leapwork Salesforce Automation Instructions

Salesforce Automation
Instruction Manual

Salesforce Automation Guide
Get started with test automation for Salesforce

Introduction

Salesforce is a popular CRM system that helps sales, commerce, marketing, service and IT teams connect with their customer base and gather information. This means that many organizations rely on Salesforce to perform business- critical tasks. In order to ensure that all those business critical processes are working as intended, software testing must take high priority in the quality assurance process. But as organizations grow and their business evolves, so do the requirements for testing.

Many teams therefore automate their Salesforce tests to optimize organizational use of time and resources and to ensure highquality delivery at speed.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at opportunities for Salesforce test automation and how it can benefit your business. We’ll share examples of automation use cases and help you choose the most suitable testing tool for your organization.

Why automate?

In today’s increasingly digital world, businesses need to keep up to speed with rapid changes in the market and shifting customer demand. This requires Product teams to deliver new features and customizations faster than ever before, and it puts pressure on Quality Assurance, who must ensure the functionality and security of these releases. Salesforce is a programming platform with its own programming language (APEX) and own database system, meaning that enterprises can build totally customized applications, with unique screens and features, on top of this technological foundation. On top of that, Salesforce regularly update their platform to enhance user experience and/or to fix underlying issues. Each release can include big improvements to the cloud based interface.

Unfortunately, these changes can impact user customizations and even standard uses of the platform. For QA teams, this means a lot of maintenance. Organizations who have taken a manual approach to testing know that it becomes an ever-increasing bottleneck, causing slower time to market, resource scarcity, and risk to business continuity. Many companies will turn to a manual, “risk based approach” to testing in which testers focus on the most important features – and ignore the rest. At a time when companies should be moving towards continuous, 24/7 testing, this fragmented, manual approach leaves considerable gaps in test coverage and quality.

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Automation, on the other hand, can speed up the testing process while mitigating human error. With the right approach, resources can be saved and costs can be driven down. With a tool that’s simple to use and maintain, testers can own the automation task, and developers can focus on new feature development. Not all testing has to be automated, but by tasking robots with repetitive, predictable tasks, such as regression testing, testers can focus on higher-value work that requires their critical and creative thinking. As a result of automation, inefficiencies can be eliminatedand errors minimized.
To the business, greater efficiency means operational costs can be reduced to the business, benefitting the bottom line.
To the Product and QA teams, this means fewer tedious, time-consuming tasks and more capacity to focus on enjoyable, value generating work.

Main drivers for test automation

What is Salesforce automation?
Salesforce automation is many things.
Often, when people talk about Salesforce automation, they’re referring to process automation within Salesforce. This is called Sales Force Automation (often abbreviated to  SFA).
Like any type of automation, the purpose of SFA is to increase productivity by reducing the amount of tedious, repetitive work.
One simple example of SFA is in processing sales leads: when a lead is created through a Salesforce form, the sales rep receives a notification to follow up on that lead. This is  an automated functionality offered within the Salesforce product. Although Salesforce can handle simple automation, more complex types of automation like test automation, require external tools.

Test automation for Salesforce

As the name suggests, test automation is about testing, or verifying, processes and integrations within Salesforce and between Salesforce and external systems and tools.
This is different to SFA and other types of process automation, which are about performing processes automatically, not testing them.
While testing processes manually is possible, it’s a time-consuming and error- prone task. Particularly when it comes to regression testing, which is about testing existing  (rather than new) functionality before a release.
Regression tests are predictable because they’ve been performed before, and repetitive because they are performed at every release.
This makes them a good candidate for automation.
In addition to regression tests, critical feature tests and end-to-end process verifications are often automated and run on a scheduled basis to monitor the health of systems  and ensure seamless customer experiences.
For example, a company might have a customer-facing website for selling its products.
Once a customer purchases something, the company wants this information to be updated in their Salesforce database. Test automation is then used to verify that that  information was in fact updated, and to notify someone or take an action in case it wasn’t. If this process isn’t tested regularly and happens to break – even for a short amount  of time – customer information and business opportunities could be lost, and the company could risk substantial monetary loss.

