What is Regression Testing? – A Guide for Testers

Regression testing is a type of software test that helps to ensure features were not broken by changes in code. If you are a seasoned tester or just getting started, learning regression testing is very critical. Our guide will go over the basics of regression testing, its purpose, and some pro tips that might come in handy when starting with this important part of software quality assurance.

What is Regression Testing?

Regression Testing is a form of software testing that verifies new code changes have not adversely affected the existing features. Run the tests you have executed before, but this time on modified software to check your changes do not introduce any new bugs. The main objective of regression testing is to identify defects that may have entered the software unit, system, or product after a change.

LEARNING PROCESS:

The process is usually done in the following steps:

• Choosing Test Cases: Determining which among test cases covers the modified parts of the software and fundamental functionalities which could be influenced due to changes.
• Performing Tests: Running chosen test cases from the new build of software.
• Results Analysis: Checking the test results for any new defect or issue.
• Reporting Defects: Stating out new defects discovered while regression testing if any and bringing them to the notice of the development team for fixing.

Regression Testing Need and Importance?

One of the main reasons regression testing is important and should be done is to make sure if your software quality is maintained properly over time. This is where regression testing takes place, and today I shall tell you a few fundamental reasons why to do it.

• Ensuring Stability: Regression testing checks the stability of your software by ensuring that recent changes do not break existing functionalities.
• Realizes Unknown Problems: Tiny code edits may lead to unexpected results. This is the type of issue that should be caught by regression testing and hence fixed before it finds their way to end users.
• Better User Experience: If the relevant regression testing is in place, it will prevent unwanted bugs from being passed on to users which means they can work with software without any hiccups.
• Supports CI/CD: If you work in a continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) environment, regression testing is still important to make sure frequent code changes do not affect the quality of your application.
• Preserves Maintenance: Over time, as software changes, regression testing will ensure that the integrity of the functionality is not broken so you can add new features or fix bugs without ruining what works.

The purpose of regression testing is more than just identifying bugs; it keeps the software healthy and working well over time. This is a process that builds confidence in the quality of software and brings some safety net for developers when they add new features or improvements to the application.

When to do Regression Testing?

It is crucial to know when there should be regression testing. In the software development lifecycle, this keeps improving and maintaining quality. Following are few crucial cases where regression testing must be carried out:

After Bug Fixes: Whenever there is a bug repair, we have the threat here that modification will impact another part of the software. Regression testing confirms that the bug fixed did not introduce new issues anywhere.

After Availing Enhancement or New Functionality Addition: Impact many times is seen in subsequent functionalities when we add new features or enhancement. Regression testing is to ensure that changes made during the development of software do not break what has already been developed.

Major Code Changes: It may be a large code refactoring or architectural changes are made and in this case, the current functionalities on the core part of an application should be verified to check it’s still working correctly by introducing regression testing.

Pre-releases: The goal before every major release or update is to make sure the software has no critical defects that may concern end users, therefore regression testing will be mandatory in this case.

Environmental Changes: If an update to the operating system, database, or middleware is undergone by the software environment then testing needs to be done in order to ensure that it still works correctly with all new conditions.

CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment): Often performed as part of the CI/CD pipeline, automated regression testing helps quickly find & fix issues spawned by ongoing code integrations.

Regression Testing Challenges

Regression testing is prone to its own set of challenges. Any wise tester would need to know these difficulties so they could develop plans to overcome them effectively.

• Difficult: Regression testing is laborious and as the application grows, so do its sizeable number of test cases. Improper Management of this can delay the release cycle.
• Sub-Optimal Utilization: In practice, running a full suite of regression tests is resource-intensive and can be ol nly really efficient if there are hi v hgh volume automated testing systems.
• Test suite maintenance: As software evolves, test cases may need to be rewritten or retired in response to changes in function. A test suite is only accurate as far back in time it was created, and regularly updating to ensure accuracy is a continual process.
• False Positives and Negatives: Regression testing can often be the reason for false positives (reporting a defect where none exists) or sometimes, even lead to false negatives shutting their way into releases that could potentially go unnoticed.
• Prioritization: Deciding which test cases are important enough to be added to a regression suite can be tough, especially when you have an automated workflow, and there is a time/resource crunch. Risk and Impact-based Prioritization of Tests is important but complex
• The challenges of Automation: While automation can help in making the regression testing process fast, setting up automation and maintaining the automated tests take some special skills, and time investment. Automated tests are also brittle and can easily crash with just a slight amendment in the application.

