The software development cycle comprises of several phases. One of the essential phases is testing. But failing to have proper testing practices in place can impact your business operations.
For example, on 16th February 2020, a software glitch disrupted more than 100 flights to and from the Heathrow airport in London. According to a tech report, software failures have led to financial losses amounting to more than $1.7 trillion for several businesses across different industry domains. So, there is no denying that you need a reliable testing plan for your software to last longer within the market.
That being said, Regression testing is a method that enables developers to verify changes made in the new version of a software. It is used to ensure that the changes made do not impact the existing functionality. It is an approach where tests are re-executed on the latest versions against the earlier iterations.
Pros and cons of regression testing
When it comes to software testing, regression testing has proven to be very useful in ensuring performance consistency across different software versions. Though it sounds like a beneficial test, there are several disadvantages to regression testing as well. Let’s take a look at both sides of the coin!
Pros
- Ensures any change in the code does not hinder the software functionality
- Resolves recurring problems that a software may encounter
- Identifies unforeseen risks and mitigating vulnerabilities
- Reduces maintenance cost by reducing or eradicating downtime
Cons
- Requires automated testing cases to avoid longer processing times
- Massive amount of re-testing scenarios may be necessary
- Need to build customized test cases as per required scenarios
Understanding the pros and cons is one thing, but the execution of regression tests and the challenges that come along with it is another.
Challenges of Regression Testing
1. Cost & time factor
The business aspect of the challenge in regression testing involves investment in resources and efforts. Furthermore, conducting the same tests, again and again, may be expensive. It is also time-consuming, and your resources are consumed for a specific period, which may impact the entire testing budget.
Solution:
The best solution to this problem is to automate regression testing. With the automation of specific repetitive test cases, you can save valuable time and resources. Here, prioritizing tests based on functional requirements is also essential. It will improve the productivity of test cycles. An efficient test cycle will help you optimize the total investment costs and resources used.
2. The value problem
Regression testing ensures that no bugs go unnoticed. Yet, several businesses think otherwise about the value this testing approach can offer. Some of the questions you may find yourself asking are:
- Why do we need to test the same features again?
- Why not develop new features instead of spending on regression testing?
- What is the priority level for regression testing, among other activities in my software development lifecycle?
Such questions demand justification from the testing teams as well as the core features that take priority in your software. Moreover, if regression testing is not planned well, it may lead to the project being shelved as well.
Solution:
Educate the development and the testing team on why regression testing is essential for early discovery of bugs. For this, you need to share different scenarios of software failures with the team to emphasize on why early discovery is a smart decision.
For example, you can develop a scenario-based cost analysis that showcases how each bug failure can increase expenses regarding the development lifecycle. This would also help the entire project team to understand why regression testing is essential and its respective RoI.
3. Lack of clarity
Regression testing needs a clear definition of goals and metrics, and if not defined correctly, it can lead to increased costs. The major challenge is to create a comprehensive document of pre-defined metrics.
Solution:
Before creating a comprehensive document for different regression testing metrics, you must understand the impact each metric may have. Here are some to keep in mind:
Code percentage helps to determine the rate of code changes and their impact on the software.
Cyclomatic complexity allows you to determine the multifaceted nature of software, especially for white box testing. It helps to assess highly risky bugs.
Test Pass percentage helps to understand the average number of tests passed during the testing process.
Conclusion
Regression testing is not the only type of test that you may need to undertake. You need to answer different questions like why regression testing takes priority and what resources does it require? Such questions may pose a challenge for the testing team. However, you can overcome such challenges by implementing the right regression testing strategy.
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