A Quick Guide to Regression Testing in DevOps

Introduction

In present cutthroat software development environments, DevOps entrusts smooth cooperation and communication between operations and development teams. Both teams work together by sharing responsibilities to accomplish the ultimate goal, i.e., quick delivery of special software that fulfills emerging customer needs.

Still, in this fast-track quest for developing distinguished software applications quickly, Regression testing ensures that any alterations made in the code won’t affect the application's current performance and that the software application stays bug-free. 

This guide will add value to your efforts in grabbing your dream job in Regression testing, as we’ll be discussing Regression testing and where it fits in DevOps. How conventional software testing work, how to perform Regression testing, its types, what top tools are helpful in Regression testing and much more.

Moreover, joining the online certification courses for Quality Assurance will help expand your QA testing knowledge. 

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What is Regression Testing in DevOps?

It's a software testing technique that reruns well-functioning and non-functioning tests to ensure that your software app works as anticipated after making alterations, updates, revisions, and enhancements or optimizations to the code. Software testing is an essential part of STLC (Software Testing Life Cycle) that enables developers to identify unforeseen errors that might occur because of the changes, improvements, or expansion of existing software code. 

Regression testing in software testing offers complete stability to the application by keeping a tight check on the performance of existing elements. After any new code alterations, Regression testing is an inevitable step to ensure that the application can bear and keep up with regular changes.

Technically speaking, code modifications might result in a change in reliances, consequently resulting in defects or malfunctions in the software application. These types of risks can be reduced by using regional Regression testing. It helps experts to check if the earlier developed and tested code remains functional when any new code or features are added. 

Usually, every software application passes through a sequence of tests before changes become a part of the development, and out of these series of tests, Regression testing comprises the last step. It is accounted for the product's complete behavior.

Additionally, automated Regression testing in software engineering enables product developers to obtain valuable feedback, which can be acknowledged instantly and authorizes code modification. 

You can identify bugs in the SDLC's initial phase, preventing companies from spending on maintenance efforts concerning the time and money required to resolve defects. It has been noticed that the slightest code change can lead to a ripple effect, altering the product’s significant functionalities. Regression testing in software engineering is also necessary for examining the product’s architecture which is vital to evaluate the leading cause of the success and failure of the product.

Where does Regression Testing Fit in DevOps?

Regardless of whether you’re operating a DevOps or Agile software development environment, Regression testing is always carried out after the integration testing and before user testing and implementation to production. There are significant differences between Agile and DevOps methodologies. 

As discussed earlier, Regression testing in software testing plays a significant role in a DevOps work environment. This process takes place in the following steps:

• When product improvements are carried out
•  When you add new patches 
• When you carry out minor changes in the software configuration 
• When you add a new feature leading to code modification
• When any updates are made to the current functionality or a patch fix
• When you perform integration with other apps 
• When code changes are done to upgrade application’s performance

How did Conventional Software Testing Work?

Conventional Software testing isn’t a new concept, but having said that, a traditional software testing environment looks pretty different from a DevOps testing environment.

During the traditional waterfall methodology, software testing seems as follows

• Comprised of only one phase of the life cycle
• Starts when the software is developed completely
• It was a manual and highly error-prone process that required a long time to get completed

The significant difference between them is that software testers used to sit with individual teams,  secluded from the development team. It was challenging to go back and make relevant changes when any bug was discovered during the testing phase. The reason was structural - the specific error cases were clearly defined initially. Under these situations, keeping up with the required standard and quality within the expected timeline was challenging. 

Continue reading to understand the crucial elements of planning Regression testing and the most commonly used interview questions for Regression testing that are important to know by quality experts when preparing for the interview.

Key elements of planning the Regression test in DevOps

After understanding the benefits of DevOps Regression testing, companies must know about critical elements of the Regression test plan for cautious planning of assets and correct channeling of QA efforts.

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How to Perform Regression Testing

Regression testing planning in software testing varies according to organizational needs. Still, a few of the basic steps followed by the testers include

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Regression Testing Process

Step I: Identifying changes in source code

In the first step, all the modifications and optimizations in the source code are identified, which is further followed by identifying changed components and the effect of all of this on the current required features of the product.

Step II: Prioritizing the identified changes & product needs

The second step involves prioritizing all identified product needs and source code modifications by aligning the test processes with relevant tools and test cases.

