Managing Drupal Like Salesforce: Governance Strategies from Stanford WebCamp

In a recent post on DEV, Kevin Reynen shared resources from his session titled “Managing Drupal Like Salesforce” presented at Stanford WebCamp. The presentation outlined how applying structured governance, similar to what’s seen in enterprise CRM platforms like Salesforce, can improve collaboration, maintenance, and contribution workflows in complex Drupal environments. Kevin's approach draws on his team’s practical experience and was enhanced by training delivered by Mike Anello, tailored for the University of Denver.

A key takeaway from Kevin's presentation is the impact of systematised training and process alignment. By adopting practices inspired by Salesforce governance, such as standardised configurations, role-based access, and consistent deployment procedures, the development team significantly increased its contributions to the Drupal ecosystem. This structured methodology also helped non-developer roles better participate in ongoing site maintenance and development cycles.

Kevin notes that the real-world outcomes of these changes illustrate how Drupal can be managed with the same operational rigour as leading enterprise software, improving sustainability and collaboration across higher education institutions. Once published, a recording of the talk will be shared.