Keep Business Processes Stable with Salesforce Test Automation

Nikita R.

Media-savvy content creator, with a curiosity for all Salesforce experiences.

Updated: Mar 21st, 2024

Every Salesforce system is distinctive as they each have unique workflows, custom input fields, and various third-party applications integrated for specific business objectives. They get to this complex state with the help of customization options that improve business processes.

However, it’s risky to customize Salesforce and deploy workflows without test automation. Why? Well, you could run into slower delivery cycles or even errors in Salesforce’s user interface (UI). If you enter this phase, your Salesforce platform cannot help your business or employees work effectively.

As this is an important topic, join us below as we cover test automation tools and their challenges in Salesforce. Let’s begin!

Some Salesforce Test Automation Tools

Most of us in the customer relationship management (CRM) world know that Salesforce is the most popular CRM platform for sales, customer service, and marketing teams. It’s also a flexible platform that can be customized to work with your unique business operations. So, to achieve proper customization, organizations must use Salesforce test automation tools to keep their favorite CRM platform stable and reliable for business operations.

Many Salesforce testing tools can test your Salesforce applications. To save you some research time, we have provided a few Salesforce automation testing tools you could use in Salesforce test automation practices.

Salesforce Test Automation Options for your Business

For Salesforce, we get two sweet options for test automation. So, which automation tool do I use? You can use the Apex Test Framework or opt for Selenium. The option you select will depend on your individual business objectives for Salesforce.

Do you need to test your Apex code? If this is your use case, and you need to test your programming code written in Salesforce, then the Apex Test Framework will be your option, as it is mainly used for unit testing Apex code. If you didn’t know, a fun fact is that Apex code is similar to the programming language called Java. The Apex Text Framework is a popular choice for businesses that want unit tests executed directly within Salesforce.

The second option for Salesforce is to use Selenium. It’s an open-source tool that many organizations use for testing web applications. You will find that Selenium is a solid option if you want to experiment with the automation capabilities of Salesforce’s UI, such as clicking buttons, entering data into forms, or validating data.

Third-Party Test Automation Options for your Business

Maybe, Salesforce options are not ideal for your business objectives. In that case, you always have the choice to go with a third-party testing solution that integrates well with Salesforce.

If you are looking for a tool, try Provar. This commercial test automation tool for Salesforce was designed with Salesforce users in mind since it provides features for testing the CRM’s UI, APIs, and applications.

If you need a platform, then check out Sauce Labs. It’s a cloud-based testing platform for test automation in Salesforce. It actually works really well with Selenium tests on different devices and browsers. These tests help ensure that your Salesforce operations are running on various devices and browsers for the highest level of accessibility and productivity.

Continuous Testing Options for your Business

Continuous testing tools like Jenkins, Travis CI, and CircleCI are standard solutions that integrate with Salesforce. With one of these testing tools, a business can automate test suites whenever a line of code is changed. This system is necessary to ensure that new code works and functions with pre-existing code.

A Few Automated Salesforce Testing Examples

We know that any customizations and changes to a Salesforce environment must be tested to ensure the platform is stable and reliable.

Furthermore, automated Salesforce testing is used by many people and teams in a business to perform CRM tasks. Let’s take the opportunity to look at a few users involved in automated Salesforce testing.

Number one on the list is Salesforce administrators. These individuals use automated testing to ensure any Salesforce customizations and configurations work well.

Next up are Salesforce developers. They use automated testing to verify custom code, triggers, and Apex classes they write to enhance the Salesforce platform.

Quality Assurance (QA) teams also use automated testing but employ it to test applications and integrations in Salesforce. Their responsibility is to report any defects found in their tests that could affect Salesforce users.

If your organization has release managers, they would use automated testing, too. However, unlike the previous professionals, release managers test that new updates or changes to Salesforce are error-free and that pre-existing functions still work.

Business analysts are last on our list, but certainly not in the real world. These individuals would use automated testing to verify that business workflows and processes in Salesforce function as per business or project requirements.

Salesforce Test Automation Challenges

Just like any system, test automation for Salesforce is not a perfect solution. Let’s take a look at a few challenges you could face with test automation so that you can plan for your requirements.

Salesforce can be Complicated

Salesforce is an advanced and powerful CRM platform that includes modules, customization options, and a host of third-party integrations. Testing a custom Salesforce ecosystem could be challenging, time-consuming, and expensive if you have a complex setup.

Managing Large Volumes of Data

Since Salesforce is all about data, whether it’s collecting it, storing it, organizing it, tracking it, and so forth. We suggest that you keep in mind to create some good data management practices that your employees adhere to maintain reliable test data that is important for reporting on data accurately in business decisions.

Regularly Check on Updates to Experience Cloud

To provide the best Salesforce experiences, your favorite CRM platform consistently releases updates! As great as that sounds, it does come with a few drawbacks. One of them being that any user interface changes can break your test scripts.

To survive these constant updates and releases from Salesforce, we recommend that you create test automation processes that are adaptable enough to withstand these changes.

We hope to see you soon! 

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Disclaimer: The comparisons listed in this article are based on information provided by the companies online and online reviews from users. If you found a mistake, please contact us.