Complete Guide to Salesforce Testing

Salesforce testing is crucial for delivering quality experiences for users across its apps. With frequent customizations and mandatory updates, Salesforce can impact vital business processes if not properly tested.

Check out this guide to learn about the Salesforce app landscape, effective testing strategies, best practices, and more.

Overview of the Salesforce app landscape

Salesforce has grown massively over the years, evolving from a traditional sales CRM into one of the most essential enterprise systems in the world. Over 150,000 companies across every major vertical use Salesforce today.

Salesforce is made up of its cloud applications, namely; Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Commerce Cloud. These different clouds are tightly integrated and have a lot of similarities, allowing for easy flow of data across apps and efficient administrative management. 

Salesforce is designed to integrate seamlessly with other systems like SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics. 

See what a user journey through Salesforce apps and other integrated systems looks like below.

Caption: A typical user journey through Salesforce and other integrated systems.

Salesforce terminology

Understanding key Salesforce terminology is crucial for efficient testing and collaboration. 

If you’ve used Microsoft Excel (and I’m sure you have), you should recognize some familiar concepts. Objects, fields, and records map closely to tables, columns, and rows on an Excel sheet.

Here are some essential terms:

• Objects: Tables in Salesforce that store data, akin to tabs in an Excel sheet.
• Fields: Columns in an object that store specific data points.
• Records: Rows in an object that represent a single instance of data.
• Apex: Salesforce’s proprietary programming language, similar to Java.
• Visualforce: A framework for creating custom user interfaces in Salesforce.
• Flow Builder: Flow Builder or Flow is the latest automation tool in Salesforce that replaces older technologies like Workflow and Process Builder, allowing for complex logic and UI elements without coding.

What is Salesforce testing?

Salesforce testing is the process of verifying that Salesforce applications and integrations work as expected. 

This involves testing for vulnerabilities whenever an update, configuration, or customization is made. End-to-end testing ensures that integrations with Salesforce work as intended. 

This is most often carried out by Testers within QA Teams at large organizations or Salesforce Admins at SMEs.

Why test Salesforce?

Salesforce is a business-critical application that supports revenue-generating activities, and as a result, it needs to be rigorously tested. 

Bugs in processes with Commerce Cloud and Customer Service Cloud will lead to a direct revenue hit, while problems with Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud will halt revenue-generating activities.

Testing Salesforce is also important as it is a complex, customizable platform that undergoes frequent release updates. These updates, which occur three times a year, can introduce new features, improvements, and potential issues. Ensuring thorough testing helps maintain the stability and functionality of critical business processes that rely on Salesforce.

Aside from Salesforce releases, companies often find themselves implementing new Salesforce features and configurations under tight deadlines and with extensive internal requirements. This can lead to less focus on testing and ensuring the system functions as expected. Without proper testing, businesses risk system downtime, data integrity issues, and disruptions in business processes. 

Ensuring the reliability and performance of Salesforce applications is essential for maintaining customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Types of Salesforce testing

Apex unit testing in Salesforce evaluates individual units or components of Apex code to ensure accuracy and functionality. A "unit" refers to the smallest testable part of the code, typically a method within a class. 

The goal is to verify each unit performs as expected in isolation. Developers create test classes targeting these units, simulating various scenarios to confirm appropriate behavior. Salesforce’s testing framework includes assertions to validate outcomes, helping catch issues early.

Integration testing validates that different components within Salesforce and external systems work together seamlessly. 

Effective strategies include:

• Defining test scenarios covering various integration points and data scenarios.
• Setting up data to mimic real-world conditions.
• Using tools to create realistic testing environments.
• Automating repetitive and complex integration tests to streamline the process and catch issues early.

Related reading; What’s The Difference Between Unit Testing vs Integration Testing?

System testing is a final check to verify the application’s functionality. Effective strategies involve creating and executing end-to-end test scenarios that cover the entire Salesforce platform. 

