Executing Testing

Ensuring quality in your Sales Cloud solution is an essential component for success. Users must trust that the system will consistently deliver what they need so that they adopt it. In Chapter 2, Defining the Approach, we considered why testing is an essential part of the Application Lifecycle, and we learned how the Development Methodology, Environment Strategy, and DevOps methodology influence and constrain the options and flexibility you have when structuring testing. We also learned about the types of testing that are commonly used in Salesforce projects and the role that the Testing Strategy, Test Plans, and Test Cases have in enabling you to deliver effective testing for your Sales Cloud implementation.

This chapter gives you the information you need to put your test approach into action. We will learn about the considerations and what is included in a Test Plan for the most common test phases included in Sales Cloud implementations. We will also learn how...

Supporting tools and information

To carry out testing, you will require access to the Salesforce Org designated for this type of testing. This will be defined by the environment strategy. If you are carrying out system integration testing, an equivalent-level environment will need to be connected to the Salesforce environment you are testing in.

To document the testing, you will need access to a spreadsheet tool or, if your organization already uses one, a dedicated testing management platform. Test scripts are often captured in spreadsheets, as they are easy to share between team members and any external service providers.

Testing in practice

It is worth noting that the way testing is executed during each project depends on a number of factors, including the complexity of the solution, an organization’s Salesforce maturity, as well as the time, budget, and skills available. As with a software solution design, there is no single perfect way to deliver testing. Your primary goal is to take the best approach based on your solution with the time, skills, and budget available.

There are some common principles and best practices to keep in mind when planning and delivering your test phases.

• Test as early as possible: Aim to confirm the quality of the development and suitability of the functionality as early in the process as possible. Also, aim to identify differences between the solution and the User’s expectations so that these can be resolved as soon as possible. Testing early in the development cycle is also referred to as shifting left.
• Do enough testing for your situation...

Creating test plans and executing testing

In this section, we will deep dive into the most common functional test phases used in the Sales Cloud implementation projects. In Chapter 2, Defining the Approach, we learned how a mature organization might have an overall Test Strategy and Test Plan per project or testing phase, whereas organizations new to application development might have a single Test Plan that they create for their project, combining the information from the Strategy and the Plan.

In this section, we considered the most detailed scenario and reviewed the information that would be included in a Test Plan for each phase, as well as practical execution considerations. Figure 8.1 shows the four types of testing we explore here, how they relate to each other, and how they can either be considered as part of the build or testing phase.

Figure 8.1 – Testing phases with different build approaches

From the figure, you can see the order...

Translating Users’ Stories into Test Cases

A fundamental part of any structured testing is Test Cases, also referred to as Test Scripts. In Chapter 2 – Defining the Approach we learned about how a Test Strategy, Test Plan(s), and Test Cases provide the framework and structure of how testing is approached and delivered. In this section, we are going to explore in more detail how User Stories are translated into Test Cases.

The following diagram shows how Users’ Stories, Acceptance Criteria, and Test Cases relate to each other.

Figure 8.2 – The relationship between the User Story, Acceptance Criteria, and Test Cases

The diagram illustrates that a User Story can have multiple Acceptance Criteria and that Acceptance Criteria can have multiple Test Cases. When preparing Test Cases, there must be at least one Test Case for each Acceptance Criteria.

Test Cases require the following:

• A Test Case reference
• The requirement...

Other testing

Some types of testing are only appropriate in certain situations; an example of this is Performance Testing. This is only relevant when there is a significant increase in the scale of the solution – for example, in Users or data volumes. We will explore Performance Testing, as there is a specific approach to this on the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform.

Performance Testing

The purpose of Performance Testing is to confirm that a system performs in a useable manner as it scales in terms of the number of Users, data volumes, or requests per second. It should be considered when there is a significant increase in these factors.

At this scale, you are likely to have a technical team and possibly a Salesforce Architect overseeing the design of your solution, who will advise and guide you through this type of testing. Performance Testing has a number of considerations, depending on the complexity of your functionality, the integrations you have, and the tools...

Summary

In this chapter, we learned about the considerations and best practices when delivering testing in practice. We reviewed all the commonly used functional testing types used in Sales Cloud solution implementations, including capturing the information typically included in a Test Plan for each phase. Finally, we learned how Test Cases are generated from User Stories.

In the next chapter, we will build on the Change Management and training planning we explored in Chapter 2 – Defining the Approach and learn how to execute training in practice.

Further reading

• Shift Left Testing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shift-left_testing
• Sandbox Seeding: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/sandbox-seeding-with-ownbackup/brush-up-on-sandbox-seeding-basics
• Introduction to Performance Testing: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2020/09/introduction-to-performance-testing
• Performance Testing on the Lightning Platform: https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2020/09/performance-testing-on-the-lightning-platform
• What is EPT? : https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.technical_requirements_ept.htm&type=5