What is Org governance and why do I need it? (A106)

What is Org / metadata governance?

Org Governance is simply a model of managing change to the systems, in which you specify different workflows and approval processes that are dependent on what type of change is being done. These models can vary widely according to how complex the change is, and which systems or components are being touched. 

Click to open Learning Objectives

LO1-1 Being able to define Org (metadata) governance

LO1-2 Understanding hy Org (metadata) governance is required

Metadata governance is often seen as bureaucratic, limiting and difficult to implement. And yet, without a pro-active Org governance model, organisations risk failing to account for operational and regulatory risk of change when re-configuring their systems. This often leads to either disruptions to existing ways of working or even failing to deliver on the business value. 

Organisations that invest in Org governance achieve: 

  • Improved change intelligence by highlighting operational and regulatory risks to data definitions.
  • Consistent strategy for changing metadata and system configuration in line with organisational needs.
  • Procedures for designing more informative metadata standards and definitions.

Click to open illustrative example

Imagine that you are an Administrator at a company called Zenalpha. You were asked by one of the senior salespeople to remove a seemingly useless field on an Opportunity object. The field itself is just an ID of their product account, which seems weird considering that anyone can access the product from the related list.
You run this request by the head of sales who doesn’t know the purpose for the field. You therefore decide to remove the field in line with the original request.

Turns out, the field was being used in 2 integrations: one by the product team to activate the right software product for the customer when the opportunity is won, and another by the finance team to generate quotes.
This small change has now cost the disruption to the business and 2 separate teams.

Why Org governance is required

While the development teams are often focused on technical dependencies between metadata, there are other dimensions of risk that are often unaccounted for. These include:

  • Regulatory compliance: Depending on their industry, organisations need to adhere to different sets of regulations and standards. For instance, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the USA mandates that any changes to metadata that affect financial reporting be tightly controlled. It is the CEOs and CFOs that are held responsible for the accuracy of all financial reports.
  • Hidden integrations: There are many external systems that touch your Salesforce Org, and most of them are not well documented or even known to the development team. Changing or deleting a simple field may have lots of unforeseen consequences.
  • Operational impact: Different teams and business units often share usage of the Salesforce Objects. While it might be easy to assume that Account or Opportunity are primarily used by the sales team, customer success, finance and product teams may also rely on that information for different purposes. Implementing a request for one of the teams may inadvertently negatively affect the others.

And that is the foundation of your knowledge and understanding needed to consider Org Governance.

What’s next

Next, you will take a short, theory and practical 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 2.

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