
Regression Testing
It is essential to guarantee the stability and quality of the application in quick-paced development and testing environments, where upgrades and modifications are frequent. When it comes to extensively testing their web or mobile applications before their launches, organizations frequently encounter time and budget constraints.
Every time a new version of an application is released, it is evident that new functionality must be tested, but it is also crucial to run prior tests that the application previously passed. Because a new feature, bug fix, or improvement may interfere with the operation of the present version of an application, or website.
Regressions (bugs in a previously functional area of an application) can cause organizations problems since they delay application delivery dates and drive up development expenses. Regression testing is therefore crucial because of this. Regression testing ensures that an application’s new and existing features are still functioning and safe. With this testing strategy, the QA examines both the functional and non-functional parts of existing features to make sure the application doesn’t contain any new defects or errors.
This article will go into great detail on using LambdaTest for regression testing. We’ll start by discussing what regression testing is, when and how to do it, different testing approaches it uses, its advantages, and finally why LambdaTest is the best option for this testing.
What is regression testing?
After the application has been built it may be modified to include new features or functionalities that will enhance the end-user experience. Even if new features are thoroughly tested, introducing upgrades may make existing ones inoperable.
Developers would naturally want to update the application while keeping its current functionality. Regression tests are performed for this reason. Regression testing is the process of evaluating current features and checking for regressions.
Technically speaking regression testing is a form of testing technique that entails repeatedly testing any application’s current features as it receives new upgrades. It is a testing procedure that repeats functional and non-functional tests to make sure that bugs haven’t crept into the application’s unmodified areas and that it still functions as intended after the code updates, alterations, and enhancements.
Simply said, finding any undesirable changes is crucial to ensuring that an application’s functionality continues to function as intended after a change and that a tiny change in one area of the application does not affect functioning elsewhere in the application.
When should regression testing be done?
Regression testing guarantees that the application functions properly before the best version is made available to the user. Designing and maintaining a nearly limitless number of regression tests is laborious and impractical in the real world. Therefore, one should understand when to use regression testing. Regression testing is advised whenever one or more of the following situations occurs:
- When whole new features or functionalities are added.
- When an entirely new requirement is introduced to a feature that already exists.
- When a patch fix is released.
- When performance-related problems are fixed in the source code.
- When the environment changes.
- When the application receives a new update.
- Whenever the User Interface is modified.
- Modifications to the configuration are made.
Regression testing is required since each of these situations calls for reorganizing or adjusting the existing code, which could lead to unanticipated behaviors.
Methods for conducting regression testing
Regression testing serves as the application’s periodic health checkup. With the use of this testing, developers can pinpoint the source of the error, hence, improving troubleshooting. To reduce time and increase test efficiency, QA teams often create several regression test cases for key features that they will repeatedly run. Being repetitive, regression testing is a suitable option for automation testing. Regression testing and automation work together quite well. Regression testing automation typically applies to situations when tests have a repeating character.
Manual regression testing can be tiresome, error-prone, and time-consuming, which delays the deployment of applications. In contrast, automation of regression test cases frees up testers from examining regressions caused by application modifications or upgrades and enables them to focus on other specific difficulties in the application environment.
Simply said, QA testers may spend less time and money detecting and fixing application defects by implementing good automated regression testing. Automation can accelerate the regression testing process and give maximum test coverage at a considerably lower price than manual regression testing because the primary goal of regression testing is to verify the appropriate operation of the existing functionality in an application. The extent of automation in regression testing depends on the number of test cases that will continue to apply over time.
Regression testing automation is carried out utilizing automated tools and methods. Within a regression testing technique, the automation process uses test scripts, workflow, and other activities.
Different regression testing methods
Regression testing simply verifies that a modified application has not been changed unintentionally. Depending on the testing objectives, any combination of the following techniques is often used to carry out regression testing. The three main methods are as follows.
Retest All- Using this method, the QA tester just runs through all of the test cases again, making sure that none are left out. Compared to the other procedures, this one is a little more expensive because it takes longer and requires greater resources.
Regression Test Selection- Using this method, only a portion of the test suite is chosen for execution, rather than all the test cases. The test cases are divided into reusable test cases and obsolete test cases, which are used in different regression cycles but not in the same regression cycle. The main benefit of this method is that it takes much less time and effort to carry out.
Test Case Prioritisation- In this method, test cases are placed in order of importance by taking into account more potential test cases than less significant ones. Test cases that may have an impact on both the current and next releases of the application are selected. Testing costs and time are reduced and the greatest number of flaws are found when test cases with greater priority are executed first. In situations where the code base is quite huge, this strategy is more beneficial.
Advantages of regression testing
The process of application testing can benefit greatly from regression testing. Regression testing helps organizations keep teams on task, stop applications from exceeding their budgets, and most crucially, stop unanticipated errors from negatively impacting their applications. Other advantages of performing regression testing include:
- Regression testing can help identify errors or issues that may have been introduced during the development or alterations of an application. These tests aid in evaluating the upgrade’s functionality to guarantee improved performance.
