Maintaining an Effective Regression test suite, how?

Regression Testing
#1

If we take the pre-condition here we all understand what regression testing is.

Questions:

When does a test case/suite effectiveness diminish?

Bugs in the prior release would you manually execute some regression testing around this for the next release or would you include them into the current suite. - Is inclusion based on the bug priority

What steps do you apply to maintain optimisation? Does anyone use a tool to track features and corresponding tests (or is this just a matter of tags)?

Really looking for a way to maintain good housekeeping processes within testing :slight_smile:

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#2

Hello Kim,
In every regression test I assume that the previous release was without bugs. So of there were bugsin the previous release, I report them again.
In the organization where I work, we have divided the regression test in separate parts. One colleague does the financial part, another one does the webpage and I do the output.
To check the output, I have automated the input with a robotic tool so I know for sure that the input is exactly the same.
The output I check with a simple tool named Nuance.

Joop

#3

thanks for the insight Joop. will look at that tool :slight_smile:

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#4

A set of regression tests should remain effective and relevant as long as you update it with new features (after first detailed testing), include re-tests for bugs found in previous text cycles (especially critical or revenue affecting bugs) and remove tests that are no longer necessary. That last point especially true for manual testing where you’re not necessarily going to have time to focus on less important (or unused) functionality.

#5

thanks Jason its good to know I am on the right track :slight_smile:

#6

Make sure your current release test cases are to the point and reusable. In general, an entire system isn’t redesigned in every release. Using updated test cases from the previous release cycle is an effective way to maintain a regression suite. If changes are made, update the test case(s) to match the updated functionality.

Another good resource is the previous release’s User/Business Acceptance Tests. These are generally a high level set of end to end test cases that cover what the users consider to be the important system functionality. Just make sure the pertinent steps are updated that reference the current release changes.

#7

thanks Mary good points

#8

Software products in their lifetime undergo several changes and these changes are important to stay in the current competitive market. Thus providing the new functionality while maintaining the existing one is also much more important otherwise the new updates are not going to be worth. To achieve this, an effective regression test suite is required. While maintaining the regression test suite following points should be taken into consideration:

  1. Creating Regression test suite: As we are aware that when a new feature is added to the application then performing the regression test becomes mandatory. Every time a new test case should be created and should be included in a test suite so that it can be executed in integration with other test cases. During regression testing, we will put more efforts on new features as this is the mainly changing area of application.

  2. Removing Obsolete Test Cases from regression test suite: Application features which have been obsolete with the arrival of new functionality should be ignored. While performing regression test Testers have limited time period to perform the test so it becomes important that the test suite they are executing are up-to-date. No obsolete feature test cases should be a part of a regression test. This will decrease the chances of having conflicts with new and old functionalities.

  3. Rotating regression suite among Taskforce: Regression task should be circulated among the testing members so that each tester will have an eye on the feature and if the bug is missed by one tester at one release then there are chances that on the second run with different resource it can be detected.

In the testing industry, top software testing companies focus on the above points so that they can provide the best product to their clients. Hope this information is helpful for you.

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