Sometimes QA must work without close dev collaboration — limited dev availability, contractor relationships.
Strategies:
1. Self-sufficient test design.
- Don't depend on dev for test setup.
- Build understanding through documentation, exploration.
2. Tools that empower QAs.
- Provar — declarative; less coding required.
- Manual testing + Selenium IDE — record-and-playback.
3. Test with real users.
- UAT-driven approach.
- Get business users to expose issues QA might miss.
4. Communicate findings via specifics.
- Detailed defect reports with reproduction steps.
- Screenshots / videos / logs.
- Make it easy for devs to debug.
5. Documentation-driven.
- Refer to official docs / Salesforce knowledge.
- Build expertise; reduce dev dependence.
6. Salesforce community.
- Trailblazer Slack, Stack Exchange.
- Get answers from community.
7. Consultants for specialized testing.
- For penetration tests, external pentest firms.
- For complex integration tests, integration specialists.
Limitations:
- Some testing requires dev knowledge (deep code paths).
- Performance testing benefits from architectural insight.
- Apex test coverage depends on dev tests.
Senior QA insight: QA is more capable than often assumed. With right tools, QA-driven testing works.
The senior framing: QA-dev partnership best, but QA-led works too.