- This type of testing determines whether any mistakes or bugs exist in the application’s current functionalities and confirms that they do so after changes have been made. Regression testing ensures the stability of the application by identifying any unexpected behavior or problems that can have an impact on user experience.
- Comprehensive regression testing allows for the identification and mitigation of any potential risks brought on by modifications. It aids in preventing unforeseen problems, system breakdowns, or declines in performance that might affect how well an application works or how satisfied users are.
- Finding flaws and problems early on can save money when it comes time to fix them.
Regression testing on LambdaTest
Given the complexity of applications nowadays, several organizations are leaning towards providing their target users with a seamless user experience. As a result, they are spending money on various testing technologies to improve the quality of their applications. Additionally, these techniques can be used to streamline and improve the regression testing process.
Numerous organizations are using more and more automated regression testing tools as they gain popularity. When selecting a tool to automate regression testing, it is important to keep in mind that the tool should enable automation at all development stages and should integrate with the CI/CD workflow. LambdaTest is one such cloud-hosted AI-powered test orchestration and execution that provide automated testing solution that offers all such features. Offering the complete infrastructure required for test automation, it enables automating the regression test cases quickly.
By providing a real device cloud of more than 3000 real devices, browsers, and operating systems, LambdaTest offers wide test coverage for automated regression testing and ensures that the websites and web apps function flawlessly across a range of devices and browsers.
Why run regression tests on the LambdaTest cloud
Regression testing with LambdaTest cloud is beneficial for a variety of reasons.
Easy access at any time from any location
When regression test cases are hosted and run on the LambdaTest cloud, the testing team has access to the test cases from anywhere in the world at any time of day. As a result, location and time restrictions are no longer an issue.
Improved continuous testing, and enhanced teamwork
Through the use of the LambdaTes cloud, different users from various places can simultaneously access the same repository of test cases, which improves collaboration and encourages continuous testing.
Use of infrastructure at scale
The infrastructure in use can be raised or decreased depending on the status of execution as the test cases are hosted and run in the cloud. When there are more test cases to execute, the infrastructure can be expanded, whereas when there are fewer test cases to perform, the infrastructure can be quickly reduced.
Cost-effective
Only the quantity of infrastructure used is reflected in the price for using LambdaTest. Therefore, users are not obligated to pay for the periods when their test cases were not run and the available infrastructure was at its most basic.
Additional capabilities offered by LambdaTest for regression testing
Testers get plenty of extra capabilities with LambdaTest that make it simpler for them to enhance their regression testing experience. Here they are-
Prioritized test scenarios for quicker regression testing
Prioritizing the test cases following the severity and significance of problem fixes is crucial for effective regression testing. Based on essential modules, test case types, user-reported issues, and a variety of other configurable filters, LambdaTest enables the prioritization and filtering of the test cases. This will assist in developing a lean, effective test plan.
Reduced feedback time by parallelizing regression testing
Regression testing may take a lot of time and resources to run on test suites that include many test cases because of more recent versions and releases. Wider test compatibility is achieved in less time with the aid of parallel testing. To speed up execution, LambdaTest provides a capability for parallel test execution. This helps in reducing the feedback loop, thus making it easier for developers to detect faults quickly and speed up the delivery of applications.
Automatically scheduled tests restricting the need for manual intervention
Automated test scheduling adds a further level of automation to regression testing, making it simpler to find regressions in the code modules. With the help of LambdaTest, test runs may be scheduled to run automatically regularly. It allows testers to plan automated test cases according to their convenience and needs while hosting and running them on the cloud.
All that is required to run scheduled tests on a daily or weekly basis is to establish the execution plan for regression testing and the frequency of test executions. Robust and automated regression testing is made possible by parallel execution and scheduled automated tests.
Quick feedback reports
LambdaTest offers thorough feedback reports that make it easier to pinpoint errors and fix problematic code. Additionally, it offers a thorough and customizable test report in LOG, HTML, CSV, and PDF formats, which makes it simple and quick to analyze the test findings. Its screenshot feature offers a visual representation of the number of test cases that passed and failed for each test phase. Additionally, the team can record and playback videos of each test step’s performance using the record-and-playback functionality.
Conclusion
Regression testing is the final test in the usual sequence of tests that an application undergoes, and it is responsible for ensuring the general stability of the application by monitoring the functionality of the currently available features. Every new code modification must be followed by regression testing to make sure the application can withstand repeated improvements.
The reason LambdaTest is an ideal platform for regression testing is that it offers a cloud-based test automation infrastructure that includes all of the necessary elements for automated regression testing. It is perfect for automated regression testing since it gives suggestions for affected or relevant test cases following a feature enhancement or bug fix.