A Salesforce DevOps course
Course introduction
Salesforce is a powerful and flexible CRM platform — and knowing how it works under the hood is the first step toward becoming a confident Salesforce developer or administrator. In this Salesforce development course, you’ll get a clear, accessible introduction to the Salesforce platform. You’ll learn how it’s structured, how it can be customized, and how changes are made — both declaratively and through code. You’ll also explore how deployments work, what orgs and environments are for, and why release management is essential for teams working in Salesforce at scale.
Whether you’re completely new to the Salesforce ecosystem or looking to refresh your understanding of the platform’s fundamentals, this course gives you the foundational knowledge you need to take your next step as a Salesforce professional.
Who is the Salesforce development course for?
Admins, Developers, Team Leaders
This course is designed for anyone new to the Salesforce platform — whether you’re starting a new role, preparing for a Salesforce associate certification, or looking to understand how development and release management work in practice.
It’s ideal for:
- Aspiring Salesforce developers or administrators building foundational skills
- Business users or marketers who want to better understand how the platform operates
- Teams adopting Salesforce for the first time and looking to get the terminology and core concepts clear
No prior experience with Salesforce is needed — just curiosity and a willingness to learn how one of the world’s most widely used enterprise CRMs works behind the scenes.
What you’ll achieve with the Salesforce development course
- Understand the structure of the Salesforce platform and the concept of orgs
- Learn the difference between declarative and code-based development in Salesforce
- Explore common admin and developer roles — and how they contribute to org customizations
- Get to grips with metadata vs. data and why the distinction matters
- Understand why deployments are needed and how change moves between environments
- Learn about Salesforce change sets, the Ant migration tool, and the metadata API
- Gain a foundational certificate that demonstrates your readiness to work on the Salesforce platform
What the Salesforce development course includes
This course gives you a complete grounding in how development works for Salesforce — and how the platform itself is structured to support change at scale. When you take this course, you’ll:
- Get a clear overview of the Salesforce platform and its cloud offerings — Understand how Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and the underlying Lightning Platform fit together, and why Salesforce is so widely adopted.
- Learn how development works in Salesforce — Explore the difference between declarative and programmatic changes, and see how both admins and developers use the platform in practice.
- Understand how and why orgs are used — Learn about production orgs, sandboxes, and scratch orgs — and how different environments support safe, structured development workflows.
- Explore the role of release management — Find out why deployments matter, how changes move between environments, and what tools Salesforce professionals use to manage risk and complexity.
- Discover the core tools for moving changes between orgs — Get to know change sets, the Ant migration tool, and the metadata API — and how they’re used to support different development and release strategies.
- Earn a course certificate in Salesforce development fundamentals — Once you’ve completed all modules and the final assessment, you’ll receive a certificate to prove your understanding of core Salesforce development concepts — and your readiness to keep building your skills.
Salesforce development course content
Salesforce development course — the basics
Get to know what Salesforce is, how it’s structured, and what makes it such a widely used CRM platform. You’ll explore key concepts like orgs, editions, and environments, and learn how Salesforce supports different industries through cloud-based solutions that can be customized to meet almost any business need.
Developing in Salesforce
Learn the difference between declarative and code-based development, and how Salesforce enables both. This topic covers the platform’s “clicks not code” philosophy, introduces the Apex programming language, and explains how different types of changes are made — from simple UI tweaks to complex automated workflows.
Admins and developers
Understand the typical responsibilities of Salesforce admins and developers, how their work overlaps, and what skills each role usually requires. You’ll learn how tasks like user management, customizations, and integrations are split across roles — and why the platform works best when both work together.
Metadata vs. data
Explore the crucial distinction between metadata and data in a Salesforce org. You’ll learn how metadata defines the structure of the org, and how it differs from the customer and business data stored inside it. This section also explains why metadata changes are usually deployed between environments — and data is not.
Deploying in Salesforce
Learn why changes are rarely made directly in production, and how deployments allow teams to build, test, and release safely. You’ll explore what deployments involve, why they can be complex, and how using sandboxes and development orgs reduces risk.
Change sets and Ant
Get to know the two core tools for Salesforce deployments: change sets and the Ant migration tool. You’ll learn how each one works, when to use them, and the pros and cons of each approach — from ease of use to scalability and auditability.
The Salesforce metadata API
Finish by learning how Salesforce deployment tools use the metadata API to retrieve and deploy changes. You’ll explore which types of metadata are supported, what the API can and can’t do, and how tools like Ant and Gearset rely on it to manage complex deployments.
Other DevOps Launchpad courses you might be interested in
- An Introduction to Salesforce DevOps
- Salesforce DevOps Fundamentals Certificate
- Gearset Academy Certificate
FAQs
What is DevOps Launchpad?
DevOps Launchpad is a free training platform packed with courses and resources for anyone in the Salesforce ecosystem looking to upskill in Salesforce DevOps.
The certifications, courses, and quizzes on DevOps Launchpad are curated by experts in the field from Gearset, the leading DevOps platform for Salesforce. But the majority of content on DevOps Launchpad is all vendor-neutral, and useful for anyone learning more about Salesforce DevOps.
Who is DevOps Launchpad for?
Anyone involved in any aspect of the build, test and release cycle for Salesforce – it doesn’t matter if you’re brand new to the ecosystem or more experienced in Salesforce development.
Our courses are designed to upskill everyone in DevOps, regardless of role. Whether you’re an admin, a developer, an ISV partner or a technical architect, there’s something here for you.
How do I complete courses and get certificates?
DevOps Launchpad courses are broken down into modules. To finish a module, you usually complete a quiz to test your knowledge with multiple-choice questions. Once you finish all the modules in a course, you’ll earn a certificate which can be downloaded and saved to your resume, or shared on your social profiles.
How do I navigate the platform?
Click the Courses tab to see the courses and certification tracks that you’ve enrolled for. This page will be blank until you choose courses in the library. If you want to return to a course in progress or one that you’ve previously completed, head to this page.
The Results tab shows your progress through the courses you’ve completed, including any certifications and test results. It’s a great way to track your learning journey and see the skills you’re building.
The Library is where you can browse courses and enrol to continue building your skillset. Once you enrol for a course, it’ll be added to your courses page and you can start working through it.
How do I access my account?
You can access DevOps Launchpad in different ways:
- The DevOps Launchpad homepage
- Direct login
- For Gearset users: click the DevOps Launchpad icon in the Gearset app
Do I have to complete the Salesforce development course all in one go?
No, you can take modules, courses, and certifications in your own time. Your progress will be saved, so you can come back whenever suits your schedule!
Do I get a certificate for the Salesforce development course?
You will receive a certificate for each course that you complete. After you have completed all the courses and the final assessment, you will be awarded the official final certification.