Test Automation Solution for Salesforce Application – A Success Story

We are in 2021 and Test automation is still the hottest software testing trend. It has become the key enabler of many advanced development and deployment practices. According to Markets and Markets, The global Test automation market size is expected to grow from USD 12.6 billion in 2019 to USD 28.8 billion by 2024, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.0% during the forecast period.

This blog is a success story of how a leading Financial service provider approached us for QA services and how Indium executed a winning testing strategy.

Client Overview

Our client is a Financial Services provider with assets and operations competitively expanding across geographies.

The company uses Salesforce to benefit from processing applications aggressively and scale-up acquisition business.

Sales dealers are connected on Salesforce using self-service features on their mobiles, typically, to manage sales leads, track opportunities and orders, maintain customer information.

About the Application

The application is a tailored Salesforce platform for enterprise requirements such as Lead Generation and Purchase Order creation workflows across financial services modules (Personal loans, Insurance and B2B Services)

Client’s Business Requirements

• Automate Testing for the given workflows on Web and Mobile (Android and iOS) applications to reduce time, cost and inconsistencies.
• Streamline QA Process: Utilize inputs from the in-house functional test results and optimize Automation Testing scope.
• Transform the Test Cycle by using a framework that blends with Salesforce platform, supports integration and has extensive test reporting abilities.
• Active Script/Code Maintenance.

Indium Software’s Test Automation Solution and Execution

Indium Software’s QA experts analyzed the application workflows to derive the Process and Technology needs to automate functional QA and accelerate Test Cycle.

Technology Stack

• Application Development stack: HTML5, Android Native, iOS Native, SQL & SQLite (for mobile offline data store), JAVA APIs.
• Automation QA Stack: Selenium, Java, Appium, Java Client Library for mobile interactions.

QA Standardization: The case of QA Process Streamlining

The QA set up was required to be standardized in terms of producing Test Artefacts and Reports from the Functional Testing unit that would assist in proposing Test Strategy for Automation.

• Indium Software Test Automation Team participated in Knowledge Transition and Brainstorming Sessions with the client to feed the Test Artefacts and Reports in standard templates.
• The Process Streamlining exercise led to future Requirement Traceability, Visibility and served as a back of the mind input to derive test scenarios for Automation Scope.
• Created Test Case estimates based on the Test Artefacts and the effort continuously optimized.

Test Automation Solution with Custom Framework

We developed a custom advanced Test automation framework for accelerating test cycles. It was employed to cater to the Test Automation Solution for the Salesforce Application.

The framework integrates well with standard Automation Tools, enables parallel execution of Test Cases and keeps maintenance costs of Test Scripts and Test Data in strict check.

Web and Mobile Synchronization:

The lead creation and management workflows access and modify actions in the Salesforce platform, is an omnichannel experience feature.

A typical case would be to create a lead on the web application with all required fields and a sales dealer would approve a lead on the mobile self-service portal or vice versa.

QA needs for the different web and mobile combinations (possible business scenarios) were to be addressed as a special functional coverage.

Our solution included test automation framework customization that synchronizes a record created in the back-office account and validates or update the same on the client-side application (Mobile/Web).

The framework initializes multiple Browser/ Mobile Application instances in parallel or on-demand. This helps a (current) test scenario to interact with more than one application inside the same test case.

Built-in Analytics with Custom Test Automation Framework

Provided real-time reports on Test Execution status and outcomes that allowed Dev Teams to schedule agile actions on the test results.

UAT Automation: Catalyzed Test Cycles with shorter paths to Test Script Maintenance

• UAT Automation Solution features auto-generation of scripts from the record and play back translated into any testing framework, auto-fix scripts with feature changes, import and run anytime.
• Recorded end to end 9 major workflows, covering greater than 90% of the UI Objects.

Extended Test Coverage

Efficient Script Maintenance and Automation Coverage for Instrumented Mobile Application

• With the test automation framework as the base, Object Repositories for iOS and Android are created, maintained and updated dynamically in a common code environment.
• Separate scripts for UAT and ear-to-production releases for easy regression.
• Changes are handled at functional and framework levels – the slack in Object Repository maintenance is sorted with great efficiency.

Value Additions

• Record results in productivity in delivering about 900 test cases in 40 Calendar days, with a 10-member team.
• 2X improved efficiency in scripting effort and code maintenance (Android and iOS).
• Supported rapid delivery cycle. Up to 40% improvement in the overall Test Automation process.
• Extensive Reporting/ Dashboards to give a 360-degree status of Test Execution and Operations.

In Summation

Indium Software addressed the QA needs of the client by fragmenting Test Automation Solution in different layers.

Functional Coverage with custom automation framework, Test Data Generation in a jiffy, Advanced configurations for mobile platform code maintenance and Utility-based solutions for debugging the instrumented iOS application are some of the key highlights of the project.