Sitecore® Helix is a set of official guidelines and recommended practices for Sitecore Development.

With the introduction of Helix, Sitecore now provides a set of architecture conventions and guidelines that describe how to apply recommended technical design principles to a Sitecore project.

The purpose is to secure implementations in a future-proof way by architecting them as maintainable and extensible business-centric modules.

Helix also contains development process recommendations to make it as easy as possible to build, test, extend, and maintain Sitecore implementations.

Read more: You’ll find further information about Helix in the Sitecore Helix documentation guide at helix.sitecore.net.

Sitecore® Helix benefits all
Using both Helix and Sitecore’s recommended practices provides a range of potential benefits to both customers and partners.

Customers get:

  • Better quality in Sitecore implementions: Avoid technical roadblock or dead ends in projects.
  • Faster time to market: Work with less plumbing and go straight to the valuable parts.
  • Long-term business value: Extend, change, and upgrade easier than before when requirements change.

Partners get:

  • Sitecore-supported methodology: Get better ROI and security on investment in tools, training, and methodologies.
  • Unified development practices: Provide a lower learning curve and easier integration of new developers.
  • Share and reuse: Share practices, features, and functionalities between projects and within the community.

End-to-end implementation example
Alongside Helix is Habitat: an end-to-end open-source Sitecore project implemented on the Sitecore® Experience Platform™ using the Helix principles. It allows developers to experience a project "in the flesh" based on the Helix principles and serves as a good integration point when developing specific technology or marketplace modules. The Habitat project houses a wide range of common website features and functionalities and serves as a good example of how to build specific requirements or how to extend the Sitecore platform to fit the need of a business.

Learn more: Visit the Habitat website or get the source code and getting started instructions on GitHub.

Business-vertical oriented scenarios and demos
Finally, Helix and Habitat also serve as the foundation of a series of Sitecore product demonstration websites, covering a range of marketing-related business scenarios. The demo sites span the breadth of the Sitecore platform, including the Sitecore Experience Database, Content Management, Sitecore Analytics and Personalization capabilities, Email Experience Management, the Print Experience Manager, and the new Sitecore Experience Accelerator. Over time, the sites will span full Sitecore product offering and contain more business scenarios and business verticals. Like with Helix and Habitat, the demo sites are publicly available as open source. Please contact your local Sitecore sales office if you are interested in a packaged version for demonstration purposes.

Learn more: The first business vertical, Legal (pictured below), is available here. The source code to the demo sites is available on GitHub.

Thomas Eldblom is Senior Manager, GA Field Product Marketing at Sitecore.