Testing Salesforce: 5 Quick Wins from Better Testing Practices

Testing Salesforce is a crucial aspect of Salesforce administration and development that all Salesforce professionals must incorporate into their work. Irrespective of their area of expertise, be it an architect designing a complex integration, a marketer sending out a drip campaign, or an admin rolling out minor changes to a page layout, it is imperative to test their design enhancements against the original requirements in their environment. This process can uncover potential errors, flaws, or areas for improvement, thereby avoiding potential mishaps.

Just as you wouldn’t serve spaghetti without tasting it first, you shouldn’t release a Salesforce enhancement without performing testing at each stage. Given the high degree of customization and complexity of the Salesforce ecosystem, ensuring that enhancements and feature updates do not crash or compromise other elements of your Salesforce environment is essential to avoid causing substantial heartache to both you and your users.

In conclusion, Salesforce testing is a critical process that must not be overlooked by Salesforce specialists. Testing methodologies should be incorporated into all aspects of the Salesforce ecosystem to ensure that enhancements and feature updates are robust and do not cause any unintended complications. It’s vital to test enhancements at each stage of the development process to avoid any future errors or mishaps that may arise.

Salesforce Testing is key to smooth and efficient project deployment. This is especially true with automated functional testing, where things you may not have considered during a build pop up due to the amount of integrated and connected features within Salesforce.

Proper testing brings these unknowns to the surface, giving you the ability to fix and perfect a new functionality before deploying it into production.

In this post, we will review two phases of Salesforce testing, as well as offer up five quick wins you can achieve to make your deployment a success.

An Overview of Functional and User Acceptance Testing

There are two main types of testing for Salesforce: Salesforce Functional Testing and Salesforce UAT Testing.

Salesforce Functional Testing

The first phase of software testing that takes place post-development is functional testing. This involves a thorough review of each new feature to check for bugs and ensure that the new functionality works as intended from start to finish. In addition, the tester also confirms that the new development aligns with the existing features and doesn’t have any negative impacts on the existing org.

Let’s take the example of an unorthodox Sales VP who wants a customized Salesforce app tailored to the specific needs and processes of his team. To meet this requirement, it’s essential to ensure that the more complicated elements of the build, such as Process Builder, Validation Rules, or Apex classes, work as intended. Moreover, it’s crucial to ensure that they remain invisible to external users and don’t harm any other existing Sales processes in the org. Conducting functional testing in a Salesforce UAT Sandbox can help ensure that the new app operates as planned while preserving the existing architecture and security model.

Given the number of deployments and testing stages involved, it’s helpful to use a tool that facilitates test management. One such tool is Panaya ForeSight for Salesforce, which provides the ability to structure testing and deployments, enabling you to identify any significant issues early on in the testing cycle, rather than after deployment. By leveraging these tools and techniques, you can ensure that your Salesforce app works seamlessly with your existing org, reducing the risk of any adverse impact on your business operations.

Salesforce UAT Testing

Salesforce testing involves two crucial stages, namely Salesforce Functional Testing and Salesforce UAT Testing. Functional testing is the initial phase where a tester verifies if the Salesforce design works as intended. Once this phase is complete, it’s time for User Acceptance Testing. Here, the tester uses the new functionality in a real-world business scenario to ensure that the user is seeing only the elements they need to see.

For instance, the Sales VP can be used to test the design against and verify that it meets the needs of his team. By running a sample of end-users through the new build, testers can confirm that no design elements have been overlooked. Additionally, UAT clarifies requirements that weren’t clear in the initial design, making it the best strategic tool that a release team can have to ensure that system changes are palatable and sanctioned by the intended audience.

Ultimately, the primary goal of Salesforce Functional and UAT testing is to ensure that new development works correctly in any business situation. By following a meticulous testing process, businesses can create a Salesforce solution that delivers on their objectives and meets the needs of all users.

Here Are Five Quick Wins You Can Achieve When You implement Testing on Salesforce:

Win #1: Get End User Buy-In and Adoption Before You Go Live

There is nothing more painful than expending resources on a build only to have users refuse to utilize your new design. One way you can avoid that situation is by designing for and involving your stakeholders in your development and testing process.

