Modernization = improving an existing org. Different from greenfield.
Discovery:
- Inventory what exists.
- Categorize by health (good / fair / poor / deprecated).
- Identify pain — performance, quality, adoption issues.
- Quantify — current cost / time-to-deploy / defect rate.
Strategy components:
1. Tech debt cleanup.
- Process Builder -> Flow.
- Aura -> LWC.
- Custom code review and refactoring.
- Field cleanup (unused, redundant).
- Profile sprawl resolution.
2. Platform upgrades.
- DX adoption (DevOps Center / CLI).
- CI/CD pipeline setup.
- Sandbox strategy.
- Standardised tooling.
3. UX modernisation.
- Lightning Experience adoption.
- Dynamic Forms.
- Modern Lightning Record Pages.
4. Security tightening.
- Permission audit.
- Sharing model review.
- MFA, SSO enforcement.
- Shield adoption where needed.
5. Performance optimisation.
- Slow components / queries identified.
- Bulkification.
- Caching strategy.
6. Governance establishment.
- Center of Excellence stand-up.
- Architecture Review Board.
- Standards documentation.
Phased approach:
- Phase 1 (foundation): critical fixes, governance.
- Phase 2 (UX/performance): visible improvements.
- Phase 3 (advanced): AI, advanced features, innovation.
Sequencing principles:
- Quick wins early — visible value maintains support.
- Foundation before advanced — don't build on shaky ground.
- Phase to user impact — minimise disruption.
Common pitfalls:
- Big-bang rewrite — risky, expensive.
- All-at-once change — too much for users.
- Insufficient capacity — modernisation runs in parallel with feature work.
- Stop halfway — modernisation mostly complete is technical debt.
Communication:
- ROI metrics — concrete improvements.
- Stakeholder updates — quarterly progress.
- Visible wins — demos of improvements.
Senior architect insight: modernisation is a 12-24 month effort. Plan accordingly. Maintain feature work alongside; don't pause everything else.
The senior framing: without continuous modernisation, every Salesforce org becomes legacy. It's the cost of staying current.