Best practices for regression testing

While developing a website or application, developers need to change their code or add new features. Unknowingly, after changes or adding new in code software did not work as was working before, system crashes or collapses may happen. To prevent negative issues after a software change, development teams run regression testing.

What is regression testing?

Regression testing is a changed or updated computer program to make sure the previous software features that are previously develop and tested still perform the same as they did before.

Regression testing helps to get rid of the risk that may link with updated websites, applications.
Regression testing has been performed by a QA team after the development team has completed work.

Why and when can we perform regression testing?

We do regression testing whenever code is modified.

The following are the scenario for performing regression testing:

• New features are added.
• Changes to the existing requirements made.
• There is a defect that needs a fix.
• There are performance issues that need to be solved.

1. When new functionalities added.
The website or application has login functionality, which allows users to login with the only Email. Now, providing a new feature to log in with a Phone Number.

2. When there is any change requirement.
Removed the "Remember Password" button, which was present before.

3. When there is a defect that needs a fix.
In case the sign-up button does not work, then a bug generated by the tester. The developers fix it, and once the bug gets fixed, the tester verifies the Sign-Up button is working fine. Similarly, the tester also tests other functionality, which is related to the Sign-Up.

4. When performance issue is solved.
Reducing the loading time of any page.

How to write regression test cases

There are several ways to write a Regression test case:

1. Prioritization of test cases:- Prioritizing the test cases depends on the business impact, critical and frequently used functionality. The selection of test cases based on priority will reduce the test suit.

2. Selection of test case:- Instead of performing all the tests over again, you choose specific parts of the test suite that needs to redo. These may get further categorized into reusable and outdated tests.

Challenges with regression testing

• Sometimes, it is not possible to execute a lengthy regression suite due to time and budget constraints.
• The large number of features in a product, then more number of test cases needed for regression testing.
• Optimizing a test suite for reducing execution time and achieving maximum test coverage is not at all easy.
• It requires understanding when to run the test suite for every minor change or after every build or when bug fixes are available.

Best practices of regression testing

The regression testing technique is reliable, yet it is time-consuming and costly. That’s why it’s often intelligent to organize your tests into suites that correspond to modules of your program. During each testing session, your QAs will test only the modules that are affected by the change.
It is not possible to eliminate the need for manual testing.

1. Regularly update your regression pack

A collection of a test case performed as and when the software is updated is called a pack.
It is good to keep regression test cases up to date. It is time-consuming.

2. Re-run successful test cases

Re-run the test cases as previously reported bugs may be included in your regression test cases.

3. Automate

Automated tools can faster certain activities compared to humans. So, automating is the best solution to increase the speed of running the test case.
Automate regression testing can relax a tester to work trickier case-specific tests as it is unexciting to handle test cases.

Benefits of  regression testing

• It helps to make sure that any changes like bug fixes or added new features included to the module have no impact on the existing code.
• It helps in improving the quality of the product.
• At the time of regression testing, test cases are being prioritized depending upon the changes done to the existing feature. And then, the module is taken for priority testing.

Conclusion

In Regression testing, the tester should be more careful. A team that communicates and co-operate with each other for project and regression risk can make it testing smooth.