However, testers can easily tackle these challenges by using some best practices and tools to make the regression testing process easier. Proper strategic planning, as well as prioritization (manual and automation), can handle some issues to assure a better regression testing reduction for your project.

Best Practices in Regression Testing:

Regression testing is one of the many forms of software.testing that virtually every company has to go through while developing a piece`of software as part-of their usual development life cycle. Some of the best practices are:

Risk-Based Approach: Here, we need to focus on those part of an application that might be impacted due to recent changes made. Focus on important functionalities and high-risk areas while writing test cases.

Common Exemption Points: More focus should be done on the portions of an application that tend to have defects historically.

1. Regression Testing Automation: Test scripts – Selenium, QTP (Quick Test Professional), Junit, etc can be used to automate the regression test cases so as this kind of monotonous and time-killing test provide a good ROI. Speed, Coverage: Minimizes the manual effort because Automation adds speed and coverage Continuous Integration: Incorporate automated regression tests into the CI/CD pipeline so every code change runs these, giving developers testing feedback right away.
2. Regression testing suite: Keep on Having Updates – Update the regression test suite regularly to add new novice changes and delete effete ones. This keeps all of your tests efficient. Division of test cases into Modules/Categories for better maintenance and execution.
3. Improve Test Execution: Run tests in parallel to make them execute faster. Parallel test execution is supported by most testing tools which can cut the regression testing time to near half. Selective Testing: Run only the specific area of test cases that are related to code changes. This is attainable by means such as test impact analysis and so forth.
4. Spread Reports in Additional: Testers Report – Produce extensive test reports that stroll through the regression-examination results. Detail of the tests done, bugs discovered, and their gravity Stakeholder Communication – Ensure all stakeholders (developers, project managers, QA team) know and are informed of the results output by regression testing regularly.
5. Ongoing Improvement: Post-Mortem Analysis After every regression testing cycle one should verify what went wrong and seek the areas of improvement. Assess the Good and Bad Things That Happened, Make Solves if Needed Feedback Loop – Set up a feedback loop between testers and developers so that the defects found are promptly fixed, leading to better quality of future regression tests.
6. Leverage Data-Driven Testing: A data-driven approach by creating test cases that cover a range of input data and scenarios. This will help you to recognize the defects which can take place in different conditions.
7. Use User Feedback: Analyze Based on Real-World Issues – Utilize user feedback to identify system bugs experienced by end-users & use those issues for improving the regression test suite. This guarantees that tests are running in the same manner as users would expect them to run.

Testers can make their regression testing initiatives more efficient and productive by adopting these best practices, which will contribute to the stability and consistency of software across numerous changes

Now, let us walk through some real-world examples and case studies to make that role more practical and significant in order for you to…

Case Study: E-commerce Platform Upgrade

Background: A well-known e-commerce platform is going to upgrade its payment gateway in order to accept several new methods of payments.

Challenge: Upgrading has done an extensive change in their backend system, that it can lead to the checkout process and other high user-oriented functionalities like order processing or managing user accounts etc.

Approach:

• Regression Testing Strategy: QA team was careful on the regression test cases that need to be executed related to the checkout process, payment methods, order management, and user account.
• Automatically testing: We developed automated regression tests integrated into the CI/CD pipeline that executed whenever code was merged to test every change.

Output:

• Timely Identification of Problems: The regression tests helped in identifying quite a few high-priority defects around the new payment pathways and their integration with some legacy functionalities.
• Increased Reliability: As we dealt with the problems early on, it helped to keep a reliable checkout later and kept our users away from issues.

Enhance Your Testing Strategy with Testscenario

At Testscenario, we specialize in providing comprehensive testing solutions tailored to your needs. Our expert team is equipped with the latest tools and methodologies to ensure your software remains robust and reliable through every update. Contact us today to learn how we can help streamline your regression testing process and elevate your software quality to new heights.

Conclusion:

Regression Testing is a mandatory step during the software development lifecycle and plays a vital role in reworking new code changes that do not have any ripple effect on existing functionalities. We now see that regression testing is essential for any software application to ensure a stable, reliable, and quality application even with the constant changes and updates. When regression testing is incorporated into the software development process, combined with best practices for change control and test automation, organizations have a lot more reason than ever to confidently roll out new features or enhancements knowing that existing functions are still working as expected.