These scenarios should include diverse user journeys to test the application thoroughly.

Real-world simulations of user interactions and data transactions assess the Salesforce application’s resilience. Identifying and addressing issues during system testing requires a careful approach, focusing on anomalies and systematic troubleshooting.

Regression testing ensures that new updates or changes do not negatively impact existing functionality. This involves re-running previously completed tests to check if the existing features still work as expected after any changes.

To perform effective regression testing:

• Maintain a comprehensive suite of automated regression tests
• Regularly update tests to cover new features and changes
• Prioritize critical functionalities that could impact business operations.

Related reading: Salesforce Regression Testing: 8 Best Practices

UAT ensures end-user satisfaction by evaluating the application against their expectations. Using test scripts is a structured way to conduct UAT. 

Test scripts usually include:

• Test steps: Detailed instructions for users to perform during testing.
• Expected results: Outcomes users should observe if the system functions correctly.
• Actual results: Actual outcome users observed. If it is different than the expected results, then it is a bug.
• Data requirements: Specific data or conditions needed for the test.
• Acceptance criteria: Criteria defining whether the system has passed or failed UAT.
• Test environment information: Details about the test environment.

How to do Salesforce testing: best practices

In order to comprehensively test Salesforce, you need to have a clear, high-level understanding of the process you are looking to test. Understanding this flow helps you test each critical moment of it. 

Developing a robust Salesforce testing strategy involves:

Defining clear objectives

First, it's crucial to define clear objectives. Identify specific goals you aim to achieve with your testing efforts, such as improving code quality, ensuring seamless integrations, or enhancing user experience. 

Establish measurable outcomes to track the success of your testing strategy, like reduced bug counts, improved performance metrics, or increased user satisfaction.

Prioritizing test cases

Next, prioritize your test cases. Focus on critical functionalities and integrations that have the highest impact on your business processes. 

Prioritize test cases based on a risk assessment, considering factors like the frequency of use, complexity, and potential impact of failures. 

Regularly review and update your test case priorities to align with changing business requirements and development updates.

Using realistic test data

Using realistic test data is another essential practice. Ensure your test data closely mirrors production data to accurately reflect real-world scenarios. 

Implement data masking and anonymization techniques to protect sensitive information while maintaining data integrity. Regularly refresh test data to keep it up-to-date and relevant for ongoing testing activities.

Automating where possible

Test automation is also a key component of an effective Salesforce testing strategy. Leverage test automation tools for repetitive and complex test scenarios to increase efficiency and reduce manual effort. 

Focus on automating regression tests, integration tests, and other high-value areas that benefit most from automation. Invest in user-friendly, codeless automation tools that enable both technical and non-technical team members to contribute to the testing process. 

Continuously testing

Finally, continuous testing should be integrated into your CI/CD pipeline to ensure continuous validation and fast feedback loops. 

Implement automated tests at multiple stages of the development process, from unit tests in development environments to end-to-end tests in staging environments. 

Continuous testing helps catch issues early, reduce time to market, and maintain high-quality standards across all releases.

Download the guide: Continuous Testing in Agile Development

Salesforce test case example

1. Create a new lead: Verify that a new lead can be created, edited, and saved in Salesforce.
2. Sales process: Test the complete sales process from lead creation to opportunity closure.
3. Integration with email system: Ensure that emails sent through Salesforce are properly tracked and logged.
4. Data migration: Verify that data migration from a legacy system to Salesforce is accurate.
5. Custom automations: Test custom automation to ensure they trigger correctly based on defined conditions.

Test cases can be created in Flow builder to do testing and assertions on individual flows.

Salesforce testing challenges

When it comes to testing enterprise applications, the challenges are both diverse and complex. This is especially true for Salesforce testing, which presents unique obstacles that must be navigated.

Here are the main Salesforce testing challenges:

The complexity of customizations

One major challenge is the complexity of customizations. Salesforce’s flexibility allows for highly customized environments tailored to specific business needs. 

