Category Archives: Design

Defining the solution(s) that would meet the business need

Non-functional Requirements

A non-functional requirement (NFR) describes a feature or trait that defines a system’s state of being.

NFRs are

expressed in the form of “system shall be <requirement>”, an overall property of the system as a whole or of a particular aspect and not a specific function
Called “quality attributes”, “qualities”, “quality goals”, “quality of service requirements”, “constraints”, “non-behavior requirements”, “technical requirements”
Can be categorized as either
- execution qualities (safety, security, usability) which are observable during operations (at run time)
- evolution qualities (testability, maintainability, scalability) which are embodied in the static structure of the system

It is important to understand various types of NFRs, if they apply to your specific project and what questions can be used to help elicit and define non-functional requirements.

Different teams will group NFRs into different categories based on what they are producing, what they are familiar with, etc. Some groupings today are:

FURPS – Functionality, Usability, Reliability, Performance, Supportability
RASUL – Reliability, Availability, Servicability, Usability, Installability
IIBA Supports – Reliability, Performance, Efficiency, Operability, Security, Compatibility, Maintainability, Transferability

I will be covering a number of NFRs to help you understand each of them and provide questions you should be asking and example statements in future posts.

NFR wrong-way

Improving Lookup Search Results

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Hi my fellow citizen developers. Lookups are a great way to relate objects together but can lead to a bad user experience if the lookup search isn’t configured well.

In this post we will be looking at a simple example of using a lookup field to define the instructor for a class. So below shows the instructor field where we enter the last name of the instructor to be assigned to the class.

LookupExample1

When we click on the lookup icon we see several results from our lookup search. Unfortunately we have no additional information to determine which Ben Smith is the one we need to assign as the instructor.

LookupExample2

To help users find the right instructor we need to include additional information in the lookup search to help them choose. To do that we need to modify the Search Layout on the object that is holding our instructor information.

LookupExample3

Go to the search layouts for the object you are using, in this case I am using Contact. To help my users find the right contact record I am adding the contact’s title, department, reports to and email information in the Lookup Dialog. So when a lookup search is done, more information is displayed.

LookupExample4

Now with this information my user should be able to select the correct contact to assign as instructor for the class.

Hope this helps you with your configuration setup and user experience design.

4 Types of Email Notifications

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Emails are part of the business landscape so including them in your Salesforce application email1 makes sense. Designing the look of the email and its contents is important so that the emails provide users with the right information at the right time.

So what are some typical scenarios that result in email notifications?

Acknowledgement – when a user submits a request, CASE, etc
Status Update – providing user with status of request, CASE, etc
Escalation – providing user with information on an escalation
Information – providing user with information

Design Considerations for Salesforce Email Templates

Every email should include the following:

Reason person is receiving the email
ID / Link back to the Salesforce record which resulted in the notification (if appropriate)
Relevant information
Next Steps for person receiving the email (if any)
Next Steps for Company/Group (helps to set user expectations)
How to contact us

In the process of creating your templates consider the following:

Pick the appropriate email template type based on what your email recipients can handle and the level of layout control you require.
Maximize your subject line
- Keep it concise but informative
- For mobile recipients some researchers feel the first 35 characters are key
Use Merge Fields to personalize content
- Be sure the merge fields you will be using have data. The merge field will not appear in the email for a record where there is no data in that field.
- Email templates give you access only to the fields that are accessible to you via your page layout and field-level security settings.
Configure your email Deliverability Settings — Information about these settings can be found here.

A great place to see how to create a Salesforce Email Template is the article “How to create an email template in Salesforce” at wikihow.com.

Question

How do you use email notifications in your business?

Meta What?!

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We have all heard about metadata but what is it really? Metadata is information about
your data. Clear as mud?

Here is a simple example to help you understand it.

Here is some information ( 18005552354 ). Just by looking at it you might guess it is a phone number but it could be anything – a phone number, an account number, a help desk ticket number, etc.

Metadata provides information about that data to help you understand it.

Phone: 18005552354 OR Ticket number: 18005552354

Both “phone” and “ticket number” are considered metadata because it is providing information about that string of numbers.

Why is it important?

So big deal there is metadata. Why is it important to have it defined? Its importance shows up when you need to change something, fix a problem or bring a new person up to speed quickly. You can also use metadata during future analysis and design activities.

A few years ago I moved into a new position where I was supporting an application built on Force.com. Since I couldn’t find any documentation or only a few bits and pieces I turned to the metadata to understand things.

Ninety percent of the fields had no definition and many labels were not very informative. So I had to reach out to a number of people and basically interview them to get the information I needed to understand the application. If good metadata had been available it would have saved a lot of people a lot of time and effort.

Types of Metadata

Metadata comes in all shapes in sizes. Just remember that it is information about the data or function in your application. Below are a few types of metadata. This is not an exhaustive list.

Meaningful Labels (used on columns, fields, tables, table relationships, etc)
Definitions (used to further clarify labels and other things)
Field datatypes (number, string, email address, text, percent, currency, etc)
Other field clarifications (unique, required/optional)
Entity Relationship Diagrams
Application documentation

What can I do about it?

As a Salesforce Citizen Developer document as you go.

Labels: Make all names for objects, fields, validation rules, child relationship names, etc. meaningful so that users get a clear idea of what data is there or what function it performs by the name.

Descriptions: If the component (object, field, rule, etc.) allows for a description, add one. Be clear and concise but provide enough information for the user to understand what data it contains or what function is being performed. DO NOT LEAVE BLANK.

Comments in Code: Make sure anything coded (triggers, apex classes, visualforce pages) has comments sprinkled throughout explaining what the user is seeing.

Knowledge base: If you have access to Salesforce Knowledge, add FAQ information, application documentation, details on processes and more. If you don’t have Salesforce Knowledge, keep the information in a shared space using spreadsheets, documents or other formats. Just remember to keep it up to date as things change.

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What situations have you encountered where good metadata was present or lack of metadata made the work harder?