Is your Salesforce environment starting to feel like a Jenga tower? 

In this video, Katie McAfee from Cloud Adoption Solutions pulls back the curtain on “The Hidden Cost of Bad Code.” Most organizations suspect they have technical debt, but they don’t know exactly where it’s hiding—or how much it’s actually costing them in speed and stability. Salesforce environments rarely stay static. As you add new features, developers, and users, layers of customization can create architectural complexity that leads to slower deployments, random bugs, and those dreaded governor limit errors!

Technical debt usually doesn’t show up during development; it shows up when you try to grow. Whether you are hitting a “scalability wall” or just want to ensure your platform is built for the future, this video provides the roadmap for modernizing your architecture and stabilizing your system.

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Watch now to learn how to turn Salesforce into a reliable foundation for growth!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone, I’m Katie from Cloud Adoption Solutions. Today, I want to talk to you about something that most Salesforce teams eventually encounter: technical debt. Specifically, I want to discuss how a quick review of Apex triggers and architecture can reveal hidden risks in a Salesforce environment. I call it “the hidden cost of bad code.”

What is Technical Debt?

One of the most common things we hear when starting conversations with organizations is: “We think we might have technical debt, but we’re not sure.” Honestly, that’s completely normal. Salesforce environments evolve over time. New features are added, new developers join projects, and business requirements change. It is very common for companies to suspect technical debt exists without knowing exactly where it is.

Salesforce environments rarely stay static. Over time, organizations experience new users, new developers, legacy code, and legacy functionality. Each change makes sense at the time, but as the platform grows, those layers of customization can gradually make the system more complex.

The Warning Signs

Technical debt usually isn’t obvious right away. On the surface, the system appears to work perfectly, but over time, organizations may begin noticing “early signals” that architectural complexity is building underneath the surface:

• Slower deployments

• Random bugs

• Governor limit errors

• Features that take weeks to build instead of hours

Three Areas to Audit Immediately

When reviewing a Salesforce environment, sometimes the easiest place to start is very simple: open one object and take a look at three specific areas: Triggers, SOQL inside loops, and Visualforce pages.

1. Apex Triggers

A common warning sign is when an object contains multiple triggers written at different times. Modern Salesforce architecture generally recommends consolidating logic into one trigger per object with structured handler classes. When multiple triggers run on the same object, problems can appear. You may see an unpredictable order of execution, recursion, governor limit issues, and deployment failures.

When triggers begin interacting with one another, even small changes can become risky. Developers sometimes describe these situations as a Jenga tower—every change affects the stability of the system, and that’s when deployments start feeling unpredictable.

2. SOQL Inside Loops

Another common signal of technical debt is SOQL queries inside loops. Code like this might work perfectly when processing a small number of records, but as data volume increases, the pattern can quickly hit Salesforce Governor limits. Inefficient queries cause CPU time limits, records failing to save, and user-facing errors. These problems usually don’t appear during early development; they appear later as the organization grows.

3. Legacy Visualforce Pages

Visualforce is still supported, and many organizations rely on it successfully. However, large legacy implementations can become difficult to maintain and incompatible with newer UI patterns. They are often tightly coupled with older Apex logic, which can make even small enhancements more difficult over time.

The Scalability Wall

Eventually, technical debt creates what many teams experience as a scalability wall. The system still works, but it becomes harder and harder to extend. Most organizations don’t discover technical debt during development—they discover it when they try to grow. When the platform suddenly needs to support more users, more automation, or more complex processes, those hidden architectural issues tend to surface.

The Good News: It’s Fixable

The good news is that most technical debt is remediable. Through trigger consolidation, bulkification of Apex logic, modern Lightning architecture, and stronger governance practices, Salesforce environments can be simplified and stabilized significantly.

This is where a Salesforce Technical Audit becomes valuable. A structured review evaluates Apex architecture, automation design, and data volume readiness to identify architectural risks and create a roadmap for improvement.

At Cloud Adoption Solutions, we partner with teams to identify hidden technical debt and modernize legacy architecture. The real goal isn’t just fixing code—it’s helping Salesforce become a reliable foundation for growth that can support the organization as it scales without increasing operational risk.

Thanks for taking the time to learn about technical debt and how it can be remediated. If you ever suspect your system may be experiencing these challenges, a technical review can provide the clarity you need. At Cloud Adoption Solutions, we are here to help you succeed with Salesforce!