How Regression Testing Has Become Integral To The Sdlc?

By Author: Oliver Moore
Total Articles: 52
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When it is all about staying competitive and earning revenues, enterprises are going all out to develop new applications with better user experiences. With users becoming choosy, enterprises are constrained to offer features and functionalities that are different from their competitors. However, there is a catch when it comes to adding new features in an application - regression! Yes, the unintended consequence of any code change, which instead of enhancing the user experience can, at times, act as a bummer.
Let us understand the same with an example. You take your car to the mechanic to fix an issue with its heating function. But after receiving the car with its heating function fixed, you find another function, say its fog lights not working. This turns out to be an unintended consequence, which you never imagined would hit you from nowhere.
To make it further easier to understand, let us relate it to software. For example, an application adding a photo-sharing service ends up nixing its loading speed upon delivery. So, to ensure such unintended changes do not hamper the user experience, testers need to implement ...
... a robust regression testing strategy.

So, what is regression testing and why is it needed?
It is aimed at ensuring the seamless functioning of an application in-spite of any addition/modification to its feature(s). This is important as regression testing can identify issues and fix them arising out of any code change. It is different from retesting and ensures the entire application to work in accordance with the expectations post changes. In retesting, on the other hand, only the specific code change is tested for its expected outcome. Hence, any comprehensive software regression testing can be quite complex and time-consuming.

Checklist for regression testing in software testing
A change in one part can create an unintended change in another part of the software. And unless the entire software is monitored post introducing the change, the consequences can impact the software’s functionality and user experience. The below-mentioned scenarios or test cases can be fit cases for conducting software regression testing.
• Functionalities to have undergone changes
• Cases related to integration
• Cases with boundary values
• Functionalities most visible to the users
• All core features
• Scenarios facing frequent defects

Should regression testing be automated?
Since regression testing services are often iterative, they are good candidates for automation. The test cases for automated regression testing should be easy-to-maintain, stable, and frequently repeated. As this type of testing checks the quality of an existing functionality, it needs to be repeated for various parameters. Automated regression testing frees up testers and allows them to further explore the production environment for any unusual responses. Further, not all software regressions are a result of code change. For example, some may be the result of updates to databases or browser versions.

Challenges to regression testing
The quality of an existing functionality can be ensured with more automation. However, it also requires testers to maintain such test suites for their prolonged usage. So, the test suites need to be flexible to incorporate any future changes. Let us discuss some challenges associated with regression testing services.
• Expensive: As the same function is tested repeatedly, there is no immediate ROI to speak of but mainly expenses.
• Not adequate time for testing: Since a project needs to be completed in a timebound manner, it is not possible to let the iterative regression testing to continue for a longer duration. So, testers often execute critical regression tests only and skip others. This can leave a few quality issues to remain unchecked.
• Maintenance and optimization: The automated test suites should be optimized and maintained to meet the rigors of any new testing requirement.

How to manage regression testing
Given the inevitability of such testing in preempting the ingress of any unintentional quality issues during a code change, the tests should be managed well. The steps to ensure the same are:
• Executing the smoke test and automation
• Analyzing the test requirements
• Preparing to deal with the impact of changes
• Prioritizing tests
• Choosing the right automation tools
• Analyzing the final glitch report in detail
• Optimizing and maintaining the test suites
• Creating criteria for entry or exit of regression testing
• Executing testing randomly
• Keeping the testers motivated

Conclusion
The rapidly changing digital landscape owing to the addition of new features and versions of software applications, browsers, and operating systems requires businesses to set up a robust regression testing strategy. So, even though the testing per se is expensive and time-consuming, it should be taken to its logical conclusion.