Upgrading your Sitecore instance is a critical step in maintaining a secure, efficient, and feature-rich digital experience. However, an upgrade isn’t just about hitting the “upgrade” button and moving to the next version. It involves a detailed and comprehensive testing process to ensure that everything works as expected after the upgrade, from custom code to integrations, content, and performance.
Proper Sitecore upgrade testing helps you identify potential issues early, reduce downtime, and ensure a smooth transition. In this blog post, we’ll explore the best practices for Sitecore upgrade testing to help you navigate the upgrade process with confidence.
- Start with a Comprehensive Upgrade Plan
Before diving into testing, create a detailed upgrade plan that outlines the entire upgrade process, including key milestones, testing requirements, and roles and responsibilities. This plan should be a living document, adaptable as you move through the stages of the upgrade.
Key elements to include in your upgrade plan:
• Upgrade scope and goals: What versions are you upgrading from and to? What customizations, integrations, and features need to be tested?
• Timeline and deadlines: Define how much time will be allocated for testing each component of the upgrade.
• Resources: Ensure you have the right resources—whether it’s the testing team, Sitecore developers, or DevOps engineers—available at each stage of the process.
Having a structured upgrade plan helps keep your testing organized and ensures that no critical areas are missed during the process. - Use a Staging or Test Environment
Testing should always be done in a non-production environment—ideally, a staging or test instance of your Sitecore solution. This environment should mirror your production environment as closely as possible, including:
• Sitecore version: The same version of Sitecore you’ll be upgrading to.
• Customizations and integrations: All custom modules, code, and third-party integrations should be present in this environment.
• Content and data: Replicate your current content and data (or a sample of it) to ensure testing is comprehensive.
Having a staging environment allows you to test the upgrade without impacting live traffic or risking downtime. - Test for Compatibility with Custom Code and Integrations
Customizations and third-party integrations often present the most significant challenges during a Sitecore upgrade. Ensure all custom code and integrations are compatible with the new version of Sitecore before you proceed with full-scale testing.
Key testing areas for custom code and integrations:
• Custom Modules: Ensure your custom Sitecore modules (e.g., workflows, pipelines, and API integrations) work as expected after the upgrade. Look for deprecated features or breaking changes between versions that may affect these customizations.
• Third-party Integrations: Check that all external integrations—whether CRM systems, marketing tools, or e-commerce platforms—continue to function as expected.
• Database Changes: Verify that your Sitecore database schema and custom tables are still compatible and running smoothly.
Best Practice:
Consider running a code review to check for any deprecated or outdated features in your custom code that could break with the new version. - Conduct Regression Testing
Once the core system and custom modules have been upgraded, regression testing is essential to ensure that existing functionality still works as expected. Regression testing helps to identify issues that may arise as a result of the upgrade, even in areas that seem unaffected.
Key areas for regression testing:
• Content Management: Test content creation, publishing, and approval workflows. Ensure that content editors can still perform their tasks without issues.
• Templates and Layouts: Check if your templates, layouts, and renderings are still working as intended, especially if Sitecore has introduced new features or changes to the rendering engine.
• Security Features: Test access control and user roles to make sure the security settings are intact after the upgrade.
• Publishing: Verify that the publishing process (including partial and incremental publishing) works seamlessly, and content is published correctly to all environments (e.g., author, web, and staging).
Regression testing should be done across all critical workflows and user journeys to ensure no feature is broken by the upgrade. - Test Performance and Load Handling
An upgrade can sometimes impact the performance of your Sitecore instance, particularly when new features or architectural changes are introduced. Performance testing is crucial to ensure that your upgraded Sitecore instance can handle expected traffic loads and maintain fast response times.
Key performance testing aspects:
• Page Load Speed: Test the performance of key pages before and after the upgrade to ensure that load times remain fast. Tools like Google Lighthouse or GTmetrix can help analyze page speed.
• Scalability: Ensure the upgraded Sitecore instance can handle the same (or greater) amount of concurrent users as the previous version, especially if you’re expecting increased traffic or growth in the future.
• Stress Testing: Simulate high traffic or usage scenarios to ensure the system can handle peak loads without crashing or slowing down.
In addition to these tests, evaluate whether any new Sitecore features, such as cloud-native architecture or headless CMS capabilities, offer performance improvements or require additional configuration for optimal speed. - Perform UAT (User Acceptance Testing)
After technical and functional testing, it’s time for User Acceptance Testing (UAT). This stage involves testing the upgraded Sitecore instance with real users, typically content editors, marketers, and other business stakeholders.
UAT is crucial because it helps ensure that the upgraded system meets business requirements and provides a positive user experience.
Key UAT focus areas:
• Content Editor Interface: Ensure that content editors can easily navigate the Sitecore interface, create and edit content, and perform other day-to-day tasks.
• Marketing Tools: Test features like personalization, A/B testing, and analytics to ensure marketers can continue to use the tools effectively.
• Admin and User Roles: Test the permissions and user roles to ensure users only have access to the appropriate areas of the system.
Involve key business users early in the UAT process to gather valuable feedback and make adjustments before going live. - Validate SEO and URL Structures
A Sitecore upgrade can sometimes impact SEO configurations, especially if URL structures, redirect rules, or meta tags are affected. This can result in a loss of organic traffic or broken links, which is something you want to avoid at all costs.
Key SEO validation steps:
• URL Structure: Ensure that existing URLs work as expected and that any changes to the URL structure are accounted for with proper redirects.
• Redirects: Verify that 301 redirects are in place for any changed URLs to prevent broken links.
• Meta Tags and Content: Check that meta tags, titles, and other on-page SEO elements are still correctly populated and that content is properly indexed by search engines.
A well-maintained SEO strategy is essential to avoid ranking drops, so this testing phase should not be overlooked. - Test Security and Backups
An upgrade is an excellent opportunity to revisit security settings and ensure that your Sitecore instance is properly protected. Test for:
• User Access Control: Verify that the right user roles and permissions are set up and that unauthorized users cannot access sensitive areas of the platform.
• Vulnerabilities: Test for common vulnerabilities, such as broken authentication, cross-site scripting (XSS), or SQL injection, using security testing tools.
• Backups: Confirm that your backup and disaster recovery processes are intact, ensuring you have a recovery plan if something goes wrong during or after the upgrade.
Ensuring a robust security framework post-upgrade is crucial to keeping your digital platform safe from threats. - Final Testing Before Go-Live
Once all testing is complete and issues have been resolved, conduct a final round of testing to ensure everything is ready for go-live. This final check should cover:
• End-to-end user journeys: Test key user journeys, such as browsing, content editing, and checkout (if applicable), to ensure everything works as expected.
• Environment validation: Double-check that your production environment mirrors the staging/test environment in terms of performance, security, and functionality.
• Monitoring tools: Ensure monitoring tools are set up to track performance, errors, and user interactions once the site goes live.
A final round of testing helps ensure the stability and reliability of your Sitecore instance as it transitions to production.
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Conclusion
Sitecore upgrade testing is a critical step in ensuring a smooth transition from your old version to the new one. By following best practices such as creating a detailed plan, using staging environments, conducting comprehensive regression and performance testing, and involving business users in UAT, you can minimize risks and disruptions during the upgrade process.
Thorough testing helps ensure that all custom code, integrations, workflows, and features continue to work as expected, providing users with a seamless experience and ensuring your Sitecore instance operates at its best.
By investing the time and resources into testing now, you’ll enjoy the benefits of a successful Sitecore upgrade that sets your digital platform up for long-term success.