Salesforce Release Lifecycle Stages – Pilot, Beta & GA

#1MinuteTip A Salesforce feature release goes through three different stages in its lifecycle. Here is what these stages look like:

1. Pilot – Usually the first phase of public testing, Pilots normally include a small subset of participant Organizations. These Organization’s must request to opt in to a Pilot and then be nominated for participation.
2. BETA – Features with successful Pilots will often transition to the BETA phase. This involves rolling the feature out publicly for testing. BETA features might require additional enabling by a System Admin and are accompanied by verbiage that clarifies the feature is in BETA status. BETA features are normally unsupported or given very limited Support as they are not yet fully functional or finished features.
3. Generally Available (GA) – Once a feature has passed the Pilot and BETA testing phases it will be formally included in a Salesforce release. This is considered Generally Available (GA). GA features are considered fully functional and, in most cases, fully supported.

References & Useful URLs

• Salesforce Help Article – Salesforce feature release lifecycle