Regression testing is a vital and necessary step in software development because it ensures that code changes you make don’t have unintended side effects.
It’s true that regression tests can be conducted manually. However, repetitive tasks are best left to machines which allow developers and testers more time for creative work like resolving complex bugs or creating new features. Automated testing enables you to maintain high-quality software delivery without sacrificing speed while freeing up your team members’ time.
Andrei Mikhailau, Software Testing Director at ScienceSoft details, “Regression testing helps re-validate the existing software functions after changes to software under test have been introduced (e.g., new features or integrations have been added). Thus, regression testing may take up to 70% of all testing efforts, and being monotonous and time-consuming, it is typically the best candidate for test automation.”
The shift from majority manual regression testing to automated regression testing is paramount in agile software development lifecycles. Here are the top reasons why your QA shop should be automating regression tests. Below is a table of contents to skip to the main points:
- Save time & resources
- More automation, less manual testing
- Continuous testing
- Avoid redundancies
- Reduce human errors
- Scalability
- Instant feedback
- Higher test coverage
- Better insights
- Lowers maintenance
Save time & resources
One of the primary advantages of automated regression testing is undeniably resources savings. You can automate verifying specific components in your software and devote more time to fixing other bugs, even manual research on rare circumstances that require special attention. This will provide a better experience for customers with less buggy software!
With the growing demand for new and updated features to be built into the software, there is an increasing need for QA teams. By selecting a no-code test automation technology like Autify instead of skilled programmer-based tools such as Selenium, more time can be saved on setup and maintenance without relying heavily upon developer support. This allows QA teams greater flexibility by flowing around bottlenecks.
More automation, less manual testing
Regression testing can be tedious, repetitive, time-consuming, and laborious. Automation can help to save hours of effort when testing new releases or product upgrades by running a suite of key tests for errors in the software code before they are released into production. This ensures that any change made will not break existing functionality while also reducing chances for human error during development cycles and other phases where regression issues usually occur most often. There’s nothing worse than putting out updates without first checking if there were changes that caused regressions. This could lead to an upset customer base who would have difficulty using your products due to glitches introduced with recent updates. But don’t worry… automation can help catch bugs early.
Continuous testing
“There’s really no such thing as too much testing.”
The automated team can run tests continuously for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week every year. This means that things are constantly being analyzed and tested without any need to wait around or schedule anything by themselves because it happens automatically! You could also set up regression testing so it runs at certain intervals (like weekly) in order to make sure no bugs slip through the cracks. Testers will be able to focus on more valuable tasks while these background checks happen seamlessly behind them.
Continuous regression testing notifies testers of bugs prior to them reaching end users. With visual recordings and logs, detecting and fixing faults is quick. This means that the user won’t be able to suffer from any glitches or crashes they might have encountered on a previous release.
Pieter VanIperen, Managing Partner at PWV Consultants describes, “Software should be tested all the time. The development process can be lengthy, depending on complexity, and testing is how stability and security are determined. There’s really no such thing as too much testing.”
VanIperen continues, “Testing is vital to successful software development. It should be done often, even post-deployment. Software is never truly complete, we just reach the point of ‘done enough’ to satisfy users and provide the needed benefit. But if that software isn’t maintained it will fail and the benefit it provided will disappear. Which could lead to lots of unhappy customers. And no one wants that!”
Avoid redundancies
The automation of repetitive tasks frees up resources otherwise spent on manual tests so they can focus on creative work like determining which features need additional attention or designing new ways for users to interact with a product.
Reduce human errors
“Humans are prone to make mistakes,” says Miranda Yan, Co-Founder of VinPit. “When performing many same-type boring operations, anyone can make a mistake. A tester may decide to skip some tests because they always passed well. It can also be because, in [their] opinion, the modifications of the system have not affected that module of the system. As a result, the test coverage will be severe and insufficient defects may remain undiscovered.” Automation can help reduce human errors. And the future of software is shifting towards reliance on artificial intelligence, not scaling with humans.
Scalability
When testers are overburdened with manual, repetitive tasks they have less time to test and risk overlooking exploratory testing. This means that the tests cannot be as thorough which lowers the quality of a project’s final product.
Autonomous tests may run at a speed and frequency that manual testing just cannot match, meaning quality assurance can be scaled without limitations.