While this flexibility is beneficial, it also means that diagnosing issues can be particularly difficult. When numerous custom implementations are layered on top of one another, pinpointing the source of a problem becomes a tough task.

Frequent major releases

Frequent updates to the Salesforce platform further complicate testing. Salesforce evolves constantly, with three major releases each year—Winter, Spring, and Summer—introducing new features and changes. 

Over the years, we have been provided with multiple versions of similar tools for configuration. For example, to store files, we’ve had Notes & Attachments and Files. For automation, we’ve had Workflow, Process Builder, and various API versions of Flow Builder and Apex. 

These updates necessitate rigorous and continuous testing to ensure that nothing breaks and that business processes continue to function smoothly when moved to the newer versions of software. 

Integration issues

Integration issues also pose a significant challenge. Given that many applications are integrated with other systems and are highly customized, thorough testing is essential to maintain operational continuity.

Ensuring that Salesforce integrates seamlessly with other systems, such as ERP platforms, requires end-to-end testing. Any failure in integration can disrupt workflows and impact business operations.

Testing approach

Finally, your approach to testing can introduce further complications. Manual testing is often slow, prone to human error, and difficult to scale. 

As the complexity and scope of the Salesforce environment grow, manual testing becomes increasingly inefficient, highlighting the need for more automated solutions to manage the extensive testing requirements effectively.

Related reading: What is the Difference Between Manual Testing and Automation Testing?

Solving Salesforce testing challenges with automation

Once seen as a luxury, test automation is now essential for maintaining the quality and reliability of Salesforce environments. 

Automation tackles several key challenges:

• Improving test coverage: Automated tests cover more scenarios than manual tests, providing a comprehensive system assessment. This extensive coverage helps identify issues before they impact users.
• Speeding up testing: Automation accelerates the testing process, allowing teams to execute tests faster than manual methods. This speed enables quicker releases and helps businesses respond swiftly to market changes and user demands.
• Enhancing accuracy: Automated tests follow consistent, predefined steps, reducing human error. This consistency ensures more accurate and reliable results.
• Scalability: As testing needs grow, automated tests scale easily without requiring proportional increases in effort or resources. This scalability maintains testing efficiency and effectiveness as the Salesforce environment evolves.

However, automating Salesforce testing is not without its challenges. Salesforce's intricate structure makes it one of the more difficult platforms to automate.

Salesforce has its own test automation capabilities, but there are limitations on what you can test with these. Salesforce testing tools can only test what is in Salesforce, so you can't do end-to-end testing out of the box as you can with other application and technology-agnostic platforms. 

The right solution for automated Salesforce testing will be different depending on the company using it, and the resources you have available.

When a code or low-code solution may work for you:

• If you have developer resources at your disposal for building test automation script
• If your QA team/testers have a high degree of coding experience
• You have plenty of time to dedicate to maintaining automation scripts
• When you aren’t testing at scale

When a codeless solution or no code may be a better option for you:

• If you need quick test creation and deployment to meet tight deadlines.
• If you already have an established testing team or business users that are familiar with Salesforce processes, but limited or no experience in coding test automation script
• If you want to reduce the long-term costs associated with hiring and training specialized developers.
• If you have used code-based automation in the past and struggled with maintenance and scalability

Explore our list of top tools for test automation: The Top 20 Test Automation Tools of 2024

Conclusion

Salesforce testing is vital for ensuring the reliability and performance of your Salesforce applications and integrations. By understanding the types of testing, developing a solid strategy, and leveraging automation where you can, you can effectively maintain and enhance your Salesforce environment. 

About the author

Felix Fong and Chris Schwartz co-authored this article. Chris Schwartz is a Content Marketing Manager at Leapwork, and Felix is a 5x Certified Salesforce Admin at Leapwork, with expertise in project management, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and testing.