What is Salesforce performance testing and why is it conducted?
Salesforce performance testing is conducted to evaluate a Salesforce application or system’s speed, scalability, and stability under various load conditions, to guarantee optimal performance without any downtime or degradation. It involves simulating different user load scenarios, using load testing tools like Apache JMeter, HP LoadRunner, etc. to measure system response times, throughput, and resource usage. It identifies potential performance bottlenecks that can negatively affect system performance, such as slow database queries, network latency issues, or inefficient code, and, the test results derived then help optimize the system performance and scalability. Salesforce performance testing is therefore, a must to ensure that your system consistently handles peak traffic and user demand, maintains user satisfaction, and delivers optimal business value.
What are the different types of Salesforce performance testing?
Salesforce testing can be challenging due to the dynamic nature of Salesforce pages and limitations of traditional testing tools like Selenium web driver, QTP, UFT, and Provar. But, Automated Testing with AI-driven solutions like Functionize can help overcome these challenges. Unit Testing is ideal for testing specific Salesforce functionality and can quickly produce results for debugging code or fixing issues. While, automated End-To-End Testing can be the preferred solution for administrators with prebuilt test cases and natural language processing.
There are various types of Salesforce performance testing used to identify different performance issues. Such as;
1. Load Testing
Involves simulating user loads to determine how the system performs under heavy loads. It measures the response time and throughput of the system to determine if it meets the expected performance requirements under different user loads to identify potential performance bottlenecks and help optimize the system’s performance.
2. Stress Testing
Pushes the system to its limits to identify potential failure points to determine how the system behaves under extremely heavy loads that exceed its designed capacity. It helps to identify how the system responds to sudden and unexpected events, like network outages, hardware failures, or spikes in user traffic.
3. Spike Testing
Measures how the system performs under sudden and extreme increases in user traffic. It is useful in determining how the system responds to potential bottlenecks like traffic spikes, that occur during a marketing campaign or may even be seasonal in nature.
4. Endurance Testing
Evaluates the system’s performance over an extended period under normal load conditions to identify any performance degradation over time. It helps identify if the system’s performance deteriorates due to factors like memory leaks, connection issues, or other issues that may arise during extended usage periods.
5. Capacity Testing
Determines the maximum load the system can handle before it reaches its maximum capacity without crashing or experiencing performance issues.
6. Scalability Testing
Figures out how well the system can handle increased load upon adding more resources or servers. It helps identify how well the system scales up or down depending on the traffic load.
7. Configuration Testing
Verifies the system’s performance under different configurations, such as different operating systems, web browsers, or network configurations, to identify any configuration-related issues that may impact its performance.
8. Regression Testing
Checks whether new or existing code changes make an impact on the application. The change could be a small functional change or a large-scale one.
9. Visual Testing
Reviews UI screenshots to prevent user frustration due to unwanted changes. It highlights any unwanted or unexpected changes that may degrade user experience or adoption, leading to frustration or a spike in support calls.
10. Integration/API Testing
Monitors digital workflows passing through the platform, ensuring proper data flow to and from applications between systems.
11. User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
Is conducted after new releases or deployments, where a select set of business users assess their experience with different devices like mobiles and laptops. It is carried out to ensure that Salesforce digital workflows align with how users work in the real world, sometimes by emulating ‘day in the life’ activities.
What is the Salesforce performance testing process?
In order to ensure that your Salesforce application is able to handle the expected workload and provide the desired level of performance to its users, Salesforce performance testing measures and evaluates the application’s speed, responsiveness, stability, and scalability under different conditions, like, high user loads, complex workflows, or integrations with other systems.
The testing process typically involves the following steps:
Step 1. Define the scope and objectives of the performance testing
The first step involves identifying the performance goals, metrics, and test scenarios that will be used to evaluate the application’s performance. For example, the performance goals might include achieving a certain level of response time, throughput, or error rate, while the test scenarios might simulate different user actions, data loads, or integrations.
Step 2. Design and configure the performance testing environment
The next step requires the setting up of the hardware, software, network, and data components that will be used to execute the performance tests. The performance testing environment should closely resemble the production environment in terms of its configurations, resources, and usage patterns.
Step 3. Create the performance test scripts
Then, use performance testing tools like JMeter, LoadRunner, or BlazeMeter to record or manually create the test scripts that will simulate user actions, transactions, and data loads. The test scripts need to be designed to emulate the expected user behavior and usage patterns, while also covering all the critical business processes and workflows.
