To keep up with the advancement of software technology, software applications need to be improved every now and then. The improvement is made by updating software applications that require a change in code. This sometimes hampers the existing functionality or adds new defects to the software applications. Here automated regression testing comes into play.
Now, you can understand that once the code has been changed for the software application by the developers, the testers need to test the
existing test script as well as the newly created test cases for the changed code. Regression testing is a type of software testing that ensures that the existing functionality of the software applications has not
been impacted by the recent code change. In other words, we can also say that in regression testing,
the testers re-run the existing test cases to ensure that the existing functionalities of software applications are working properly.
Doing this manually would violate the purpose of regression testing, as there is a higher chance that an error may occur. Also, a lot of time and effort will be required. To overcome these problems, automated regression testing will help the testers and developers. It will ensure the new features of software applications are working effectively and efficiently before releasing them.
What Is Regression Testing?
To add new functionality to software applications, changes are made to recent codes. The changes can bring regression which means bugs can be found in the recent functionality of software applications. To detect the bugs, regression testing is executed. In the process of regression testing, testers re-execute the existing test cases in order to detect
new defects that may have occurred in the software application due to the changes made in the code as well as to prevent malfunction due to new bugs.
We can define regression testing as a software testing process that retests all the existing test cases of the software applications whenever
new features are added to an existing software application in order to inspect if a new bug has been detected. Now, since repetitive execution of test cases in the process of regression testing done manually is prone to error as well as time-consuming,
automated regression testing acts as a boon to testers and developers. In automated regression testing, testing tools are used to carry out the
testing process by running pre-written test cases with little or no human interference.
So, let us understand why one should prefer automated regression testing.
Why Automated Regression Testing?
Regression testing requires repeated execution of test cases to verify and validate that every area of the software application is functioning as per the Software Requirement Specification. This can be monotonous and time-consuming, so let us understand how automated regression testing will solve these issues.
- Repeatability: Regression testing is performed in a repeated manner in
order to develop a quality software application that is acceptable to the end user. Doing this manually would take a lot of time and effort,
and therefore executing automated regression testing can help in covering the test cases efficiently.
- Limited Human Intervention: In automated regression testing, human interference is limited to running the test cases. They only need to start the test procedure, and then the automation testing tool will produce the result itself. With this, testers and developers may focus on other aspects of testing.
- Lesser turnaround time: With the advancement in software applications, the number of test cases gradually increases,
and automated regression testing can easily cover those cases in less duration as compared to manual testing.
- Increased coverage: As automated regression testing decreases the turnaround time of the testing process,
testers and developers can test the software application on various platforms simultaneously. This will help in analyzing any issue present in the software application more effectively.
- Efficient: Manual testing is prone to error when it comes to performing the same task multiple times. Automated regression testing will overcome this issue and will provide a much more efficient result.
Tools Used For Automated Regression Testing
To create test scripts, execute them and analyze the test reports for automated regression testing, test automation tools are required. Some of the highly preferred tools are:
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Selenium: Selenium is a freely available framework with libraries that support browser automation. It supports multiple scripting languages such as Java, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, and Perl to execute automated regression testing.
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Appium: It is also an open-source tool for performing automated regression testing on mobile, web, and hybrid applications by executing test cases on Android and iOS using a web driver.
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TestNG: TestNG is a highly preferred automated regression testing tool inspired by JUnit and NUnit to execute test scripts very easily. TestNG can be easily used by testers and developers due to its easy-to-use functionalities.
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Cucumber: it is another test automation tool that supports regression testing. It is a behavior-driven development tool that allows testers to write test scripts in natural language so that the end users and other non-technical stakeholders of the software application can understand the test cases.
The list of tools does not end here. There are many more tools that can help testers to automate regression testing and provide a seamless testing experience. You can leverage the ability of regression testing using a cloud-based digital experience testing platform like LambdaTest. It is a cloud-based platform that allows you to perform automated regression testing. You can execute the test in the large online farm of real browsers, OS, and devices.
One of the most amazing features of LambdaTest is its integration with popular automation testing tools, as mentioned in the above section, like Appium, Selenium, and Cucumber. You can leverage the ability of Selenium or Appium’s cross-browser capabilities with LambdaTest’s scalable cloud-based infrastructure to accelerate your regression testing process.
Embrace LambdaTest today and stay ahead in the fast-paced world of software development.
How To Automate Regression Testing?
Testing your software application after updating it can become complicated as regression testing is a multilayer process. Here is a list of steps you should follow in order to automate regression testing:
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Understand the requirement: This is the most important step in performing automated regression testing. In this step, as a tester or developer, you must understand what type of testing your software application requires. That is, whether it should be a front-end testing or a back-end testing.
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Picking up the test tool: Once you have understood whether your software application requires front-end or back-end testing. You have to choose the most appropriate tool for proceeding with the testing process. For this, you must have a clear idea about the different tools used to automate regression testing.
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Figure out the cases that need to be automated: The next step is to extract all those test cases that need to be re-executed for the purpose of regression testing.
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Automate test cases and execute them: After you have separated test cases for regression testing, you need to automate them using the chosen framework. Then you have to run them locally on the browser to detect if there is any defect present in the software application.
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Preparing Regression Suite: Once you have automated the test cases and they have been successfully executed, you have to add them to a collection of test cases that combines all the necessary test cases required to perform automated regression testing. You can name this collection the regression test case suite.
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Reporting: The next step after categorizing the test cases into a regression suite is to integrate a reporting mechanism. This mechanism will help to provide a combined result of all the test cases structured under the regression suite once they are completely executed.
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Running the test suite through any CI/CD tools: After completion of all the above steps, as a tester or developer, you must choose a suitable CI/CD tool that will schedule the regression suite to run daily in order to maintain the quality of the software application.
Best Practices Of Automated Regression Testing
In order to make your testing process effective and efficient, you must follow certain best practices, such as:
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Update Regression Test Cases: With every update of the software application regression test suite must also be updated so that during the next update, all the new functionalities are also tested.
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Categorizing Tests: The test cases under automated regression testing must be categorized according to the behavior of the software application. This is done so that if a defect is detected, the testers can easily analyze which test cases need to be retested.
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Re-run Successful Test Cases: In order to ensure that your software application is fulfilling the Software Requirement Specification and no defect is detected during User Acceptance Testing, the testers and developers must repeatedly re-run the successful test cases.
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Pay Attention To The Test Reports: Paying attention to test reports after performing automated regression testing will help you to prevent your software applications from defects and bugs, be they minor or major.
Conclusion
Regression testing is a crucial testing procedure for the development of a software application as
it ensures there are no negative consequences of code change. And automated regression testing is the only way to acquire the maximum benefits of regression testing
as it helps to cope up with user demand and speed up the process. It also provides end users with an efficient, high-quality, and bug-free software application.
Automated regression testing is highly preferred by testers and developers as it can save both time and effort. And if you opt for the correct test automation tool and best practices suitable for testing according to your software application,
then they can even robust your software testing procedure.
Also read:- Top 10 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Selenium Jest Automation Testing