Guidelines and Best Practices

This chapter provides a collation of resources that brings together guidance and best practices available from Salesforce, as well as other resources that we have determined will be valuable. The objective is to ensure that the information provided in this section will enable you to actively contribute to the governance process in your organization or simply enhance your subject-level expertise.

We know there is an infinite number of resources available on the Web, and although some are better than others, this resource base will provide you with a good selection of resources that we recommend you review. As per all the resource base documentation in this book, providing the complete technical definition for every aspect of mobile solutions architecture is not the objective. Therefore, this resource base has been created with reference to the topics covered in the method that you will find informative and relevant. The resource base is divided into three main sections: the resources themselves and then related standards and associated tooling, and finally the supporting governance checklist.

As is the case with all the resource base chapters in this book, the links to the resources will be managed in the Salesforce Platform Governance Method GitHub account. The URL for this account is as follows: github.com/salesforceplatformgovernancemethod.

Mobile Solutions Architecture

Given that you have arrived at the resource base for mobile solutions architecture, we must assume that you have read the content in the governance method described in Chapter 9, “Mobile Solutions Architecture,” and so the table of resources that follow will help guide you in relation to the content covered in the method.

In this day and age, it goes without saying that mobile applications are important. In fact, we would go as far to say that if your business does not have a mobile presence, then there is a good chance that your business could suffer badly. So, why is this? In the advent of powerful mobile devices’ being accessible to just about everyone, the need to rely on your computer to manage your interests aside from normal work are over. The customer of today, rather than use a PC to manage affairs, wants the option to use their mobile device as their principal method of communication, maintaining a social presence, managing finances, and completing the majority, if not all, of all their online interactions.

Of course, generally, choosing to have a mobile app will depend on the type of business and the appropriateness of investing in mobile development given your user base. But for most businesses, it is crucial, in fact imperative, that you provide a mobile application that enables your consumers to interact with your products and services from anywhere at any time.

And now, the challenge we face as mobile app usage increases exponentially is to ensure that as we move to a mobile first way of life, that all our data, interactions, and downloads are secure and private. Our mobile experiences should be optimized, performant, and personalized for us in a way that makes the experience compelling, fun, and easy to use.

Salesforce is no different. For quite some time now Salesforce has been at the bleeding edge for mobile application options that enable Salesforce customers to use the power of the platform “on the go.” Whether you are in the airport, in between meetings, or at a show, you should always have the option to respond to your customers, respond to that urgent message, or close that deal.

To enable this, Salesforce provides the Salesforce mobile app. This is the mobile version of the Salesforce platform, providing you access to the desktop apps that you use to propel your business. Salesforce also provides the mobile SDK, which your development team can use to create meaningful mobile applications using your preferred framework, and for your experience sites, it offers Salesforce Mobile Publisher. All of these options for Salesforce mobile applications are provided in the following resources.

Phase H Standards

In the previous chapter, we discussed the importance of establishing and applying UX/UI design standards and principles to your Salesforce Experience Cloud site. In this chapter, we again iterate the importance of design principles; however, in this context the focus will be on mobile app design principles.

With any application, you want a design that will keep users coming back to utilize the features your app offers. Considering the mobile aspect of this rhetoric, not only does your app need to look great and reflect the business it serves to promote via branding and styling, but also it needs to be responsive and performant or users will be less likely to return to it.

Performance is a huge factor on which application developers should focus, especially in this age of business consumerism “on the go.” Let me explain what we mean by that. Let’s say you are a desktop user; chances are that you have booted up your desktop device or laptop to do some work and likely have several applications open at once, and will be switching from one app to another as you go about your business. Although application performance is a critical factor for you as well, the end user may be that be little bit more forgiving as a desktop user should there be any app delays waiting for processes to complete.

However, on a mobile device it’s more likely that the end user has opened the device to complete a specific task, and therefore if the experience is poor the level of frustration will be amplified because of this fact. So, the point we are making is that mobile application performance is probably the most critical aspect of your solution design.

Then there is the big question of which development process methodology should be used to produce your app. Let’s first consider the Salesforce mobile app. The important thing to note is that the Salesforce mobile app is developed, built, and distributed by Salesforce. This could be a big issue for organizations that want to control how apps are represented and branded in the app store. The benefits, however, include a pre-defined user interface, and it is possible to customize the Salesforce mobile app in many aspects. This makes it an attractive proposition and can enable you to deliver with speed.