a metadata Sherpa guiding you to deployment enlightenment. 🧙 

GIT HAPPENS

VERSION CONTROL 101

Ok, it’s time to talk Git - but let’s keep it non-threatening. 🏥 

Think of version control like Google Docs for your org’s metadata.

Every change is tracked. You can roll back. You can see who did what. ✍️ 

You can work on your own “drafts” (branches) before merging them into the final version (main).

With Gearset:

👉️ You don’t have to use a terminal

👉️ You can connect to GitHub, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps

👉️ You can manage your branches right from a sexy UI

👉️ You can even create pull requests and let others review your work before it’s merged

If you're worried you'll need to learn command-line Git commands - don’t. ❌ 

Gearset's Pipelines and repo integrations make this Admin-accessible.

YOUR FUTURE SELF WILL THANK YOU

DEVOPS BEST PRACTICES

Now that you’ve got a feel for what Gearset brings to the table, you might be wondering: “How do I actually use all this in a way that doesn’t create chaos?” 🤔 

So let’s talk about some Admin-approved best practices that’ll keep your deployments smooth, your team aligned, and your weekends deployment-free.

✅ Back up before you deploy
Gearset offers backups. Look into this. Love yourself.

✅ Use Pipelines for deployments
Visualize your release path (Dev → UAT → Prod) and promote changes through each stage.

✅ Review diffs like a detective
Gearset shows you what’s changed - line by line. Catch the mistake before it becomes a production outage.

✅ Name your Git branches with purpose
Use names like feature/email-opt-in or fix/contact-validation. Gearset will help you create and manage them easily. Here’s one way.

✅ Automate testing where possible
Even Admins can benefit from running Apex tests during deployment - especially if developers are in the mix.

✅ Don’t work directly in production
You’re not a pirate. You’re a professional. 🏴‍☠️ 

GO FORTH AND DEPLOY LIKE A PRO

NEXT STEPS

So what can you do today? 📅 

  1. Start using Gearset’s free trial (you’ll be shocked how easy it is)

  2. Set up a GitHub repo for your sandbox. Check here.

  3. Hit up Gearset Launchpad this site will go more in depth

  4. Create your first pipeline with a Dev, UAT, and Prod environment

  5. Stop fearing version control - start mastering it

If I can do it, you can too. 🫵 

You don’t need to write Apex to adopt DevOps.

You just need curiosity, a willingness to learn, and a healthy fear of “deployed to production with my eyes closed.” 😅 

With tools like Gearset, DevOps becomes approachable, powerful, and dare I say… fun?

So go ahead. Put the change set down. Pick up a pipeline.

And join the revolution. ✊ 

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

"If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing."

W. Edwards Demming

and now....Salesforce Memes

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