What to automate

Case
US building materials manufacturer uses Leap work for end-to-end Salesforce testing

Outcomes
10 releases each month (from 1)
90% increase in testing efficiency
9 full time employees saved
Situation
As one of the premier window manufacturers ithe United States, this company must respond quickly and efficiently to their customer base, salespeople, suppliers, and  employees to remain competitive.
The company implemented Salesforce as the foundation for the company’s operations, and added many modules, customizations, and unique deployments to fit the needs of each department. Everything from payroll to sales invoicing, employee communications to customer requests, and factory production to shipment tracking is managed in  Salesforce. All these customizations required extensive testing before being released to the whole organization. And the consequences of downtime could have massive  financial impacts – up to $40K per hour.
Manual testing is extremely expensive and prone to human error, so the company started looking for an automation provider. They experimented first with a dedicated Java  developer and next with several automation tools on the market.
While the Java developer was immediately overwhelmed with test requests, the other automation tools failed to operate at the enterprise-scale required. That’s when the company turned to the no-code automation platform Leap work.

Solution
With no-code automation in place, the organization was able to accelerate the organization’s release schedule for Salesforce updates – from 1 to 10 releases each month– helping them adopt a truly agile, DevOps methodology.
“We needed something that we could bring in that wouldn’t require a whole ton of highly specialized resources. Something approachable – that was extremely important for  us.” Enterprise Architect
They chose Leap work’s platform primarily for the easy user experience. With Leapwork’s visual test automation language, business users across finance and sales teams can  create and maintain their own tests.
Leap work makes it possible to test across the company’s customized modules, such as Marketing and Commerce Cloud, plus their add-on products, such as their Order Management System, and employee desktop applications.
The success and efficiency within the first business units have meant that the company is now deploying automation across additional units to maximize their gains going  forward.

How to choose your Salesforce automation tool

Automation can benefit your business in multiple ways. But the success of your automation efforts will depend on the approach you take and the tool you choose.
There are three things, in particular, you’ll want to take into consideration when researching your options:

1. Scalability: How well does the tool allow you to scale automation?
2. User-friendliness: Which skills are needed to operate the tool, and how long does it take to learn?
3. Compatibility: How well does the tool handle Salesforce specifically, and can it meet all your automation requirements?

Scalability

If you’re taking a strategic approach to automation, you’ll also be considering how you can scale the use of your chosen automation tool down the road. Scalability is essential because the demand for digital products and services will grow over time, and with it, the need to test them; more applications and features means more releases and testing. Two things, in particular, will determine the tool’s scalability: The technologies supported and the underlying framework.
Technologies supported
When looking for a Salesforce automation tool, many focus on the tool’s ability to automate Salesforce and only Salesforce. But even if you only see the need to automate one specific Salesforce functionality or integration now, you may have additional requirements in the near future that involve the automation of additional functionalities, integrations or technologies. For this reason, you should look for a tool that will work across these use cases. Doing so will give you a higher return on your tool investment over time. For example, rather than implementing an open-source tool like Selenium that only automates web applications, look for a tool that will let you automate across web, desktop, mobile, legacy and virtual applications.

The underlying framework
You can go down two main paths for Salesforce test automation: code-based frameworks or nocode automation tools
Code-based frameworks
There are various options to choose between when it comes to code-based solutions. Many opt for Selenium, a free, open-source framework that developers can get started
with easily. The downside of Selenium is that it requires developers with strong programming capabilities. And because it requires code, it takes a lot of time to set up and  maintain – time that could have been spent better elsewhere.
No-code automation tools
As opposed to code-based solutions, noncoded test automation tools that use a visual language don’t require developer time for test setup and maintenance.

Costs of free code-based and no-code solutions

When the developer or IT dependency is removed, anyone in the organization with a deep understanding of Salesforce can contribute to test automation and quality assurance. This frees up resources and removes bottlenecks.
On the flipside, no-code automation isn’t free.
But even though the startup costs are greater, the savings over time make up for this; no-code means a quicker return on investment because setup and maintenance time is  reduced, and the solution can be scaled without much additional cost.

User-friendliness

The second important factor to take into consideration is the tool’s ease of use. Evaluate user-friendliness by looking at how simple or complex the user interface is, as well as  the amount of coding that the tool requires. Deciding who will be responsible for setting up and maintaining automation flows because the tool’s complexity should be based  on their capabilities. If you already know that you will want to use the tool throughout a team with mixed skill sets, it’s safer to choose a tool that doesn’t require coding and has an easily understandable user interface.

