M&A: integrating two Salesforce orgs / teams.
Pre-deal:
- Due diligence — assess target's Salesforce QA practices.
- Test coverage.
- Defect rate.
- Tooling.
- Skills.
Post-deal: integration scenarios:
1. Consolidate orgs.
- Big migration; intense testing.
- Test data flowing source -> target.
- Verify nothing breaks during cutover.
- Hypercare post-cutover.
2. Coexist (multi-org).
- Cross-org integration testing.
- Identity federation testing.
- Synchronisation accuracy.
3. Hybrid.
- Phased migration; testing across phases.
Team integration:
- Combine QA teams — shared standards.
- Train on each org's patterns.
- Share tooling.
- Unified test management.
Test environment strategy:
- Sandboxes per org during transition.
- Joint test environment for integrations.
- Production cutover testing.
Risk areas:
- Data migration accuracy.
- Integration breakages.
- Permission / sharing differences.
- Workflow differences.
- Customer experience drift.
Common pitfalls:
- Underestimating QA effort for M&A.
- Skipping due diligence of target's QA.
- No shared standards — practices diverge.
Timing:
- Months 0-3: assessment.
- Months 3-9: planning + first integrations.
- Months 9-18: heavy integration testing.
- Months 18+: operational coexistence.
Senior QA insight: M&A is a major QA event. Investment in testing matters.
The senior framing: QA prevents post-merger chaos. Without it, integration causes incidents.