Step 4. Execute the performance tests
Next, run the performance tests with different load levels, duration, and configurations to identify any bottlenecks, errors, or performance issues. The performance tests can be executed in different modes, such as load testing, stress testing, endurance testing, or spike testing, depending on the objectives of the performance testing.
Step 5. Report and analyze the performance test results
This step involves collecting and analyzing the performance test metrics, such as response time, throughput, error rate, and resource utilization, and comparing them against the performance goals and thresholds. The performance test results should be presented in a clear and concise report that highlights the performance issues, their severity, and their root causes, like code inefficiencies, database queries, integrations, or network latency.
Step 6. Optimize and retest until the desired performance goal is achieved
The final step is to apply the necessary fixes and optimizations to the Salesforce application based on the performance test findings, and then repeating the performance testing cycle until the desired performance objectives are achieved. The optimization process can include code refactoring, database tuning, caching, load balancing, or infrastructure upgrades, among others.
What are some common Salesforce performance testing challenges?
Salesforce performance testing faces several challenges, such as;
1. The dynamic nature of Salesforce pages
The dynamic nature of Salesforce pages with various customizations and components, makes creating a stable and repeatable performance testing environment challenging.
2. Limited access to test data
Salesforce’s complex and sensitive data can cause limited access to test data and lead to incomplete or inaccurate test scenarios that do not reflect real-world usage patterns.
3. Integration with third-party systems
Integrations with third-party systems, such as ERP or marketing automation tools, can create dependencies and bottlenecks that impact the Salesforce application’s performance.
4. Complex business processes and workflows:
Complex business processes and workflows involving multiple users, data objects, and integrations can make it difficult to create realistic and effective performance test scenarios.
5. Lack of resources
Lack of expertise, tools, and resources required for specialized Salesforce performance testing can lead to delays, errors, or incomplete testing, compromising the quality and reliability of performance testing results.
6. Scalability issues
As Salesforce usage grows, the application must be able to scale up to meet the demands of a larger user base. Performance testing must be able to simulate these scenarios and ensure that the application can scale up without sacrificing performance, however, this is easier said than done.
7. Difficulty in identifying performance bottlenecks
Identifying the root cause of performance bottlenecks can be challenging, requiring a thorough analysis of the performance test results and expertise in Salesforce development and architecture.
What are the best practices for Salesforce performance testing?
Some tips, tricks, and best practices for Salesforce performance testing include the following:
1. Identify critical user scenarios
Focus on testing critical user scenarios that need to be tested, rather than covering every scenario which can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.
2. Create realistic test data
Use realistic and representative data for performance testing to simulate real-world usage patterns.
3. Test in a production-like environment
Test in an environment that is as close to the production environment as possible, including data volumes, integrations, and third-party systems.
4. Leverage automation
Use automation to reduce manual effort and save time while increasing accuracy and consistency.
5. Set performance goals
Set clear performance goals and benchmarks for the application, such as response times, throughput, and resource utilization, and measure against them during testing.
6. Analyze results
Analyze the performance test results to identify bottlenecks, areas for improvement, and opportunities for optimization.
7. Collaborate across teams
Collaborate across teams, including developers, testers, and operations, to ensure that everyone is aligned on the goals and objectives of the testing.
8. Plan for scalability
Test the application under different load levels to ensure that it can handle increasing user volumes.
9. Stay up to date
Stay up to date with the latest performance testing tools, methodologies, and best practices to continually improve the performance of the application.
Choose ETG Digital for your end-to-end Salesforce performance testing
At ETG Digital, we understand the importance of having a high-performing Salesforce application. However, we also recognize that performance testing can be challenging and resource-intensive. That’s why we offer end-to-end Salesforce testing services to ensure top notch quality and reliability of your Salesforce application.
We are a Crest Level Salesforce Partner, headquartered in Plano, Texas and our more than two decades old and experienced team of 500+ Salesforce experts can help you identify critical user scenarios, create realistic test data, and test in a production-like environment. We leverage automation to save time and increase accuracy, while also setting clear performance goals and benchmarks for the application. With our Salesforce testing services, you can rest assured that your application will consistently perform well even under difficult circumstances and increasing user volumes. We also analyze the performance test results to identify bottlenecks, areas for improvement, and opportunities for optimization, and collaborate with your team to ensure that everyone is aligned on the goals and objectives of the test.
Ready to free up your internal resources to better focus on your core business objectives, while also ensuring the quality and reliability of your Salesforce application? Contact us today!
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You may also connect with us by mail at info@etg.digital or call +1 469 666 1119
