Salesforce Testing Tutorial for Beginners

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is the world’s first cloud-based CRM system. It was founded by Marc Benioff and Parker Harris in March 1999. The purpose of this CRM platform is to help users affordably sell, service, market, analyze, and connect with their clients across every channel.

SFDC (Sales Force Dot Com) ships with standard features that let you manage relationships with prospects and customers. It also lets you engage and collaborate with employees and partners while storing data securely in the multi-tenant cloud. Today it spans Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Data Cloud, and the Einstein 1 Platform that powers generative AI features.

What is Salesforce Testing?

A great thing about Salesforce is that most out-of-the-box features can be customized to suit a company’s needs. Salesforce testing is the validation of the configuration and customization performed in vanilla SFDC, including Apex classes, Lightning Web Components, flows, Process Builder, and integrations.

The challenge is to ensure that a tester is checking the customized code, not the built-in Salesforce functionality that Salesforce already covers in its trust-and-release pipeline.

Salesforce CRM is built on a platform language called Apex, complemented by Lightning Web Components (LWC) on the front end. The platform ships with a built-in unit test framework so developers can validate their code before deployment.

Why Salesforce Testing?

Here are the prime reasons I believe Salesforce testing is necessary:

• It checks that the configuration and Apex code are functional after every sandbox refresh.
• It verifies that the finished system supports the client’s business processes end to end.
• It confirms the initial build meets the agreed-upon requirements before go-live.
• It catches problems early, while they are easy and inexpensive to fix.
• Functional flow reports based on test-case status help the team map application functionality.
• The Flow Builder and Process Builder features can be validated for working conditions and behavior.
• Workflows let you verify the functionality of time-based events such as escalation rules.

Salesforce Terminology

• Lightning Experience: The current default Salesforce UI built on Lightning Web Components; Salesforce Classic is being phased out and most orgs are migrating to Lightning.
• Visualforce: A legacy framework for building custom UIs with a tag-based markup language similar to HTML, still supported for older customizations.
• AppExchange: Salesforce’s online marketplace where users can discover and install custom applications and extensions.
• Apex: A strongly typed, object-oriented language used to execute flow and transaction control statements on the Salesforce platform.
• Einstein 1 Platform / Agentforce: Salesforce’s AI layer for predictive and generative features and autonomous agents that must also be validated by QA.

Types of Salesforce Testing

Manual Testing

Manual software testing covers the Salesforce.com app using traditional methods. The QA team can use manual testing to execute functional testing, happy-path testing, integration testing, regression testing, and system testing across both Lightning Experience and Salesforce Mobile.

Automated Testing

Automated testing uses a program to test a Salesforce.com or Force.com app. Common automation tools include Selenium, Provar, Copado Robotic Testing, Tricentis Test Automation for Salesforce, and Testsigma. Modern stacks increasingly add AI-powered self-healing locators to absorb Lightning DOM changes.

Levels of Testing in Salesforce

In this Salesforce testing tutorial, the following levels typically apply:

Unit Testing

• Conducted by Apex developers, who write test methods that exercise their classes and triggers.
• It evaluates how many data records are affected so that the code runs reliably in the target environment.
• To deploy Apex code into production, your overall code coverage must be at least 75%, and every trigger must have at least 1% coverage.

System Testing:

• Performed by a team of Salesforce consultants.
• Tests the system’s technical processes from beginning to end.
• Uses test scripts based on specific expected outputs.
• Troubleshoots automated rules such as workflow, validation, assignment, and approval processes.

UAT Testing:

• Conducted by the business users who will use the application daily.
• Tests the system’s ability to support business processes.
• Follows test scripts based on real business scenarios.
• The desired output is sign-off from the client that the system is fit for purpose.

Production Testing:

• A repeat of system testing in the Production environment.
• Verifies whether config and code have been correctly deployed from sandbox to production.
• If time permits before launch, the client should run UAT scripts again post-deployment.

Regression Testing:

• The main goal of regression testing is to determine whether new releases affect existing user processes.
• It runs after every enhancement, fix, or Salesforce seasonal release (Spring, Summer, Winter).
• The user provides a list of changes that may impact current processes so impacted flows can be re-validated.

Salesforce Testing Process

The Salesforce testing process resembles testing any web-based application. The tester needs a clear perspective on the customizable features built during the project so the focus stays on customized code rather than Salesforce’s built-in functionality.

Developers and testers should use Sandbox environments (Developer, Developer Pro, Partial Copy, Full) for their respective purposes. Tested code in the sandbox is promoted to production through change sets, Salesforce DX, or DevOps tools like Copado and Gearset. It is assumed that the QA tester understands core Salesforce terminology before joining the project.

Salesforce Testing Challenges

Salesforce testing is not an easy process. Testers face many challenges, including:

• Testing advanced features like Lightning Web Components, Visualforce, Service Cloud Console, and Experience Cloud sites is complex.
• Teams often need to recreate or refactor legacy Classic tests for Lightning Experience and the Salesforce Mobile App.
• Some standard functionalities cannot be removed even when unused.
• UI tests can break when sandboxes are refreshed or when seasonal releases ship.
• Automated tests must run consistently across all sandbox environments.
• Building stable field locators is difficult because Salesforce element IDs differ between orgs and change with each release.
• Validating AI features such as Einstein predictions and Agentforce agents requires new data-driven and prompt-driven approaches.

