Why design Salesforce data models?
Without a well-structured data model, Salesforce orgs quickly become tangled and inefficient. Poorly designed models lead to:
Duplicate or redundant objects and fields.
Confusion about where key data is stored.
Reporting and integration issues due to inconsistent relationships.
High technical debt, making future changes costly and risky.
A clear, visualized data model creates a shared language between architects, admins, and business stakeholders. It provides a map of how objects relate, ensuring scalability, clarity, and confidence in your Salesforce architecture.
Real-life story: A global nonprofit rushed to implement Salesforce to track donors. Each regional team added their own objects and fields. Two years later, they had 17 variations of “Donation,” making global reporting impossible. Only after building a unified data model diagram could they align on a single source of truth.
When to design Salesforce data models?
You should design or revisit your Salesforce data model:
Before a new implementation – to align business requirements with Salesforce architecture.
During major projects – such as CPQ rollouts, integrations, or multi-cloud implementations.
After org mergers or acquisitions – when multiple Salesforce orgs or legacy systems need consolidation.
As part of technical debt clean-up – when reporting issues or field sprawl show symptoms of uncontrolled growth.
Avoid designing models for trivial changes (e.g., adding a single picklist field). Instead, focus effort when object relationships, integrations, or scalability are at stake.
Elements offers automatic generation of Salesforce schema from mining Salesforce configuration. You can use it to discover and generate current 'As Is' data model diagram.
Prerequisites
To design data models with Elements, ensure you have:
Connected Salesforce orgs synced with Elements to populate the Metadata Dictionary.
Permissions in Elements to create and edit architecture diagrams.
Perform Data Model Design
Step 1: Explore your Salesforce Metadata Dictionary
Sync your Salesforce org to Elements.
Use Analytics 360 to figure out which objects you use in your Org
This will help you inform what data models to create that align with what your business uses.
Step 2: Create a Data Model Diagram
In Elements, generate a data model from your Salesforce Org.
If you are generating the data model against Production Org or Full Sandbox, you can filter out objects with no records to only focus on what you actually use.
Select objects you want to include in your data model.
This produces a living data model directly tied directly to Salesforce metadata—not a static Visio diagram that becomes outdated.
Step 3: Enrich with Business Context
Link objects and fields to business requirements and user stories.
Add documentation such as compliance notes (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) or system ownership.
Step 4: Validate with Stakeholders
Share the data model diagram with admins, developers, and business users.
Use the diagram as a workshop tool: confirm relationships, highlight risks, and surface gaps.
Update the model based on feedback, ensuring alignment before building or refactoring in Salesforce.