2016: My Salesforce Year In Review!

“The trouble is, you think you have time” — Jack Kornfield

Although I’d like to believe that I’ve become a lot more organised and disciplined in terms of time management over the last couple of years, I’ve no qualms in admitting that there are still occasions where time often moves too fast for me to be able to catch up. Over the holiday break last week, I sat down to reflect on how year 2016 went by and I could literally re-live most of the special moments through the year, as it was yesterday. Of course, it’s a sort of an annual tradition for me and I wrote about my annual review last year as well.

Overall, it was a satisfying and fulfilling year 2016 for me. So, here’s a recap of what kept me excited and busy through out the year.

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My Dreamforce 2016 Sessions!

It’s that time of the year! If you’re a part of the Salesforce ecosystem – as a developer/ admin/ architect/ business user/ customer or in any other role, it doesn’t get any bigger than this – Dreamforce 2016 is less than a week away! I had a very busy and satisfying Dreamforce 2015 where I presented 3 sessions and spent some quality time learning with my peers, colleagues & friends from all over the world.

And this year, it’s going to be even more busier and crazier it seems! Every year, I promise to be more organised and better prepared for Dreamforce but things usually turn out the other way around. Here’s my chaotic schedule for DF’16 this year and I hope to see you/ bump into you at some of my sessions/ engagements.

Apttus Dreamforce 2016 Tips & Tricks

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be attending my 5th Dreamforce in as many years. While I’ve attended a few other conferences multiple times including Droidcon, Apple WWDC, Google IO and Boxworks, I’m certain that my relationship with Dreamforce is truly special. It was a pleasant surprise when Apttus reached out to me asking me to contribute to their Dreamforce tips & tricks handbook – just in time for this year’s conference.

Thank you April – On Behalf of Salesforce Developers Community!

I’ve been in the Salesforce ecosystem for nearly a decade now and from as far as I can remember, April Kyle Nassi has been a name synonymous with the Salesforce Developers Community. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to have worked very closely with April on several of her key initiatives. Last month, April moved out of her role with the Salesforce Developer Relations team to another role within the company.

While I (on behalf of the Salesforce developer community at large) wish her good luck,  I do want to take some time out to write about about her contributions and the journey she’s shared with the Salesforce developer community.

Dreamforce Session Video -Building Salesforce1 Mobile Extensions with Swift

Although I presented 3 sessions at Dreamforce 2015, only one – Building Salesforce1 Mobile Extensions with Swift was video recorded. The talk was presented at the Innovation Theatre in the Dev Zone and it was good to see a large turnaround for this rather unconventional topic.

PluralSight Course Review – Career Strategies and Opportunities for Salesforce Platform Developers

Disclaimers – 1) I’m a bookworm and an e-learning worm as well 2) I’ve read all of Dan Appleman’s books and done all his courses

It’s an open secret that the best time to be a Salesforce professional is “now”. Salesforce has just closed off a strong quarter and an impressive year and it’s no surprise that the CRM giant itself and the markets are bullish on a strong year 2016.

The number of jobs in the Salesforce ‘ecosystem’ has risen exponentially over the last few years and that trend is likely to continue next year. Acquisitions – big and small are a norm rather than an exception and technology is moving at a ‘lightning’ pace.

I’ve been a part of the Salesforce ecosystem since 2007 (nine years and counting) and I’m looking forward to another exciting year as 2016 begins. Therefore, I decided to pursue the PluralSight ‘Career Strategies and Opportunities for Salesforce Platform Developers’ course by Salesforce MVP Dan Appleman to kickstart my new year.

Here’s a short un-biased review of the course and my 2 cents on how I expect the Salesforce ecosystem to grow and mature in year 2016

2015: My Salesforce Year In Review!

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot”- Michael Altshuler

I started this year still fresh from a personal tragedy and trust me if you’re an emotional person like I am,  – it’s not easy to lose someone who’s been around all your life and move on in a matter of days. Anyway, I’ve always found solace in several things which thankfully includes my job, learning new technologies and being part of several closely knit communities – that helped cope up with an irreparable loss.

Unsurprisingly, Salesforce played a key role in terms of how my year unfolded so here’s a quick re-cap of my 2015 year in review.

The Summer of Trailhead Just Got Bigger & Better!

First things first, I’m a huge fan of Salesforce Trailhead. A while back, I wrote a post about how Trailhead is revolutionising the learning paths to Salesforce development and administration. I then had the good fortune of helping aspirant developers and admins at the Salesforce World Tour in New York city where I was volunteering at the Quick Start Spaces for most of the day.

A Look Back At My Unexpected Salesforce Developer Journey

Some things in life are destined to happen. In 2008, when I signed up for a Salesforce developer org out of curiosity – I had no clue of what’s coming next. To say that what’s transpired in the last 7 years has been a very satisfying and rewarding journey. From learning to write my first customary ‘Hello World’ program in Apex to developing some of the most complex enterprise mobile apps on the Salesforce1 platform over the years, it feels like I’ve a come a long way.

It’s definitely time to look back at this unexpected yet wonderful journey. And the best part – I think my best is yet to come! Time to roll back the clock and re-live it once again!

Salesforce1 Mobile Automation Testing Adventures – Part 2

Last day of year 2014 and what better than writing a post about my most interesting research of this year for the Salesforce Mobile SDK! In the previous post, we learnt about the need and challenges associated with mobile automation testing in general. Now, let’s move forward and explore an example with some uses cases of typical mobile automation requirements in Salesforce1 apps.

Let’s consider the sample AccountEditor hybrid app that’s shipped with the Salesforce1 Mobile SDK to identify some automation use cases.