Salesforce Testing Explained: From Types to Best Practices
Imagine delivering a solution to your customers, with a hidden bug lurking in the system—affecting its functionality, causing user frustration, and damaging your organization's reputation. Sounds like a worst nightmare, doesn’t it?
In reality, this often happens due to inadequate testing, making rigorous testing essential regardless of the platform being developed.
As one of the most widely used platforms, Salesforce offers highly customizable solutions. However, with great flexibility comes the need for thorough testing. Whether it's a minor configuration change or a complex integration, a single bug can disrupt critical business processes, leading to costly setbacks.
Whether you are a Salesforce QA or a developer, this guide covers everything you need to know about Salesforce Testing—why it’s essential, the different types of testing, and best practices to ensure your Salesforce applications run smoothly.
What is Salesforce Testing?
Salesforce testing is the process of validating solutions built on the Salesforce platform to ensure they function as expected and remain free from vulnerabilities. Since Salesforce is highly customizable, organizations frequently extend its capabilities through third-party integrations and custom developments.
While this flexibility enhances functionality, it also introduces potential security risks and performance issues. Therefore, rigorous testing at every stage of development is essential to maintain system reliability and overall security.
Salesforce Testing | Source: Trailhead
Why Testing is Essential in Salesforce?
Salesforce testing is crucial to ensure that every component functions correctly, aligns with business requirements, and maintains system stability and security. Below are the key reasons why rigorous testing is essential.
1. Identifying and Resolving Issues Early
Testing helps catch errors early, allowing teams to address them before they cause inconsistencies or disrupt workflows, making it a crucial step after every change.
2. Validating Business Processes
Salesforce provides highly customizable solutions for diverse business needs. Thorough testing ensures these solutions function correctly and integrate seamlessly with existing processes, maintaining efficiency and alignment with business objectives
3. Enhancing User Experience
A well-tested application delivers smooth functionality, intuitive navigation, and consistent performance. Comprehensive Salesforce testing covers everything from core features to UI, creating a seamless and reliable experience that keeps users engaged.
4. Ensuring System Stability
Regular updates are important for staying competitive, but they shouldn’t compromise core functionality. Salesforce testing ensures that new updates work smoothly with existing features, maintaining performance and uninterrupted operations.
5. Future-Proofing the System
Lastly, Salesforce testing ensures long-term reliability and adaptability as your business evolves. It validates system scalability, compatibility with future updates, and resilience against changing requirements—keeping your platform ready for growth.
Salesforce Testing and Development | Source: Trailhead
Understand the Types of Salesforce Testing
Salesforce testing covers various areas such as UI, functionality, performance, and usability. With so many types of tests available, understanding them can be overwhelming. To simplify this, it’s important to first understand their categories. Let’s break them down in a structured way.
Classification of Salesforce Testing
Testing in Salesforce can be classified into three main categories based on how the testing is conducted:
Black Box Testing – No code involvement; testers assess system functionality by focusing only on external behavior.
White Box Testing – Code-level testing; testers examine the internal structure, logic, and workflows.
Gray Box Testing – A mix of both; testers have partial code knowledge and assess both internal and external aspects.
Furthermore, Salesforce testing can also be classified into functional and non-functional testing, depending on what aspect of the application is being tested.
Functional Testing ensures that the system operates as intended and meets business requirements. It verifies that features perform correctly and deliver the expected outputs.
Non-Functional Testing, on the other hand, evaluates non-functional aspects such as performance, usability, and security. This helps assess how well the system operates beyond its core functionality.
Note: All testing falls under either white box, black box, or gray box testing approaches. And can be further classified into functional or non-functional categories. Moreover, the tests can be executed manually or through automation.
Types of Testing in Salesforce
Salesforce testing involves different types of testing to validate the application across various scenarios. Here are some of the key types of testing in Salesforce.
1. Unit Testing
Unit Test is the most precise method to test codes. It involves isolating and testing individual units or components of code to ensure they work as expected. In Salesforce testing, this means breaking Apex code into smaller units, such as classes, methods, or triggers, so they can be tested independently while remaining isolated from the rest of the application.
Apex Unit Testing is an integral part of Salesforce’s Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and is performed by developers who write tests to validate the functionality of specific code snippets during development.
2. Integration Testing
Everything can be integrated with Salesforce, making integration testing a required step to ensure system stability. It focuses on verifying how different components of an application interact and work together.
