We know what is regression testing and what is the purpose of doing regression testing? But it is also important to produce a good strategy to make the testing process successful. Every developer or tester must take care of a few things while performing regression testing that is test creation, testing concepts, executions, findings etc. But sadly, most of them just focus on functionality testing.

Along with that, there are so many reasons due to which the business organisations fail in regression testing. The best way to avoid failure is to do proper planning. A good plan is considered as the key to success in every field. So focus on the strategy or plan first. Today I will discuss a few steps you should follow while making an effective and efficient strategy for regression testing.

1 Identify the concepts and needs

Every application should be made according to the requirements of the client or users. With the changing requirements, it is possible that you have to make changes in the code anytime. Every time with the change in the code, you have to perform regression testing. Because it is essential to check modified pieces of code in order to check the effects of changes on the application. To make this possible, you must know the purpose of the code change. It is also equally important to analyse the requirements of changes in advance. It is a very important phase of testing because if you don’t know what you did with the code or module of the application, you cannot figure out the exact need and purpose of the changes done.

2 Set various requirements

After identifying all the possible requirement analysis, it is important to collaborate with all the requirements in one sheet. In this step, you have to coordinate with everyone connected with the application making processes like business stakeholders, designers, developers and testing engineers to design the appropriate test cases. The test creation process may provide you with a framework to figure out the future cost and time-saving components. With the collaboration of everyone, you will be able to create more effective and reliable test cases, which can also be used many times. To state exact and right requirements are the only key to make the related test cases, if you go out of the line or application needs, then you may not be able to portrait good test cases.

3 Develop entry limitations or rules for regression testing

The most import part of regression testing is to decide when to start regression testing. The entry rules or criteria must include the minimum and maximum eligibility factors that must be met before the start of the testing process. Before the start of a testing process, an engineer should follow the following things:-

  • Engineers should confirm that the fault is duplication and has been properly reported.
  • He should open a faulted tracking recorded to identify the regression testing tracks.
  • Create a test case which specifies the defect and review the results before accepting the changes.

Don’t conduct a regression test if developer/software tester cannot confirm all above-stated things. Don’t perform a test if you don’t need it. Because by doing the unnecessary test, you will only waste your efforts and time.

4 Design test criteria to conduct testing

Alike enter rules there should be some exit rules as well. The exit criteria will help to develop a set of minimum and maximum eligibility conditions which must need to be met before closing the testing process. The elements should be dependent upon the planning phase of testing and signed by the higher officials before the product release. During the process, the following are a few things which an engineer should do:-

  • You must identify and confirm that all tests have run successfully without any crashes and conflicts.
  • Make sure that the requirements of the coverage of the code have been met successfully.
  • No bugs must remain untested, unidentified and unfixed.
  • Make sure the areas with high risk are tested thoroughly.

If your test results are not meeting all the above-stated points, then it is advisable to create new test cases with better clarity and conduct the testing process again.

5 Follow a proper schedule

After completion of all the above steps, it’s time to design a testing schedule. But before that, make sure all the test results are feasible and acceptable for the application. In this final step, you have to make sure to figure out unit tests for all the affected components must be completed within different periods like one hour, one day, two days, five days, a week etc. Accordingly, make a schedule for the regression testing before and after the release of the product to make it bug-free and prominent. If you are using automated regression testing tools, you can easily schedule the tool to automatically run tests after specific time intervals for more efficient, controlled and bug-free applications. So check your application time to time to ensure the proper functionality.

Conclusion

The above list is just a short list of steps that we feel important to follow by the developer or tester by performing the regression testing process. As we analyzed that it is very critical to cover the affected code perfectly while choosing the area of code. Along with the steps, it is also important that you should select the appropriate regression testing type. There are so many different types of tools available in the regression testing world, which can help you to perform a particular type of regression testing.

Test failures demoralize the developer, and when they have to conduct the same test again, they feel exhausted. So, this is very much important to make a proper’s strategy which covers all the things about the application and provide you with the best testing results.

If you have better strategies for conducting regression testing, then please share with us in the comment section. Till then, keep reading and stay tuned.