Choose Wisely: Picking the Right Test Cases for Salesforce Automation Success!
In today’s fast-paced digital world, ensuring the reliability of your Salesforce applications is critical. Salesforce is constantly evolving, with frequent updates and enhancements that can impact functionality, integrations, and workflows. This makes Salesforce automation testing essential for maintaining system stability and delivering a seamless user experience.
But automation testing isn’t just about running scripts—it’s about making smart decisions on what to automate. Many teams struggle with choosing the right test cases, often leading to over-automation, high maintenance costs, and unstable tests.
This blog will guide you through:
✅ What is Salesforce automation testing and why it's important
✅ Common challenges teams face when automating Salesforce tests
✅ Best practices for selecting the right test cases
✅ Tools like Provar that can streamline your automation efforts
Salesforce automation testing refers to the process of automating the testing of Salesforce applications to ensure they function correctly, meet business requirements, and maintain high quality across different releases. Salesforce, being a dynamic and frequently updated platform, requires constant testing to validate functionality, user interfaces, workflows, integrations, and data handling.
In automation testing, test scripts are created and executed automatically, rather than manually, to validate various aspects of Salesforce applications.
Although automation testing is becoming increasingly popular, many teams still face challenges, particularly when it comes to determining which test cases to automate. According to the 2023 World Quality Report, 24% of teams encounter difficulties in selecting suitable test cases for automation.
Teams often rush to automate as many test cases as possible, believing it will speed up the testing process. However, this approach can backfire. Many of these teams encounter numerous issues later, including higher maintenance costs, unstable tests, and gaps in test coverage. Without careful planning and strategy in selecting the right test cases to automate, the benefits of automation can quickly be overshadowed by these challenges.
Teams should carefully assess test cases against a set of criteria before automating them. By adhering to the best practices outlined below, you can effectively select the most suitable test cases for Salesforce automation, resulting in enhanced testing efficiency, quicker feedback cycles, and improved software quality.
Focus on achieving business objectives
Prioritize tests that directly contribute to achieving the goals by aligning test automation efforts with the overall business objectives.
Complex Business Logic
Test cases with complex business logic, calculations, or workflows should be automated as they can be prone to human error and benefit from automation.
Example 1: Multi-stage Approval Workflow ->A sales opportunity needs approval from multiple levels of management based on the deal size.
Example 2: Auto-Update Opportunity Stage on Closing -> When a customer signs a contract, the opportunity stage should automatically update to “Closed Won” and trigger other actions, such as generating a welcome email and creating an invoice.
Identify test types that can be automated
- Pay attention to tests that are repetitive, time-consuming, important, and stable enough for automation.
- First, prioritize sanity, smoke, regression, and Integration tests.
Identify Time-Consuming Test cases
Prioritize manual test cases that take a long time and require frequent execution, as automating them will result in significant time savings.
Example 1: Complex Formula Field Calculations -> Salesforce formula fields that involve calculations based on multiple related objects (e.g., Opportunity, Account, and Product data).
Example 2: Multi-Step Lead Conversion Process -> Leads that go through a multi-step conversion process (Lead > Account > Contact > Opportunity), especially when the lead conversion triggers workflows, email notifications, or custom logic.
Prioritize Test Cases
Begin by prioritizing test cases that are of high importance and have a significant impact, focusing on core functionalities and critical paths. The following factors should be considered before determining their priority.
- Value: How much value the test case add to the app's quality, and how much effort is required to automate it.
- Risk: How much risk the test case poses, and whether it addresses critical functionalities or vulnerabilities.
- Frequency: How often the test is executed.
- Effort: The amount of effort required to perform the manual test execution.
- Human error: Whether the test is prone to human error.
Reusable Components
Look for test cases that can be reused across multiple test cases, reducing redundancy and effort.
Example 1: Data Creation -> Test cases that involve creating records for Salesforce objects such as Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Leads, Cases, etc.
Example 2: Field-Level Security & Permission Validation -> Test cases that validate field-level security and object permissions for specific user profiles or permission sets.
