Salesforce is the largest Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool in the world. Over the years, it has evolved into a beast that can do everything your Sales & Marketing teams need it to do (and more!).
Salesforce Testing: Actionable Tips for Beginners
Its size means it’s a great addition to your company but also makes it tricky to test.
In this article, we will give you some actionable Salesforce testing tips geared towards beginners. We hope to make your life testing different aspects of Salesforce as painless as possible from day one.
Salesforce Testing Tips
1. It’s a Web App
Testing Salesforce is identical to testing any other web application (albeit an incredibly complicated one). However, be aware that there are many built-in features you cannot remove or turn off (even if your company never uses them).
Find out which of the customizable features you will be testing. Keep a list of the built-in features so that you don’t waste any time testing features that Salesforce themselves created.
2. Use the Sandbox Environment
Salesforce comes with a built-in test environment called the Sandbox. Your developers should be using it already. You can test code in the Sandbox and deploy it into production from there.
Working within the Sandbox reduces friction between you and the developers and is the place Salesforce recommends you perform all your tests. Don’t waste time testing anywhere else; make the Sandbox your friend.
3. Learn the Terminology
Salesforce is its own ecosystem and therefore comes with a lot of jargon. As a beginner, you will likely be overwhelmed by this at the beginning.
Take time to learn the most common terms. Knowing the jargon will make your day easier and also reduce friction with your end-users. They won’t want to waste their time chatting with a tester who doesn’t know the difference between a lead and an opportunity.
Knowing the terms demonstrates that you care about your end-users and will get them on your side. Maintaining a solid relationship is crucial for the long term as they will be more likely to share feedback with you and trust you to do more advanced tests that can significantly impact the company.
4. Be Aware of Visual Force Pages
Pay extra attention when testing the Salesforce UI. Most of the web pages are Visual Force pages, so not all elements will load simultaneously.
Give your test suite enough time to load everything; don’t rush through and assume it is all working since you may be testing aspects that haven’t appeared yet!
5. Classic and Lightning UIs
Salesforce has both Classic and Lightning UIs, and you need to test them both. They may seem similar on the surface but be aware: Tests written for the Classic UI will not work for the Lightning UI and vice versa.
Your company will likely have a suite of Classic tests already; you will need to re-write them if you are testing the Lightning UI.
6. Build Up Slowly
Salesforce is a massive piece of software. There are easy parts, and there are complex parts. Get familiar with the more straightforward aspects before diving into the tricker ones, such as Salesforce / Service Cloud Console or VisualForce.
7. Get Buy-in From End-Users Before You Go Live
Creating new things is hard. But it is worth it once they are finished and out there improving the business. It is not worth it if you spend weeks designing and testing something only to have your end-users hate it and refuse to use it.
Several sprints like this in a row will drain your energy, and your colleagues will lose trust in you.
The answer? Get buy-in from your end-users right at the start. Understand why they are asking for specific features and what they want them to do. This understanding dramatically increases the chances that your tests will benefit the company, creating a positive feedback loop.
You can even get them to test your features for you! They will be more than happy to do so, knowing it is something they want.
This relationship will create a positive feedback loop, which means many more successful Salesforce tests and implemented features for you and your team moving forward.
8. Make Small Frequent Tests
Deploying and testing are best done often and in small amounts. Making regular small tests is going to lead to fewer nasty surprises in the future.
If you are about to deploy a big project and suddenly realize all the tests you’ve done over the last few weeks are useless because of an oversight, that is a huge pain.
If you are about to deploy a small project and realize you need to make some changes, that is much easier to handle. Small and frequent salesforce tests are the way to go.
9. Use Testing Tools for Faster and Higher-Quality Delivery
Writing and maintaining all your tests by hand slows you down and makes your tests error-prone. Using testing tools fixes this problem. One such salesforce testing tool is Functionalize.
They use AI-powered low-code automation to make it easy for all teams across your business to implement lightning-fast testing with their end-to-end automation suite.
In fact, Salesforce themselves uses it to test their own product! If you’re using Salesforce for your CRM, using the test suit they prefer makes sense.
Conclusion
So there you have it, nine actionable tips for beginners to improve every aspect of your Salesforce testing strategy. But tips are no good unless you implement them.
So get out there and start taking action. Every tip you implement will improve the Salesforce workflow in your company, and that can only mean a better sales and marketing pipeline and more revenue for your business.
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