Introduction
The cycle of software testing repeats with every newly added feature. Automation testers take into consideration all the necessary steps to make sure users will receive a functional and bug-free product.
Today’s article will tackle regression testing, why it is essential in product testing, its advantages, and how to execute it yourself.
What is Regression Testing?
ISTQB’s official website describes regression testing as the process of “testing of a previously tested program following modification to ensure that defects have not been introduced or uncovered in unchanged areas of the software, as a result of the changes made.” A software modification or a change in its environment requires this test.
The market is overflowing with new apps and software products, demanding more changes to keep up with users’ demands. Testers execute regression testing to trace possible hidden bugs within the modified code. Regression testing should be performed weekly or even daily, depending on the release time. In the case of weekly releases, this step takes priority after the functional tests.
Types of Regression Testing
Several types of regression testing are available to comply with your product’s newly implemented features. Let’s look at some of them:
- Unit regression: tests the code as a single unit during the unit testing phase, temporarily blocking factors and interactions outside of the unit tested;
- Partial regression: when a new codded is added to the database, for the sake of functionality, partial regression makes the new code unit interact with some parts of the old code;
- Complete regression: this option is carried out when major updates within the code demand a thorough investigation of the product code, exposing any remaining build issues before the final version arrives to the users.
Advantages of Regression testing
- offers functional products that are constantly receiving updates to satisfy end users;
- provides a time-effective approach by changing by automating manual test cases;
- validates that the code modifications will not cause issues with the existing code;
- can be performed on a single code unit, partially, or the entire build.
Which test cases require Regression testing?
Testers find bugs in all test cases, but some may yield issues that have escaped initial testing phases. Test cases are prioritized under their business impact, criticality, and frequency of use.
To avoid overloading the regression test suite, you should prioritize test cases related to the product’s core features, tests that undergo frequent changes, and tests that include features easily spotted by users.
How to perform regression testing?
Katalon Studio
Katalon Studio is a ‘single solution, multiple purposes, end-to-end automation solution for application testing across various platforms. This tool also provides the option used to test websites, web services, and mobile applications for regression issues. Katalon Studio is beginner friendly, including already built-in templates to ease out your junior testing journey.
Selenium
Already a popular solution for all sorts of automation testing purposes, Selenium is one of the best open-source automation tools for regression testing on web apps. If you want to know more about Selenium, check out our guide on how to get started with Selenium.
Cypress
Cypress is a popular test automation framework that allows a lot of flexibility. Cypress provides visual regression testing– also known as automated UI testing or visual regression testing– as one of its extensible features. There are a lot of plugins available in Cypress that testers can use to capture visual images to be later compared by testers.
Stay Updated with the Latest in QA
The world of software testing and quality assurance is ever-evolving. To stay abreast of the latest methodologies, tools, and best practices, bookmark our blog. We’re committed to providing in-depth insights, expert opinions, and trend analysis that can help you refine your software quality processes.
Delve deeper into a range of specialized services we offer, tailored to meet the diverse needs of modern businesses. As well, hear what our clients have to say about us on Clutch!