This process involves testing the integration of various modules, such as custom objects, triggers, and external systems, to ensure they function correctly as a group.
For example, testing the integration between Salesforce and an external CRM system like HubSpot or an ERP system like SAP ensures that data flows correctly between platforms.
This type of Salesforce testing can be performed using tools like Postman and SoapUI to validate API requests, responses, and data flow between integrated systems.
3. System Testing
A comprehensive test performed after integration testing to evaluate the Salesforce application as a unified system. This process ensures that the entire software functions correctly by covering multiple aspects such as code functionality, user interface (UI), security, and performance.
Since it includes a complete set of tests, tools like JMeter, Selenium, and Postman can be used to streamline the testing process.
4. End-to-End Testing
End-to-End Testing is performed to validate the entire user journey, from the initial interaction to the completion of a full process. It ensures that all components, systems, and workflows seamlessly integrate and function as expected.
Unlike System Testing, which assesses the application as a whole, End-to-End Testing focuses on verifying every stage of user interaction—from login to task completion—to ensure smooth operation without interruptions.
This Salesforce testing confirms that all system components work together flawlessly in real-world scenarios, covering the full spectrum of user actions within the application.
5. User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
Validated by business stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) rather than Salesforce testers, this testing ensures that the system aligns with business requirements and performs as expected in real-world scenarios. With in-depth knowledge of business processes and workflows, these individuals are best suited to verify whether the solution meets user needs.
Salesforce Testing Pyramid | Source: Shiftasia
6. Regression Testing
Regression Testing is essential before deploying updates or new features, as It involves re-testing previously validated features to confirm that recent changes have not introduced new defects or disrupted existing functionality. The primary goal of this Salesforce testing is to verify that updates or code modifications don’t negatively affect the system's core features.
By performing regression tests, you can maintain system stability and allow end-users to enjoy uninterrupted functionality. The most common tools to automate this testing are Selenium and Cypress.
7. Smoke Testing
Used to validate the basic functionalities of an application, this Salesforce testing ensures that the system is stable enough for further, more detailed testing. It serves as an initial check to identify critical issues early in the development process, stopping further testing if foundational features do not work as expected. To automate smoke testing, tools like Selenium and Jenkins can be used.
8. Sanity Testing
This testing is performed on stable builds that have undergone recent bug fixes. For instance, when a developer resolves a previously identified bug, a Salesforce QA tester will conduct a sanity test to verify that the fix works correctly and does not introduce new issues.
Sanity Testing in Salesforce is often considered a subset of Regression Testing, as it helps ensure that recent changes or bug fixes have not impacted the application's overall stability.
9. Exploratory Testing
Also known as Ad Hoc Testing, testers here have the freedom to explore the Salesforce application without strictly following predefined test cases. This testing encourages them to use their own creativity and experience to discover potential issues by trying out different scenarios and use cases that may not be covered in the planned test cases.
This method helps identify unexpected bugs and usability issues by simulating real-world user interactions in an unscripted manner.
10. Usability Testing
Usability tests ensure how intuitive and user-friendly an application is for its intended users. It validates that users can easily interact with the application without confusion. This Salesforce testing is essential in applications where users interact with various workflows, dashboards, and custom objects.
For example, an internal operations app should be easy to navigate, allowing team members to quickly access profiles, track escalations, and manage tasks without unnecessary complexity.
A well-executed usability test improves user satisfaction and adoption rates while identifying pain points or design flaws early in the development cycle.
11. UI testing
User Interface testing verifies that the graphical elements of a Salesforce application function correctly and provide a consistent user experience. It ensures that visual components—such as buttons, forms, input fields, and navigation elements—work as intended and align with design specifications.
Salesforce provides the UI Test Automation Model (UTAM) tool to automate tests in both Lightning Experience and the Salesforce mobile app.
Suggested read: Salesforce UTAM Explained in < 5 Minutes
12. Performance Testing
Performance Testing ensures the Salesforce system operates efficiently under different conditions and can handle varying loads, such as increased user traffic and large data volumes, without performance degradation. It validates that the system performs consistently under both normal and peak usage.
You can identify bottlenecks and ensure optimal performance during high traffic or peak usage by conducting Salesforce performance testing, including load testing, stress testing, and scalability testing. These types of testing in Salesforce help evaluate system stability under different conditions. Tools like Apache JMeter and BlazeMeter help simulate loads, pinpoint performance issues, and provide insights for improvement
13. Cross-browser testing
Also known as compatibility testing, this Salesforce testing should be a part of your testing strategy. It is conducted during the development and pre-release stages to ensure that a website or application is compatible with different operating systems (e.g., Windows, macOS) and web browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge.
