In today’s highly competitive world, there is little scope for errors. To stay ahead of the competition, companies need to maintain higher quality standards while developing software products and the QA team has a greater role to play. There are several best software testing practices that can improve the quality of a product and Regression testing is an important one among them.
By performing regression testing, companies can create products that cater to the needs of customers while eliminating technical glitches in the functionality of the product.
What is Regression Testing?
Regression Testing is an important testing practice that makes sure that the product is free of errors after code is altered or when new features are added. This is particularly important when the beta version of a product is released and certain changes are incorporated into the product, based on the feedback. In addition, the lifespan of software products is limited and they forego changes frequently. For every release of newer versions, companies have to make sure that the functionality is intact. Regression testing can be performed using older test cases, partial or full.
Choosing the functionalities for regression testing is not easy. It requires lot of expertise and experience. You need to consider several aspects like the coding that is recently changed, frequently used functionalities, main features etc. If you test the full suite it requires huge expenses and time as well.
Another option is to choose the functionality area where changes are incorporated. Whether you choose obsolete test cases or reusable test cases, partial regression testing saves huge operational expenses and time. Alternately, you can choose to test frequently used functionalities to be on the safer side.
Software tools for Regression Testing
While choosing the right software for regression testing, you need to consider the business functionality. If changes are made frequently to your product, regression testing adds up to your testing expenses. You have to perform test cases over and over again. Using manual testing is a cumbersome process as you have to spend more resources and time as well.
Automated testing is a good idea for regression testing. Every time a new update is made, you can use an automated script to check the functionality. Most importantly, automated scripts can be run unattended. Quick Testing Professional from HP is a great tool that efficiently handles regression and functionality testing. This object-based tool allows you to create scripts based on keywords. QTP uses VB scripts and Excel for programming and data-driven testing to boost the quality of testing procedures.
Regression Testing in Agile software development
Agile software development is the new trend in the development segment. Agile development requires companies to incorporate innovation into business processes while automating most tasks. Regression Testing is an ideal choice when it comes to agile software development. While people complain that regression testing finds more defects to demoralize the developing team, this is a striking advantage too.
By finding out defects, automated regression testing boosts greater levels of confidence to the development team. Moreover, it puts a greater level of responsibility on developers as they have to work in coordination with the testing team. When you look at the whole team concept, this is a huge benefit for any organization.