CRM Testing Process and What You Need to Know About It

In today’s realities, digital transformation is a trend that has greatly changed the relationship between companies and their clients. CRM systems are one of the most successful technologies that allow businesses to significantly increase the efficiency of customer management, strengthen their positions in the market, and achieve their goals. However, overlooking even one bug in the course of the CRM development can have large-scale consequences, affecting a company’s critical activities. Therefore, poorly organized quality assurance without checking the key functionalities can dramatically influence a brand’s positive image and undermine the trust of partners. What is CRM testing and how can you plan and run it with the utmost efficiency? In this article, Andersen’s QA experts will explain this and discuss the crucial importance of the CRM testing process.

What is CRM testing and why is it important?

The customer relationship management process refers to an IT solution that handles all the strategies, methods, and tools used by a firm to initiate and nurture relationships with its partners. The main goal of custom CRM development is to create a single ecosystem for making contacts and attracting prospects who will then get involved with buying from you or partnering with you. At the same time, it helps to stir up interest in those who have already been engaged with your business and to strengthen their loyalty.

The above is an important part of any company’s processes, and therefore, it’s recommended to employ an industry-specific high-performing tailored solution for this purpose. The best thing about it is that the software benefits almost any of your organizational departments, from sales and business development to marketing, recruiting, and more. It serves for synchronizing their work, establishing seamless interaction processes, providing a holistic view of the client base, and tailoring services to the needs of each consumer.

The system collects information about every person coming from different departments in one control panel. With these insights, specialists can effectively handle every individual buyer and take the right decisions when performing targeted marketing and sales. As a result, the company's profits rise by up to 41% per sales representative, while sales cycles are up to 14% shorter.

What is CRM testing in more detail? The CRM testing process is the comprehensive verification of the fact that the system is fully functional and meets business objectives upon installation and when updated. Taking into account the aforementioned significance of software reflected in the firm’s prosperity and high performance, it’s critical that these checks are thorough and end-to-end. Read on to learn what a seasoned QA team can do for your product to secure its flawless functioning.

The types of CRM testing to consider

To ensure that your product has been built in accordance with technical specifications and business requirements, QA specialists conduct the following types of CRM testing:

• Unit level examination. This is normally carried out by the programmer who writes dedicated tests that cover all the classes and methods of the developed component or feature.
• System validation. This process consists of checking the proper functioning of the entire system and the compliance of its necessary characteristics to the requirements. At this stage, such flaws can be revealed as the improper adoption of system resources, unanticipated results at the user level, incompatibility with various programs, lacking or inaccurately developed features, etc.
• Regression check. At this stage, the team examines all the previously developed test scripts in order to identify possible defects before consumers find them.
• User acceptance evaluation, or UAT. This is performed on the client's side. Their team assesses the product for the necessary business processes in a UAT sandbox based on user stories with acceptance criteria.
• Production. This final stage is very similar to regression verification; however, it’s executed in a production sandbox. Since the settings here can significantly differ from the ones in a regression sandbox, atypical scenarios of system settings are covered.

What to look for in the CRM testing process

To be completely sure that the program has passed all the planned checks, there are several aspects of quality that are worth paying particular attention to.

Information accuracy

Well-established customer information management is the cornerstone of any modern solution of this type. QA engineers must first analyze the validity of the information in a data warehouse. Namely, that the details are stored in a proper place, their security is not threatened, and they display correctly.

Full-fledged functionality

It’s critical to verify, with the help of advanced software testing solutions, that the program has all the required features and that they all work together as planned, as well as to ensure the seamless workflow for each role. For platform-based solutions, it’s also crucial to confirm that existing configurations and settings don’t break the application.

Performance

Benchmarking is a helpful process for both evaluating the current level of software performance and improving its quality. Thus, it will be able to cope with large loads.

Security

The program must comply with the latest trends in the field of data storage security as it contains large amounts of confidential information, in particular, client databases.

Regression tests

Improvements made after the release can lead to the emergence of new bugs. After making any changes, it's essential to verify that the newly written code doesn't break the current functionality. Thus, the QA department can guarantee the permanent health and stability of the program after the implementation of any changes.

CRM testing checklist

For all who are wondering how to organize software testing in the most effective manner, Andersen’s experts have prepared the following CRM testing checklist to guide QA teams:

• Perform checks under many different profiles;

• Test all the interfaces (a system can have several types of interfaces);

• Take into consideration the limits of this category of programs;

• Conduct your custom software testing in at least two sandboxes;

• Run integration tests on a large number of components;

• Carry out validation of standard and custom fields;

• Double-check that the data is correctly managed, e.g. that there are no duplicate details, hidden inputs remain hidden, data mapping is accurate, CRUD permissions meet the requirements, etc.;

• Ensure data security when working under different profiles (e.g. a sales representative has fewer rights to work with it than a regional manager, and the manager has fewer rights than an administrator);

• Check standard and custom objects and their fields and requirements for availability as errors can lead to integration problems with other systems and external applications;

• Pay particular attention to performance checks as the program is often employed by a large number of people. Eliminating issues occurring when the system or its individual components are under load is essential. Test the product’s operation under stress, or load, and the consequences on its performance. Among the characteristics that are to be tested are the peak load, the biggest possible number of consumers, program response time, server usage, loading speed, etc.

Conclusion

CRM software development is a complex process that implies a clear understanding of all customer requirements. Based on this knowledge, seasoned QA engineers elaborate all possible test scenarios, describe them in test cases using the latest test design techniques, and carry out verifications with the help of advanced CRM testing tools. To be certain about the impeccable quality of your product and the highest level of end-user satisfaction, contact Andersen for a free QA consultation. Our experts have hands-on experience in providing software testing services and will guarantee that your solution runs seamlessly and complies with the required quality standards.