Data-Driven Testing
Identify test cases that can benefit from data variation to increase coverage without creating new tests.
Example: Submit Opportunities with different amounts to see if they require approval.
Use the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)
- Identify the 20% of test cases that cover 80% of the application’s functionality.
- Automate this vital subset first for maximum impact.
Start Small and Scale Up
Start with a small group of high-priority test cases and gradually increase automation coverage according to feedback, results, and evolving requirements.
Consider the Frequency of Execution
Automate tests that need to be executed frequently, such as regression tests for each release.
Evaluate Stability and Predictability
Choose test cases that are stable and less likely to change frequently to avoid constant maintenance.
Balance Test Types
Include a mix of different test types (e.g., functional, regression, integration, tests taking longer to save/update/delete) to ensure comprehensive coverage of the application under test.
Cross-Browser/Platform Testing
Automate test cases that need to be executed across different browsers, operating systems, and devices.
Example: Functionality validation in different browsers and OS systems.
Positive and Negative Testing - Ensure a balance between positive (valid inputs) and negative (invalid inputs, error handling) test cases.
- Positive Testing: Create a New Account with valid data, Update an Opportunity with valid values, and Validate the Lookup Field Selection.
- Negative Testing: Enter an invalid email in the Email field, Input a future date in the "Close Date" field for an Opportunity, and Try to exceed the character limit for a text field.
Boundary Conditions and Edge Cases
Include test cases that explore boundary conditions and edge cases to validate system robustness.
- Examples of Boundary Condition Testing:
- Verifying that numerical fields like Amount, Quantity, or Price handle both small and large numbers correctly.
- Ensuring the application can handle dates correctly, such as leap years, maximum date ranges (e.g., year 9999), and boundary dates (e.g., end of month).
- Examples of Edge Case Testing:
- Testing how the system behaves when required fields are left empty or when null values are entered.
- Handling edge cases related to time zone differences, particularly for time-based workflows, reports, and deadlines.
User Experience (UX) Testing
Automate test cases designed to validate the user experience, which includes usability, and accessibility.
- Usability testing examples:
- Test navigation across pages, ensuring that breadcrumbs or navigation elements are visible and functional.
- Test error messages during validation or submission of incorrect data (e.g., mandatory fields left empty).
- Accessibility Testing example:
- Example: Test if modal dialogs (e.g., popups, notifications) are fully accessible using a keyboard.
Collaboration with Stakeholders
Involve stakeholders during the selection process to ensure that it is aligned with the business's goals and priorities.
Document the Rationale
Document the reasoning behind choosing test cases for automation to assist in future decisions, onboarding, and knowledge sharing.
Remember that there is no universal approach, as the selection process varies depending on the application being tested. By following these guidelines, you'll be well on your way to achieving successful test automation!
We highly recommend Provar for Salesforce test automation due to its seamless integration with Salesforce applications and its user-friendly, no-code interface. It empowers teams to efficiently automate complex test scenarios without requiring deep programming knowledge, making it accessible for both technical and non-technical users. Provar’s robust features like self-healing tests, data-driven testing, and smooth CI/CD pipeline integration ensure that your Salesforce applications are thoroughly tested with minimal maintenance. If you’re looking to improve test coverage, reduce manual effort, and accelerate release cycles, Provar is an excellent choice for automating your Salesforce testing.
Ready to start automating your Salesforce tests? Reach out to us at info@cloudperitus.com and book a demo to see how we can help elevate your integration quality.
Cloud Peritus has been at the forefront of innovation since its inception and has since played an integral role in delivering game changing solutions to its clients time and again, resulting in 5 star reviews from across the board.
Feel free to check us out at Salesforce AppExchange.
If you found this interesting, check our other articles on the topic of QA and AI in Salesforce Testing.
- The Power of Parallel Execution in Provar Using Apache ANT
- Automate Smarter: Scaling Provar Tests with Dynamic Data
- Regression Testing Re-imagined: How Provar Automates for Speed and Accuracy
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