Mastering Application Development with Force.com

Model your data

I've seen countless orgs where objects and fields have been created just because someone said hey, can we have a field for X? This can lead to a number of problems, ranging from data skew to terribly slow code. Thankfully, a little forethought can prevent this. Data modeling can be hard to do, especially if you're struggling with conflicting stakeholders and their understandings of the platform. I sometimes find it helpful to take a page from consulting and ask the stakeholders to collaboratively answer three questions. First, ask what is the clearest, most succinct statement of the problem. Secondly, ask what is the clearest, most succinct statement of the ideal solution. Lastly, ask if the stakeholders have any ideas on implementing ...