• Software Testing Dictionary
  • Home

Software Regression Testing

Software Testing is an integral part of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Once a software is developed it is still not ready to be shipped to the customers until it has undergone multiple layers, types, and cycles of testing. In short, the software testing process is essential to ensure its quality.

What is Software Regression Testing?

Software regression testing is performed every time there is a code change for a software to fix a bug, to add a new feature, and to refactor the code. Thus, it is primarily done to ensure that the existing functionalities of the software do not break while there are any sort of code changes.

As a process in projects, it is very important to have proper version control for the code management. This helps to track and map a specific change in the code which is responsible for breaking an existing software feature.

Why is Software Regression Testing Needed?

A software regression testing is an integral part of the testing cycle. A regression test is written keeping in mind a defect detected by the tester. Every time a code is pushed by a developer on a specific module, this regression test is run on the impacted module to ensure that the new code changes have not brought back a new bug or it has not impacted any existing features in the software.

Practical Example of Software Regression Testing

Let us take an example of an application which deals in selling used cars from a marketplace. The development team works and develops this product and subsequently the testing team performs a thorough test on it which includes regression test cases covering all the primary features of the application.

As a part of the second version for the product, the customer wants to add the feature of selling the insurance along with selling the used car. Once the second feature is added to the product, it again goes through a thorough testing which includes the regression test cases covering the first primary insurance selling features of the product.

Before the software is shipped to the customers, both the sets of regression tests need to be executed (regression testing of the version one - product to sell only used cars and version two - product which sells used cars along with its insurance).

This is done to confirm that both the features are working after being integrated into the same software. Thus by running the regression tests we are ensuring that the existing functionalities in the software are not broken by new code changes to incorporate new features or to resolve a bug.

As the volume of regression tests increases, the effort to run the entire suite of regression after each cycle or sprint becomes very cumbersome. However, it is worth an effort since many rare issues get detected from regression testing only.

Also, often the regression tests are migrated from manual to automation. With automation, it takes less time to execute the whole regression suite within a short period of time and it gives faster feedback to the system. Moreover, these automated regression tests can be integrated with CI/CD infrastructure for the project. Thus, every time there is a code change by the developer, these automated regression tests can get triggered, and the result comes to the team very quickly.

Once a feature is developed and demoed in a sprint, the automated regression tests are triggered. The successful regression test execution can also be added as a checklist for definition of done for a sprint.

Software Regression Testing Tools

Some of software regression testing tools are listed below −

Software Regression Testing Phases

The software regression testing can be adopted at various testing stages, right from the unit testing phase. At this time, the developers themselves create the unit regression tests consisting of all the code changes they made. The regression tests are also created impacting separate clusters as well as integration of multiple clusters. These are some of the prominent phases of the software regression testing.

Advantages of Software Regression Testing

The advantages of the software regression testing are listed below −

  • The software quality is ensured by validating if its existing features did not break after the code changes were done to introduce new functionalities or to fix a defect.
  • The regression tests need not be created newly but taken from the existing test cases since they validate the known functionalities of the software. This fact makes regression test cases a good candidate for automation testing.
  • The defects detected from regression testing makes the developers more cautious of the changes they are making to the code, thereby increasing the quality of the code.

Disadvantages of Software Regression Testing

The disadvantages of the software regression testing are listed below −

  • The regression testing can be cumbersome and time consuming if those tests have not been automated.
  • It is expected to execute the software regression tests on every impacted area of the code changes.

Conclusion

This concludes our comprehensive take on the tutorial on Software Regression Testing. We’ve started with describing what is software regression testing, why is software regression testing needed, a practical example of software regression testing, software regression testing tools, and advantages and disadvantages of software regression testing.

This equips you with in-depth knowledge of the Software Regression Testing. It is wise to keep practicing what you’ve learned and exploring others relevant to Software Testing to deepen your understanding and expand your horizons.

Advertisements