To keep pace with rapidly changing market dynamics and become more responsive to the needs of end users, organizations across the globe have embraced Agile and DevOps software development. This is also evident from Gitlab’s survey that highlights more than 35% of the participants are following Agile development practices. Saying otherwise, organizations are rolling out new features in their enterprise applications more frequently than ever. As dev teams are rolling out new features on a daily/ nightly/ weekly basis, QA teams also need to perform regression testing to ensure business continuity.
However, doing this manually can be a daunting task. In this blog, we will highlight why regression testing is critical and why it should be automated.
What Is Regression Testing
It is a software testing type that runs after a change is introduced in the software application. Whenever a code is changed to implement a new functionality or to rectify a bug, regression testing is performed to check whether or not changes have impacted the existing functionality.
Challenges in Executing Regression Testing
- Frequency: Agile and DevOps software development methodology is all about releasing updates more frequently. Although manual testing is still in practice, organizations cannot realize Agile unless there is a fast feedback loop for testing. Dev teams roll out new features quickly but manual testing acts as a bottleneck since QA people cannot provide feedback quickly.
- Prioritizing tests: Over the years, regression suite grows up. Deciding what to test and what no can be a challenging question when you’re testing complex enterprise applications like ERP, CRM, or SCM. The manual approach is based on personal choices and experience and cannot ensure adequate risk coverage.
- Maintaining test scripts: Over the years, your enterprise applications evolved as developers keep on adding new features. Thus, existing test cases may become obsolete and require continuous updates. It can be very time-consuming and error-prone to maintain a large suite of regression test cases manually.
- Test Environment Configuration: To execute regression testing, you need a stable and consistent test environment. Furthermore, you need to mirror your production environment. Setting up and maintaining such environments can be complex.
- Test Reporting and Analysis: Analyzing test results and impact of change while running a large set of regression tests can be overwhelming. Effective reporting and analysis tools should be in place to provide proper reporting.
Conclusion
Regression testing is the best use-case for test automation. It can help organizations save time and effort. This eventually leads to cost savings as adequate test coverage will also be achieved.
