Strategies To Improve Your Regression Testing in Agile 

Agile regression testing enables development teams to focus on new functionality while preserving stability with each successive release of the product. Regression testing is used by teams to ensure that tested software continues to function after every change. Few people enjoy regression testing, the “stepchild” of agile testing, yet it is necessary to support the high velocity that agile teams aim to accomplish. 

What Does Regression Testing Aim to Do? 

Regression testing finds unanticipated bugs, such as those that appear when errant developers modify or add to the current code while developing software. Regression testing should ideally take place whenever software code is altered or expanded.  

Functional testing and regression testing go hand in hand. Successful test cases created and used in functional testing serve as the basis for regression tests. Rerun test cases as regression tests to confirm the functioning or behaviour of an application. Regression testing and functional testing are used to make sure that no new code adversely affects the functionality of the software application. 

Why do test cases for regression testing need to be prioritised? 

Regression testing encounters the following significant difficulties during test execution:  

• For larger projects, regression testing consumes a significant amount of time. 
• In rare circumstances, it can even require an entire sprint to finish the test execution. 
• This results in longer test execution times, greater individual effort requirements, and higher project costs. 
• Additionally, continuously running the same set of test cases leads to a loss of focus. 
• The most important features of the application might not get tested by the testers, causing production-level defects. 
• The cost of the project ultimately increases as a result. 

How Should Test Cases Be Selected for Regression Based on Priority? 

It has been noticed that the testing team typically reports many issues right before the production release date.  

Because the delivery date might need to be extended in order to resolve these important faults, this gives the clients a bad image. This necessitates ranking test cases in order of priority and duration before selecting them for regression testing. 

Testers should employ a variety of methodologies and procedures to effectively test software complexity. The regression testing suite must contain all challenging test scenarios, according to testers.  

The regression test suite may grow with time and require a substantial amount of time to run. Select all the test cases that are top priority from the user or customer’s perspective in such circumstances to cut down on testing time and effort. 

Verify that these test cases are functioning properly before moving on to further test cases with a medium or low priority, if time allows. 

Which regression test types are used in Agile? 

 The kind of regression test you run depends on how much risk your application involves. For instance, sanity testing is the greatest choice for your team if you’re releasing an application with a new feature and want to be sure that it functions as planned. Branch testing, however, may be more appropriate if there are significant faults or difficulties with any section of the code base (and this could happen), as it can find problems at many levels (such branches within an application) or even outside its borders entirely. 

Regression testing approach: fundamental variables 

We can move forward with developing an efficient regression testing strategy after analysing the justifications for and varieties of regression testing. A team depends on two things while creating a regression testing strategy: 

Product Nature 

This is the most important consideration when selecting an appropriate regression testing strategy and meticulous regression test preparation. For instance, the methods used to evaluate a landing page and an extensive professional site will be very different. Regression testing often includes UI and usability test cases for landing pages, although test cases for security, performance, compatibility testing, and other factors may be used for portals. 

Product sizing 

Regression testing must take a distinct strategy for large, medium, and small products. A single round of manual regression testing may be sufficient for a small product, but for medium-sized and big products with extensive functionality, it is frequently necessary to do both manual and automated regression testing.  

These elements enable testing teams to choose appropriate approaches and techniques for regression testing. 

Sanity Testing Strategy 

Sanity testing is a method used by the test team for several fundamental software tests. Sanity testing is done after minor code or functionality modifications whenever a fresh build is received to make sure the bugs have been fixed. After extensive regression testing is complete, sanity testing is carried out. 

Smoke Testing Strategy 

Every time a new build of software is created and integrated with an existing build that has been deployed in a QA/staging environment, smoke testing is carried out. It checks to see if all crucial features are operating properly or not. The development team makes the build available to QA via this testing approach. The QA team will outline all the crucial characteristics of the software in a certain scenario. Then its stability and functionality are tested using smoke. 

Retesting Strategy 

Retesting is intended to determine whether the found flaws have been corrected. The test cases related to the defect are run again and passed to confirm the fix. 

Retesting is necessary after every time a software flaw is corrected. Regression testing must be done before retesting. A defect raised by the tester only undergoes retesting when its status is changed to “awaiting retest.” 

Conclusion 

We looked at various Agile regression testing approaches in this article. We sincerely hope that you will find our recommendations helpful and that you will apply them to enhance your quality assurance procedure. Any development framework must include regression tests because they guarantee that incremental development never breaks an application. Regression testing that is designed and carried out according to Agile requirements combines the best aspects of Agile principles with the safety blueprints of thorough testing in order to deliver high-quality, defect-free user experiences in a timely manner. 

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