It’s been a great delight to get to know both the Salesforce community as well as the DevOps community over the last few years. As a lifelong technologist, I’ve always delighted in the endless puzzle-solving opportunities it presents. But I’ve been a human even longer than I’ve been a technologist, and both the Salesforce and DevOps communities are distinctively human communities. The degree of openness, collaboration, compassion, and enthusiasm in these communities is inspiring. And when an entire group is inspired, you find what Émile Durkheim called collective effervescence , a sense of joy accompanied by a softening of the boundaries between ourselves and others.

That we can be united in a common activity is one of the deepest miracles of being alive. That’s also one of the special joys of being part of an organization: that it provides an opportunity for individuals to unite in a shared endeavor. As Peter Drucker said, “The purpose of an organization is to enable ordinary human beings to do extraordinary things.” The cloud has enabled larger communities to collaborate in larger endeavors. And DevOps is enabling better coordination and communication in that process. It’s no wonder that the Salesforce and DevOps communities are incubating visions for a better world that go far beyond technological improvement.

This book largely captures what I know about this important topic. By sharing my knowledge, I’m also sharing my ignorance, and I welcome any feedback and corrections you have to offer. Every piece of knowledge in this book has come directly or indirectly from others, principally my colleagues at Appirio. I couldn’t have hoped for a better place to learn this discipline, and the people who’ve contributed to my education are too numerous to list.

There are no words to express my gratitude to my wife, Ashley , who has been endlessly patient and supportive throughout this learning process. My Sangha jewel, coach, and best friend, she’s endured my endless ramblings on this topic and knows far more about both Salesforce and DevOps than she ever wanted to. My parents and step-parents lovingly built the foundations for me to be healthy and free and supported me unfailingly even when my decisions led me far away from them physically and culturally. And the Kadampa community provided the ultimate opportunity to learn humility, peace, and the joy of living a meaningful life.

From Appirio I want to thank the Appirio DX team: Saurabh Deep , Abhishek Saxena , Ashna Malhotra , Bryan Leboff , Rahul Agrawal , Katie Brown , Kapil Nainani , Sahil Batra , and Durgesh Dhoot . You all believed in this vision and did the real work to make the project a reality. To Yoni Barkan , Roarke Lynch , Rebecca Bradley , Halie Vining , Craige Ruffin , Erik Golden , and Katie Boehner —you all are the real deal; I’m sorry we weren’t able to work together longer. I’m grateful to my other mentors and teachers at Appirio, especially to Geoff Escandon who brought the State of DevOps Report to my attention and challenged the early work I was doing saying “I don’t know what this is, but it’s definitely not DevOps.” I hope I’m getting closer.

It was Glenn Weinstein , Chris Barbin , and Erik Duffield at Appirio who championed this project at the highest levels and who fostered a performance-oriented culture in the company from the beginning. My coworkers at Oath also deserve special recognition for introducing me to continuous delivery. In particular, Matt Hauer dissuaded me from leading the team into branching hell and never let me ignore a broken build. David Meyer first challenged me to deliver “CI for the masses,” a project I’m still working on. Matt Henwood challenged me to “let my creative juices flow” and ran interference for me as this project got off the ground. Bob Larson asked for some short-term assistance to set up CI/CD for a big customer; two years and thousands of deployments worth of short-term assistance gave me the confidence to write this book. I’m particularly grateful to my partners in that endeavor, Alex Spears (who endured the misery of being mentored by me), Sreenath Gopal , and Raji Matthew . Special mention is also due to Lex Williams , Randy Wandell , Joe Castro , Andres Gluecksmann , Chris Bruzzi , Michael Press , Svatka Simpson , Neale Wooten , Jitendra Kothari , Prakash Gyamlani , Tommy Noe , Tommy Muse , James Wasilewski , Norman Krishna , Josh Davis , and everyone else who supported our DevOps initiatives in a hundred ways.

It’s a unique honor to work with John M. Daniel as the technical reviewer for this book. To have this work reviewed by a mind as sharp and experienced as his gives me far greater confidence that I’m not making this stuff up. And I’m grateful for the team at Apress , especially Susan McDermott , Rita Fernando , and Laura Berendson for affording this opportunity and for doing the hard work of bringing a book like this into existence.

Finally, to my new colleagues at Copado , especially David Brooks , Andrew Leigh , Ted Elliott , and Federico Larsen , the fun’s just getting started. I look forward to working with you to help thousands of organizations master Salesforce DevOps.