The six phases
Most Salesforce projects move through roughly six stages. The names vary firm to firm, but the shape is constant:
- Discover — talk to the client, learn how they really work, write down what they need. (The firm's business analysts lead this.)
- Design — decide how Salesforce will be shaped to meet those needs. Decisions, not building yet.
- Build — actually configure and, where needed, code it. (Admins and developers.)
- Test — make sure it works, including the client trying it themselves — called UAT, user acceptance testing.
- Launch — turn it on for real users. Often called “go-live.”
- Support — help in the first days and weeks after launch, when questions spike. (Sometimes called “hypercare.”)
Where a beginner plugs in
You will not run Discover or own Design on day one. But there is real, valuable work for a newcomer in every phase: taking clean notes in discovery sessions, organizing requirements, testing carefully and writing up what broke, drafting documentation, preparing training materials. None of it requires deep Salesforce skill — it requires care and reliability. Do it well and you earn bigger work fast.
The handoffs that go wrong
Projects rarely fail in the middle of a phase. They fail at the seams — a requirement gets lost between Discover and Design, a tested fix never makes it into Launch. Being the person who catches a dropped handoff (“wait, did we ever build the thing from the March 3rd notes?”) makes you instantly valuable, even green.