Make Salesforce Testing Fast and Simple
Salesforce is critical to organizations all over the world. Departments including sales, operations, marketing, and finance depend on it functioning as expected. A vast number of third-party applications are integrated with it, too.
As a result, numerous user journeys, input fields, and custom workflows unique only to your business are the foundation of your Salesforce instance. This means that every action, integration, and customization across various user interfaces must be tested to support business-as-usual.
To make testing simpler, Keysight is launching the Eggplant Salesforce Solution. To find out more about the upcoming launch, I sat down with Max Gerrard, VP of Pre-Sales and Technical Consulting, to understand what it is all about.
Salesforce testing made easy
MW (Mike Wager): So Max, let's get straight to it, the Eggplant Salesforce Solution — why are we doing this?
MG (Max Gerrard): Well, thousands of organizations, if not more, use packaged applications to basically run their business. Salesforce is one of the most widely used, and like all other packaged apps, they require acceptance testing in their own environment.
But so many customizations and integrations make up a Salesforce platform, not to mention many people using it. Consequently, you need to test many user journeys and unique actions, which can be hugely challenging and time-consuming.
No one-size-fits-all Salesforce exists, but we thought, instead of having to write and maintain a set of tests and create numerous models and test snippets, what if a library of tests could work straight out the box?
This was the beginning of the development of the Eggplant Salesforce Solution.
The Eggplant Salesforce Solution explained
MW: The Eggplant Salesforce Solution is currently being developed to make testing Salesforce simpler, but would you explain how a library of tests can work with different Salesforce instances?
MG: As we've mentioned, no two Salesforce environments are the same, but there is a way where a complete testing suite could work with any environment, and that's by integrating with Salesforce's API.
By hooking into the API, all test automation assets are auto-generated by collecting and analyzing Salesforce's metadata. This means an object, such as an account, contact, or case, and specific inputs connected to it, like a checkbox, picklist, or text areas, can be identified.
Once this has been done, the Eggplant AI engine generates a model by creating an accurate representation of data flows from the metadata in that specific Salesforce environment. The output is a library of pre-written automation scripts ready to be used.
But that isn't all. Users will also have the ability to customize these tests by manipulating the data in the model to replicate workflows specific to their organization. Once the new data is inputted, critical paths and associated user actions can be identified through AI-powered exploratory testing, producing new tests.
Supercharge your Salesforce testing
MW: This all sounds very impressive, but how will this benefit our customers?
MG: Simply put, when the Eggplant Salesforce Solution is released, it will dramatically speed up the testing of any Salesforce environment. As we know, manually testing any Salesforce platform is challenging. With so many customizations, upgrades, and integrations to contend with, testing is hugely time-consuming. Testing is often rushed, resulting in a version of Salesforce being released that doesn't allow the business to function as expected.
By auto-generating test automation assets that create critical test cases, core business functionality and the correct user experience across every platform and device are maintained.
And Eggplant's Salesforce solution's ability to analyze every possible data flow and user action, processes are exhaustively tested to ensure all test cases produce the desired business outcome.
This is all made possible by integrating with the Salesforce API. Any user will then have a robust framework that can test any customization or rule for any version, and after any Salesforce upgrade, which can often break fragile tests.
Users will still benefit from Keysight's Eggplant test automation solution's capabilities to validate the UI functionality without relying on the DOM structure. And the ability to test both Classic and Lightning versions with the same model still remains as well.
We are really excited about the upcoming launch, and we believe our customers will be too. We know that every Salesforce environment is critical to their business, and any downtime can affect the bottom line.
Keysight’s Eggplant Salesforce solution will be launched in October 2021. Users will have the peace of mind that every workflow, business rule, and integration can be validated after every upgrade, customization, and new release, faster than any other manual or automated testing approach.