Step III: Selecting test cases to re-run

In the next step, the test cases which need to be re-run are selected depending on the source code-modified module. At this stage, it's not required to test the complete test module. The post-test and test case selections are classified into reusable and outdated test cases, whereas the reusable codes are finalized for regression testing. On the contrary, obsolete codes are not used in coming testing cycles.

Step IV: Considering test scenarios to evaluate test case execution time

Test case variables, such as test data preparation, regression test designs, etc., are evaluated to determine how they impact the test case execution time.

Step V: Categorizing automated & manual test cases

In this step, test cases are categorized into automated and manual testing cases. Automated test cases are faster than manual test cases managed by humans. Also, the test code can be reused multiple times in the automated test environment. Therefore, classifying the test cases is an essential step in Regression testing in software engineering.

Step VI: Prioritizing test cases

At this stage, assembled test cases are ranked according to their importance - i.e., high, medium, and low. After evaluation, top-priority test cases are assigned priority, succeeded by those of medium and low significance. Primarily, these priorities are assigned depending on the product's utility and user participation.

Priorities are also assigned depending on the following criterion:

• Priority 0: These are significant test cases that cover all essential aspects.
• Priority 1: These elements do not come under the essential category but have a particular significance.
• Priority 2: These are the test cases that take care of technical complexities

Step VII: Scheduling & executing the test cases

In the last stage, every designed test case is independently performed at a suitable, anticipated time to check whether the product performs as intended. At this moment, automated or manual testing can be deployed based on the needs and requirements. Different automated tools, like Selenium, IBM Rational Functional Tester, Watir, etc., can help speed up test case execution.

Different Regression Testing Types

Regression testing has many forms and types, so are you going to choose the one that suits your needs? Think about the software development life cycle because software testing fundamentals and software development are interrelated and particular updates you want to make. Let’s look at some common types of Regression testing techniques

• Corrective Regression Testing: This testing method is used in cases where modifications or updates are not made to the source code. At this point, when you expect to validate the functioning of the existing features, re-use the existing test cases.
• Progressive Regression Testing: This testing method is used when new system components are added to develop new testing environments or test cases. It helps to determine if the updates or changes affect the current components.
• Selective Regression Testing: This testing is used when the selected components must be retested, thus saving the time and resources required for the complete system.

• Partial Regression Testing: This testing is used when modifications, changes, or updates are made to the application’s current source code to ensure that the new programming codes have not been influenced or disrupted by the application’s all-inclusive performance.
• Complete Regression Testing: Complete Regression testing is used for the complete software structure when several updates or changes are added to the source code. This comprehensive testing type is mostly used before launching a product.
• Retest-all Regression Testing: This regression testing type is a comprehensive approach to re-executing every test scenario with the help of all the earlier test cases compared to the last testing outcomes. It also ensures that new modifications in the source code don’t cause troubles in the overall application's performance. 
• Unit Regression Testing: In this testing, units of the source code are separated and then tested without disrupting their dependencies, thus promoting individual code testing.

Top Regression Testing Tools in 2023

As software applications are becoming more and more sophisticated and complex, every business is willing to offer swift UX to target its audience. Consequently, regression in software tools is becoming popular and is increasingly being deployed by different businesses. You can get familiar with different software testing tools by enrolling in online certification courses for quality assurance by JanBask Training.

As stated in Global Market Insights (GMI) August 2023 report, the software testing market was regarded for $40 billion in 2021 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 6

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Benefits of inserting DevOps Regression testing

How often do you update your most commonly used applications? And do important functionalities fail after these updates? This is where Regression testing comes into the picture. Regression testing enables developers to constantly change their software applications without damaging the UX. Moreover, Regression testing in software testing provides the following benefits - 

• When effective Regression testing is embedded in a DevOps environment, it improves the overall product quality and assures an effective UX.
• effective Regression testing eases the development of a stable product since the testing is carried out in sprints.
• Regression testing emphasizes functional weaknesses early in the software development life cycle for quicker resolution.
• Automated Regression testing minimizes re-work, and QA engineers will be free to take up other vital tasks.
• Automated Regression testing in a DevOps environment ensures that the software releases are smooth and effective by reducing the test execution cost and time when optimizing the software application quality.

Best DevOps Regression testing scenarios

In a best DevOps test scenario, one should consider using Regression testing whenever the source code undergoes changes or modifications in one way or the other. We’re discussing some strategies when sanity testing and Regression testing provide an ideal balance between constant development and testing inside a DevOps ecosystem.