With no-code tools, creating and maintaining automation is easy

Compatibility

Last, and perhaps most importantly, you should consider if the tool is optimal for Salesforce automation. This seems obvious, but the truth is that many tools – even those marketed as Salesforce automation tools – can’t access and automate Salesforce to the extent that many teams require.
Although the Salesforce interface is designed in a way that offers numerous features and benefits to its users, the underlying software presents several challenges to those  wishing to automate it.
Here are the reasons why Salesforce is difficult to automate from a technical perspective:

Frequent system updates
Salesforce regularly update their platform to enhance the user experiences or to fix underlying issues. Unfortunately, these changes can impact user customizations and even  standard uses of the platform.
For QA teams, this means a lot of maintenance, and with a code-based automation platform, it means they must make changes to the code.

Shadow DOMs
Salesforce uses Shadow DOMs to isolate components. This makes it difficult to identify elements in UI test automation.
Heavy DOM structure
Salesforce’s DOM structure is heavy with a complex tree structure. This means that automation tools will need more time to access them.
Element identifiers are hidden
Usually, a UI automation tool will need element details to identify visual elements in the application. Salesforce hides these for development purposes, making test automation difficult.
Dynamic elements
UI elements that change with every test script run can be a real burden. Without an element locator strategy, maintenance of Salesforce tests will become a major time sink  with every test run.

Salesforce’s heavy DOM structure

Iframes
In Salesforce, a new tab is a new frame.
These frames are difficult to identify because the UI automation tool needs to identify the elements under the frame. This can be difficult to automate with a script-based tool like Selenium and you’ll need to add that script logic in yourself, a task only for experienced Selenium testers.
Custom pages in Salesforce
Salesforce has frameworks like Visualforce, Aura, apex and Lightning Web Components.
These allow developers to develop their own custom pages on top of Salesforce Lightning. But with every release, the likelihood that customization will break increases.
Lightning and Classic
Most Salesforce customers have moved their environment to Salesforce Lightning. However, there are a few who are still using the Classic version. Testing both versions can  be a nightmare for automation tools.
These challenges, however, can be overcome with the right tool.

Leap work for Salesforce test automation

Although Salesforce is a technologically complex platform, automating it doesn’t have to be complex. With Leapwork’s no-code test automation platform, the complexity of  programming is removed and replaced with an easy-to-use visual interface, making it simpler to create and maintain Salesforce tests.
Unlike most other Salesforce automation tools, Leapwork handles challenges like frame navigation, object dependency, and dynamic content under the hood, so you don’t  have to spend hours modifying and updating tests at every run.

Here’s an overview of how Leapwork can automate some of the key elements in Salesforce

Navigating through frames
Leapwork uses smart visual recognition that only requires a single click to switch between frames.
Executing against dynamic content
Leapwork’s locator strategy allows dynamic web elements to be efficiently identified, with the option to tweak or change the chosen strategy as required.
Handling tables
Leapwork includes a row/table column-based strategy that can handle the complex tables in Salesforce out of the box.
Object dependency
Leapwork automatically maintains object dependency, complete with an oversight of the objects used for a flow.
Heavy DOM structure and shadow DOMs
Leapwork automatically captures elements within the DOM structure (including shadow DOMs).
Driving data
With Leapwork, you can test with data from spreadsheets, databases, and web services, enabling you to execute the same use case for multiple Salesforce users  simultaneously.
Reusability
Leapwork’s tests can run smoothly despite frequent updates, thanks to reusable cases, visual debugging capabilities, and video- based reporting.
End-to-end testing requires many steps
Leapwork’s smart recording, including recording sub-flows, enables automation of end-to-end use cases within a matter of minutes.
Synchronization issues
Leapwork building blocks have an inbuilt capability to cater to cater to the synchronization issues as it includes features like “Await DOM Change”, “Await Requests” and  dynamic timeout.
Test across Lightning and Classic, and Salesforce modules
Leapwork can easily automate across Lightning and Classic, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, CPQ and Billing. Leapwork also supports Salesforce Object Query  Language (SOQL).

If you are on the lookout for a Salesforce automation tool that will help you automate across technologies, at scale, without a single line of code, then Leapwork’s no-code  automation platform might be the solution for you.
Download our solution brief to learn more and join our webinar on automating Salesforce testing without coding.

References

• Login | Salesforce

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