To streamline the process, tools like Sauce Labs and BrowserStack Live are commonly used, enabling real-time testing across various browsers and devices.
Cross-browser testing in Salesforce
14. Security Testing
Security Testing is a fundamental requirement for any product and one of the most critical types of white-box testing. Unlike other tests, it doesn’t focus on the application's functionality or user experience. Instead, it ensures the application is free from vulnerabilities and protected against potential security threats.
Common tools used for security testing include OWASP ZAP, Checkmarx, and Burp Suite, which help identify and address vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other common threats.
15. Accessibility Testing
In Salesforce, accessibility testing verifies that your application is usable by everyone, including individuals with disabilities. This type of testing primarily focuses on the UI level, requiring testers to verify elements such as:
Proper Color Contrast
Alternative Text for Images
Descriptive Names for Links
And many other accessibility features. By aligning with accessibility standards like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), and Section 508 compliance, accessibility testing ensures that your application provides an inclusive experience to all users.
Google Lighthouse is a tool that can be used to audit an app for accessibility, providing insights into the application’s accessibility score.
Salesforce Testing Best Practices
Now that we’ve explored the essentials of Salesforce testing, it’s time to focus on best practices that can enhance the accuracy, efficiency, and overall success of each testing cycle.
1. Start testing Early
Testing should not wait until development is complete—it should be carried out alongside development. As soon as a piece of code is written, initial testing should be done at the code level before reaching the QA team.
Developers should perform Apex Unit Testing to validate functionality, catch errors early, and ensure code quality before further testing begins. Early testing in Salesforce minimizes rework, accelerates the development cycle, and improves overall system stability.
2. Maintain a Dedicated Test Environment
A well-configured test environment is crucial for safe and controlled Salesforce testing. It should closely resemble the production environment to ensure realistic test conditions while preventing unintended disruptions to live data and business operations.
Using a separate Salesforce sandbox for testing allows teams to validate changes, run experiments, and detect issues without impacting the actual system.
3. Automate Where Possible
Leverage Salesforce test automation tools to streamline various types of testing, from performance and integration to system testing. Automation saves time by handling repetitive tasks, reduces human errors, and frees up resources to focus on more critical testing areas.
With automation tools available for almost every testing, you can incorporate them into your Salesforce testing strategy to achieve better efficiency
4. Categorize Test Cases Strategically
Prioritize test cases based on complexity, business impact, and the likelihood of rejection. Critical functionalities and high-risk areas should be tested first, while minor changes can follow. This strategic approach ensures efficient resource allocation, faster validation, and thorough testing of essential business processes.
5. Test with Realistic Data
Use meaningful, well-structured data to ensure accurate Salesforce testing that reflects real-world scenarios. Instead of relying on artificial datasets, leverage a Salesforce test data generator tool like Smock-it to create realistic synthetic data while ensuring privacy and compliance.
6. Test with Both Positive and Negative Scenarios
Perform comprehensive Salesforce testing by covering both positive and negative scenarios. Positive testing verifies expected system behavior, while negative testing checks how the system handles invalid inputs, errors, or edge cases. This approach provides insight into real-world usage, where users may perform unexpected actions.
7. Update Test Cases
As business requirements evolve, test cases must be updated to remain relevant and effective. Regularly reviewing and refining test cases ensures they align with the latest system changes, new features, and process updates. This practice helps maintain test accuracy and prevent outdated scenarios from affecting test reliability.
8. Continue Testing Beyond Deployment
Testing shouldn’t stop once your Salesforce application goes live—it should be a continuous process. By integrating Salesforce testing into a CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) pipeline, you can ensure that every new change is automatically tested and validated before deployment.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that Salesforce testing is an essential stage for delivering a successful solution. From Apex Unit Test to User Acceptance Test, each test type plays an important role and should be part of the testing strategy. Implementing the best practices will further enhance the process, while automation improves efficiency and accuracy. With so many factors involved, testing in Salesforce can be complex, making it crucial to have the right expertise.
If you need expert assistance, Concretio can help. Our experienced QA team ensures secure, fully functional, and scalable Salesforce testing, giving you confidence in your platform’s reliability and performance.
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