Everything You Should Know About Regression Testing

Let’s explain regression testing with a real-life situation.

You went to a service centre to replace your broken mobile screen and when you get it done, you found that the screen is working fine but its speaker is not working properly. You can encounter a similar situation when you are developing IT software. While you are in the process to develop a new feature or add make some updates in the code, you could see the software working showing some unexpected results. It could be due to a bug in the code. 

Regression testing a process that is employed to rectify the scope of such bugs and errors. It is defined as a type of testing which is done to check that the change in the software codes does not modify the working of the existing functions. Tests that were executed previously are executed again to verify the effect of the change.

What is the Need For Regression Testing?

The sheer size and intricacy of the codes intended for the development of an application make it really difficult to check the impact a bug-fix or minor update can have on the overall working. It is where regression testing helps a lot. By analysing the performance and core functionalities, regression testing assures that everything else in the application is working the way they should be. 

Also Read: Benefits of Test Automation in a Software Project

When to perform Regression Testing?

To strike the right balance between a faster development process and frequent testing, the best is to integrate regression testing at the beginning. Regression testing plays an important role in the software release process. However, it is equally important in the development phase too. Usually, it is performed when:

An error or bug is fixed
The existing codes are integrated with new components or modules
A new functionality is added

How to Do Regression Testing?

In most cases, new testing techniques are not created while doing regression testing. In fact, the tests which were created previously are executed again. But, doing retesting of the entire system is a time-taking and expensive task. So, it becomes important to select which test cases to run for implementing regression testing. 

Which Areas to Test? 

• Areas with maximum defects
• Areas with high-user rate
• Areas with recent changes
• Areas with critical integration
• Areas with complex functionalities

Also Read: Different Types of Functional Testing

Which One to Choose – Automated or Manual Testing?

Regression testing is done after every change in the code, bug fixes and deployment. You might think that automating regression test cases is one of the best things to expedite the process. But, the fact is, automated tests are not capable to catch errors that humans can unearth. The best you can do is to automate only those tests that are most repeatable in nature. It is advisable to leave tests with long and complex scenarios to manual testing.