When any new functionality is introduced:- Whenever any new functionality is introduced, it's essential to run Regression tests since unexpected compatibility problems are risks. Once the modifications are done, reviewing each source code thread for compatibility is time-consuming. Therefore, it's essential to perform Regression testing to save time by early and quick bug detection. 

When current functionality is updated:- Sudden changes in business strategy can, at times, culminate into a complete revision of the current features of a software application. Concerning this, Regression testing in DevOps allows the software developers to adapt, optimize, or even reexamine the features and make sure to keep the entire application upright.

When debugging the source codebase:- Bugfixes can suddenly create more bugs inside the source code. When debugging the source code inside a DevOps environment, Regression testing assures that fixing bugs does not lead to more issues and ensures that everything is working as expected.

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Conclusion

Present-day digital businesses require faster and more high-quality software releases to provide a great user experience. Hence, providing high-quality products that efficiently meet user expectations is essential, accomplished using software testing right from the product development stage. Embracing efficient regression testing in Agile and DevOps environments assures prompt delivery of high-quality products to the market because all the elements are tested from beginning to end.

Therefore, whether you’re running bug reports or learning software testing, JanBask Training offers a wide range of online QA courses to help you develop smooth software.

FAQs

Q1. What is Regression Testing?

Ans:- Regression testing is a simple method of repeating test cases carried out each time you alter the application’s functionalities- it might be the source code, design, or any other thing associated with the framework. This testing assures that modifications won’t impact or break the application’s functionality. So, each time a new version of a software application is created, the bugs are automatically fixed. 

Q2. How does Regression testing carried out manually or automatically?

Ans:- The most crucial point is that Regression testing can be performed in both ways- manually or automatically. You verify which method suits your project needs the most.

Q3. How to perform Regression testing in software testing?

Ans:- The regression testing process involves repeating a set of test cases in any particular situation. When a software application is small, it can be carried out manually. And as time moves on, the application starts to become complicated, and you need software testing tools to fasten the process. At this time, automated regression testing in software engineering is helpful for document specification.

Q4. What are the steps involved in regression testing?

Ans:- Whenever any changes are made to a software application, the following steps are carried out in the Regression testing -

• First, check what type of modifications are made to the application,
• Then verify how it might affect the application performance.
• Take a close look at the test case and evaluate whether you need to conduct full, partial, or unit regression testing. But don’t forget to verify which regression testing best suits your needs.
• Set the time and start away! 

Q5. Why is Regression testing beneficial for IT industries?

Ans:- At any time when a developer adds a new code to rectify a previous bug, considerable new bugs get introduced simultaneously. Regression testing aims to verify where the new code abides by the older codes. The performance of the application must be according to your expectations. Otherwise, the modifications are rejected immediately.  Because of this, it is essential that Regression testing must get completed on time before the release of the product in the market. 

Q6. To what extent is regression testing required?

Ans:- It depends on the software application’s nature and scope of changes, i.e., when the scope is enormous, it's essential to perform thorough testing, which will take time. The software developer can obtain all the details about the scope, the nature of the applications, and the total number of changes.

Q7. What are the most common types of Regression tests?

Ans:- As discussed earlier, Regression testing has various forms and types - 

• Corrective Regression Testing
• Progressive Regression Testing
• Selective Regression Testing
• Partial Regression Testing
• Complete Regression Testing
• Retest-all Regression Testing,
• Unit Regression Testing

Q8. What is the best time to perform the Regression Testing?

Ans:- Basically, Regression testing in software engineering is performed all around the development process and its continuous process. But, still, the best time to conduct regression testing is after smoke testing or at the end of function testing after a short release.

Q9. How to perform Regression testing in DevOps effectively? 

Ans:-  To effectively perform Regression testing in a DevOps environment, you must create the test plans, including the testing strategy and the exit criterion. The performance testing is carried out later to ensure that the modifications won’t affect the performance of application components. 

Q10. What are the best practices for successful Regression Testing in software testing?

Ans:- Below are some of the best practices to be followed to perform successful Regression testing

• Test cases must run automatically daily in the evening after making the changes to the application.
• Like this, bugs can be identified at an early stage and can be fixed immediately.
• It’ll also minimize the risks related to the product release by resolving all the defects as early as possible at the end of the product release cycle.