Best Practice for Salesforce Testing

• Run tests as real user profiles and permission sets.
• Prepare test data that validates report and dashboard functionality.
• Combine functional, UI, regression, and system integration testing in every release cycle.
• Pay special attention to the dynamic nature of Lightning and Visualforce pages, since elements may not load simultaneously; use explicit waits.
• Automation should be performed with tools like Selenium, Provar, Tricentis, or Testsigma, paired with self-healing locators.
• Cover both positive and negative flows in every test scenario.
• Build user roles, profiles, and permission sets in test data so workflows can be validated for each persona.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Salesforce Tester

Important roles and responsibilities of Salesforce testers include:

• Conducting smoke testing to confirm that all major functionalities work per requirements.
• Creating both positive and negative test scenarios.
• Performing equivalence partitioning and boundary value analysis.
• Working with the application to understand its functionality and build a functional map.
• Maintaining an open communication channel with the development team.
• Understanding the customizable features built for the Salesforce org.
• Executing role-based test cases to ensure data consistency.
• Performing compatibility tests when Salesforce is integrated with third-party applications.
• Being familiar with load-testing tools like JMeter to validate complex flows that can return inconsistent results.
• Working knowledge of Apex, SOQL, and Lightning components.

Salesforce Test Automation Tools

Performing automated functional testing in Salesforce is challenging because most test pages are dynamic. Testers need to build a robust automation framework that is useful today and resilient to future releases.

Below, I have listed the widely used Salesforce testing tools that I recommend.

1) Tricentis Test Automation for Salesforce

I particularly appreciate how Tricentis Test Automation for Salesforce accelerates the development of resilient UI tests for Salesforce environments. Its Smart Locators are powered by AI to self-heal and improve automatically, minimizing maintenance and ensuring test stability across Lightning releases.

Features:

• End-to-End Scenario Validation: Customers can validate complete end-to-end scenarios extending from their web application to Salesforce and back.
• Agile Team Scalability: Agile teams with mixed skill sets scale their testing operations efficiently with features to help them control and manage growth in tests and teams.
• Apex Code Execution for Validation: Run Apex code in a test step to validate query results.
• API Test Integration: Seamlessly integrate API tests alongside UI flows.

Visit Tricentis >>

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2) Testsigma

Testsigma is a codeless test automation platform that simplifies Salesforce testing without requiring deep Apex or Selenium expertise. I found its intuitive test design approach particularly effective for teams validating standard and custom Salesforce configurations after changes or deployments, eliminating the complexity of traditional scripting frameworks.

Features:

• Codeless Automation for Salesforce UI Flows: Build Salesforce tests using plain English-like steps without writing Apex or Selenium code. I have used it to onboard team members with varying technical backgrounds.
• Custom Object and Workflow Testing: Comprehensive support for testing custom objects, workflows, and integrations. This helped me ensure organization-specific configurations work correctly after platform updates.
• Data-Driven Testing Capabilities: Test different user roles, profiles, and data sets systematically. I found this invaluable for validating behavior across various permission levels.
• End-to-End Scenario Coverage: Supports comprehensive end-to-end scenarios that include Salesforce plus external applications or APIs.
• Detailed Reports and Debugging Logs: Generates comprehensive reports and logs to quickly identify issues introduced by Salesforce changes.

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Why use Salesforce Testing Tools

• They help you save up to 75% of testing time and a significant share of automation costs.
• They offer better Apex test execution, detailed test coverage, and class coverage reports.
• You can take advantage of industry-leading automation tools like Selenium and JMeter.
• Auto-generate test scenarios for different environments and multiple browsers.
• Seamlessly record and play back your test cases.
• Automate all types of pre- and post-deployment tasks.
• Separate data from the test script and enhance it with multiple datasets.

Sample Salesforce Test Scenarios

• Test Case 01: Capture contact information of the lead or client.
• Test Case 02: Contacts can be marked active or inactive.
• Test Case 03: A company can be marked as a customer or prospect.
• Test Case 04: Leads can be captured via web-to-lead forms.
• Test Case 05: The price in a quotation cannot be zero.
• Test Case 06: Email is sent once a deal is closed; bounced emails are handled.
• Test Case 07: Integration with third-party software works properly.
• Test Case 08: Billing services work as expected.
• Test Case 09: No duplication of records in contact, opportunity, and lead management.
• Test Case 10: Mobile workflows work as expected on the Salesforce Mobile App.
• Test Case 11: Unauthorized users cannot access Files or restricted records.

How AI and Einstein Are Reshaping Salesforce Testing

AI is now a first-class testing concern inside Salesforce. The Einstein 1 Platform brings predictive scores, generative replies, and Agentforce autonomous agents into Sales and Service Cloud, and each of those features needs its own validation strategy. Testers should design data-driven cases that check prediction accuracy, prompt grounding, and guardrails alongside traditional UI flows.

On the tooling side, modern Salesforce automation frameworks rely on AI-powered self-healing locators that detect Lightning DOM changes between releases and repair selectors automatically. Tricentis, Provar, Copado Robotic Testing, and Testsigma all ship variations of this capability. Pair them with synthetic test data and visual regression checks to keep coverage high without exploding maintenance.

Salesforce Testing: Client Challenges

Clients are often nervous about Salesforce testing because they may not know how to conduct it properly, which creates myths that diverge from reality.

Here are some of them:

Client Issues	Solution
I do not know how to use the Salesforce system.	Clients need to test their process, not the system’s functionality.
We cannot test without all our data being present in the system.	Only a few sample records are needed to test.
I do not have spare time to test and manage my daily job.	Stay in touch with the PM and join regular check-in calls during design and build stages.

FAQs