Salesforce Testing Architecture for CRM

Testing is a very essential part of any project as it helps in removing mistakes and debugging the mistakes that have been made during the development phase. This can lead to proper implementation and one can avoid any kind of hassles while running the program. Salesforce provides a very robust architecture for CRM and it not only encourages a test-drive environment, but it also enforces the same. At times one can be hasty in applying and running up the CRM solution but this can lead to haunting issues later, if the bugs are not repaired before implementation. This makes it all the more essential to have a well planned and deployed architecture for the CRM, that is available by Salesforce. Advantage of using the platform, Force.com is that it allows quick and easy application development using standard and custom features, like Visualforce pages and Apex Classes. Force.com includes a framework that is used to create and run test classes, but when dealing with larger volumes of data and applications with higher demands, then unit testing might not be sufficient. The below mentioned points highlight the architecture of Salesforce CRM solution and how they are useful in maximizing the efficiency.

Types of Testing

Salesforce offers a variety of methodologies to ensure that the end result is totally satisfactory and without any bugs. The various types of testing are mentioned below:-

• Stress Testing

Lack of resources or excessive requests can lead to abnormal or extreme conditions and stress testing is used at that time to check the performance of the system. The main task of this is to figure out the boundaries of the system.

• Load Testing

With increase in the number of users, there can be expected changes in the system and load testing can be performed at that instance. Varying loads, like changing number of users, transactions or even configurations can be checked by this.

• Performance Testing

This is done when there is a particular workload and one wants to check the performance. This can be done where both the other cases are performed.

Tests for Force.com platform

The Salesforce.com tests and ensures that the platform Force.com has excess capacity to support over 1 billion transactions daily with a super-quick response time. By using governor limits, the platform checks for highly inefficient code and ensures that users have an excellent application experience. So, instead of going for a stress test, one should prefer to do load or performance testing on the anticipated loads. Salesforce.com allows this only in sandbox environments that too enforced with governor limits. With highly customized code or huge transactional volumes, it is recommended to go for this, as it will ensure that custom application or business logic matches with the desired response time. Also, it determines accurate throughput of anticipated loads by estimated transaction. Unit testing before actual performance testing can be useful to identify performance benchmarks for the requests. Developer Console, Workbench, etc. can be used to identify performance issues associated with the Visual force pages and Apex classes.

Salesforce provides the freedom to its developers to write cases themselves for their test code to debug. Test Methods or Test Classes, either of them can be implemented on code written for testing purposes only. The Test Classes approach is irrespective of the count against the organizational limit for Apex Code, though one might be restricted by the licensing agreements on the number of resources being used.

Automated Testing

The testing method in the Force.com platform is automated where one can use a very creative and innovative approach to software testing methodology. Everything is completely automated, like writing the code for data testing, using it within the test method, running and deleting the test data. This makes it very easy as one need not go through the hassles of creating, running and deleting one’s own test data. The best part is that the method never commits anything to the database, so there is no need to delete it later.

The overall quality of the application depends on it being totally error free and bug-free. It is a dream of every developer to build such codes that pass the testing phase smoothly and the mistakes are not left to haunt them later during the application phase. So, it plays a very crucial role and makes life easy for a developer by the Salesforce’s Testing Architecture.