By Tomasz Teodorowicz — 14 Jan 2026

Why Testers Should Never Test as Admins

Every tester has done it at least once.
You log in as Admin “just to check one thing.”
Five minutes later, everything magically works, the bug disappears, and life seems beautiful.

Until you test the same scenario as a real user.
And the entire process collapses like a Jenga tower during an earthquake.

This is the story of how I learned — permanently — that Admin testing should be banned.

The Temptation

On one of my early Salesforce projects, I found myself in a hurry.
A flow wasn’t working for a Sales Rep, but I was already behind with my test execution.

So I switched to Admin, repeated the scenario, and — surprise! — everything was green.

"No defect," I wrote confidently.

Two hours later the consultant pinged me:

“User still can't process the Opportunity. Can you check again?”

I tested again as Admin.
Again everything worked.
I felt offended on behalf of the system.

Reality Hits Hard

Eventually, I tested as the Sales Rep.

This time:

the button didn't show up,
one field was invisible,
and the flow couldn’t save the record.

It wasn’t broken — it was refusing to cooperate because of FLS and permissions.

Admin mode had hidden every problem.

User mode revealed every problem.

The Lesson: Admin Isn’t a User

Admins should see:

all fields
all data
all automation paths
all records
all buttons

And because of that:

Admin testing produces a perfect world

User testing produces the real world

The real world is messy.
Users don’t have Modify All.
Users don't have View All Data.
Users don’t magically bypass validation rules.

Admins do.

And that is exactly why Admin testing should be used only to confirm whether the system is fundamentally functional — not whether it is usable.

Final Thoughts

If you ever feel tempted to test as Admin, remember:

Admin mode is like God Mode in a video game.
Fun. Powerful.
Completely useless for testing.

Real testers test reality.