Paying careful attention to your end users’ needs, and even having them act as testers, shows them your design is meant to make their lives easier. Allowing end users to voice their thoughts and suggestions will create a sense of trust in your build. Ensuring that your design is serving the people who need it most.

Stakeholder involvement in UAT is a critical diplomatic step. As such, testing on influential voices in departments affected by your new rollout will create goodwill and positive anticipation during your change management process.

Tip: install the free “Salesforce Adoption Dashboards” Managed Package to monitor use of your org after a deployment.

Win #2: Fix Problems Early

Deployments are actually a part of Salesforce functional testing, and if code doesn’t get test coverage in the change set, you will have to fix it. So, as you’re progressing through your project, you don’t want to find that work you completed weeks ago doesn’t function as expected.

Deploying and testing regularly prevents this, allowing you to confirm that your development works properly throughout the build. Once you have deployed to the relevant sandbox, you can then let your users get on with UAT testing in confidence.

Risk-based testing is a particularly crucial part of your testing process. Minimize testing efforts by identifying what needs to be tested based on risk levels, and save resources and time by not testing unnecessary things.

Solutions like Panaya ForeSight identify what is going to break or be affected by your planned change, and NEEDS to be tested. The ForeSight solution achieves this through impact analysis, which can pinpoint exactly where in your code or declarative objects something will break, allowing you to add these specific, predetermined risks to your testing plan. Increase accuracy in your testing provided by full visibility, and no longer spend resources testing things that are not at risk of breaking.

Win #3: Use Feedback from UAT on Your Release Roadmap

One of the greatest challenges in Salesforce Development is avoiding “Mission Creep.” Mission Creep happens when stakeholders stack new requirements onto your design and deployment, obscuring the original project and creating potential delays.

Continuous Testing allows you to head Mission Creep off at the pass, while incorporating feedback from your users into a Phase II or future release. Rolling user feedback into your Release Roadmap will show that you’re in touch with the needs of your company and honoring your mission of continuous improvement, while ensuring your deployment stays on track.

Win #4: Use Testing Tools to Streamline Your Process

There are loads of different testing tools that you can use to help you through the testing process. For example, a tool that helps you manage testing, such as Panaya ForeSight for Salesforce, is vital for giving structure to your testing process, assigning tasks, providing visibility into testing scope and making it easy to manage throughout a project.

ForeSight, specifically, allows you to import your test repository and predicts which tests are appropriate to execute for each new change. It  identifies your test script gaps, automates test execution assignments, and streamlines your collaboration between developers, testers and users with real-time synchronization.

Based on risk-based testing, the ForeSight solution provides you with insights into testing scope and estimation before you even begin a project. The impact analysis tool can tell you what exactly will break, easily adds components in your scope to your test plans, identifies and automatically assigns test scripts from your repository, and creates a test flow easily managed by different stakeholders in your organization.

For setting up repeated UI-focused unit tests, tasks and running cross-browser testing, utilize an open source tool like Selenium. Selenium mimics a user’s actions within a browser and allows testing automation, and even Salesforce itself uses Selenium in their development process.

Finally, consider setting up a custom object in your Salesforce Org to monitor your test planning and future projects–having a central repository for your design work and testing will allow for easier reporting and identification of future issues.

Win #5: Make Future Feature Releases Even Easier

Establishing solid test criteria and practices up front will enforce best practices in your development team. It will also condition your testing end users to provide consistent, actionable feedback.

Developing a rhythm to design and testing creates a base-level team understanding of what goes into a feature release. It teaches both end users and design teams what to expect.

Good testing and development practices, such as User Acceptance Testing, Performance Testing, and Code Reviews, allows teams tasked with Salesforce development to operate with greater efficiency. Thanks in large part to knowing which protocols their work must follow.

Achieving Successful Salesforce Deployments with Panaya ForeSight

Panaya’s risk-based testing solution can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of UAT and functional testing for Salesforce deployments. By implementing best practices and leveraging this tool, organizations can ensure seamless rollouts, minimize bugs, and gain user acceptance. Prioritizing testing is crucial to achieving frictionless Salesforce deployments, and Panaya ForeSight can help organizations achieve this goal.