Cloud computing technologies have had a big surge in popularity in recent years, wherein one such technology that has left its mark of impact in the computing landscape is Salesforce. Founded by March Benioff, Salesforce.com has gone on to become one of the most widely used Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool and the numbers are slated to go only high, in the near future.
A CRM tool primarily aims at sustaining the relationship between an organization and its customers, once the product is delivered to the latter. Moreover, with the cloud storage system, Salesforce has reduced the burden and cost of maintaining physical server storage. The best thing about the cloud-based storage is the organization doesn't need to invest on development cost. For Salesforce, nothing surpasses the importance of customer experience. The platform goes above and beyond to continually evaluate the testing and quality measures.
Benefits the Salesforce users can have:
· Helps in maintaining long term customer relationship
· Increases the productivity of the users in the development platform
· No more investment on additional software
· Salesforce administrator is able to create internal users within the platform
As per the report from SalesInside website, in the year 2017, there was an increase in the users of Salesforce products. In numbers, more than 150,000 Salesforce customers are available globally, which is a good growth. This growing number also indicates the importance of Salesforce beginner user guide to get equipped with modern features in cloud based service.
Let us now dig into the world of testing, through this informative and in-depth Salesforce testing beginner’s guide:
The Need for Testing
In this digital age, the need and purpose of testing involve many layers of usage. Primarily, testing is used to assure whether the code and configuration is functioning to the best of its abilities. This is performed to ensure that the digital platform meets the pre-set requirements mentioned by the client, so that the software completely goes in line with the customer’s requirement post-testing.
Understanding the Basics of Salesforce Testing
Salesforce testing revolves around the usage of complex testing methodologies and techniques, as a majority of the features are inherently built-in and customizable. When an issue is detected, it is imperative for the tester to make sure that the customized code is tested rather than the built-in functionality of Salesforce. The rewarding experience of Salesforce testing process covers both manual and automated software testing.
· Manual Testing – Testing Salesforce Application through a methodical manner by a professional.
· Automated Testing – Tests functional aspects like load and security testing by a computer program.
Built on a platform development language, APEX offers developers with built-in unit test cases to test their own set of codes. A standard requirement for a Salesforce developer stands at achieving 75% code coverage with the unit test cases.
Decoding the Salesforce Testing Process
The process involved in Salesforce testing is almost as similar as that of testing a web-based application. The line of distinction comes under the shoulders of a tester, who needs to have a clear and accurate perspective of the customizable features that are being built to solely focus on the same.
The Salesforce application testing requires a production environment called SandBox, which is used by both the developers and testers to meet their testing needs and purpose. As the code gets positioned and approved for release by Sandbox it is subsequently moved into the production phase.
Breaking Down the Role of a Tester
It is no secret that proper testing can radically curb down a lot of maintenance problems or errors, making the role of a tester critically valuable. Following is the core team that constitutes a typical Salesforce delivery cycle:
· Quality Analysts/ Testers
· Administrators
· Business Analysts
· Developers
· Project Managers
Almost similar to a full-fledged engineer, a Salesforce tester boasts the distinctive ability to perform black and white box testing, and is commonly known as Quality Engineers (QE instead of Quality Assurance (QA) because of which. They are typically certified as either Salesforce.com Administrators or Developers.
The role of a tester involves designing, maintaining, writing, and especially, building complex testing frameworks. Their role also stretches to setting up test environment from its beginning. They play a vital role in ensuring that the codes developed are released, and in the face of any imminent or existing issues, testers offer valuable suggestions and solutions to tackle the same.
Responsibilities and Needs of a Salesforce Tester
· Bridging a clear-cut communication with the Development team to gain an insight of the customizable features that are being built on Salesforce.
· Salesforce Tester functions range across a wide-pool of services like Manual Testing, Automated Testing, Security Testing, Unit Testing, Load Testing, Functional Testing, and Deployment Testing.
· In manual testing, testers need to have the requisite patience and zeal to test the Salesforce.com application with a methodical approach.
· In automated testing, testers with an experience in AssureClick, Selenium, etc., play a critical role.
· Making sure that the code coverage percentage does not drop below the 75% mark as per the Salesforce standards.
· Testers are often needed to work on the Salesforce app and gain rich understanding of its functionality to create function maps and then utilize the same to execute the test cases.
Conclusion
Testing is no longer a choice; it ensures smooth operability and eradicates issues in minimal time. With Salesforce gaining more and more attention, the role of a tester will reform and attain more significance.
