How Governance Helps to Reduce Risk (A106)

How Elements makes Governance Visible

In the first module you reviewed why org governance is needed, but in this second module we will begin to recognise and illustrate where governance information can be shown, and what success can look like with an intentional governance model. 

Firstly, let’s look at a regular non-Elements salesforce interface. 

In this example, we can imagine that there are many connections between people, and thier metadata. These may be documented in an operations manual, or not documented at all. The org may also have multiple simple automations, or deeper connections between metadata and stakeholders that are difficult to trace. Organisational units such as Finance are a good example here, as not only are there complex relationships between the metadata and other organisational units in the org (sales, marketing etc) but the metadata itself is under highly regulated and compliance based control. 

Now, consider what can happen if changes are needed. It could be that we require field names to be changed, flows to be altered, or larger groups of data need to be changed for automations or managed packages.

The immediate challenges are knowing “Who uses this data?” and “Who will be affected if it is changed?”

A more compelling challenge is “Am I going to break regulatory compliance?” We can see how this can inhibit change and innovation, reduce dynamism and responsiveness to feedback, and ultimately render your org static.

In addition, if you wanted to begin to explore the connections between people and their metadata, where would it be stored? How could you document it?

With the interface above, you have no idea about how to address these challenges, or even where to begin!

What Governance data does Elements show?

With the Elements extension, connected to a synced and documented org, the picture is vastly different. In the default ‘Details‘ tab the stakeholders are displayed front and center, meaning it is impossible to miss who needs to be consulted on the change (and why).

The image above shows instantly within Salesforce setup who the stakeholders are. You can ensure that every system change is always consulted with the relevant business stakeholders.

With the analysis tools you can see who uses the fields and data within them. You can explore how wide reaching a proposed change will be, and evaluate the risk involved.

The rest of this course will teach you how to design, build and maintain a governance model, increase the visibility of risks, and drive change management in your org with confidence.

What’s next

Next, you will take a short, theory quiz. Select it from the menu below.

This quiz will help you to recognise the skills and knowledge you have gained, and identify any areas you still need to explore and learn.

Remember, you can revisit these pages, or ask us for help if you get stuck. Once you pass the quiz, click “Next Module” to move on to Module 3.