What Is Automated Regression Testing And How Does It Work?
What is Automated Regression Testing?
Automated regression testing is a type of software testing that uses special software tools to control the execution of tests and compares actual outcomes with predicted outcomes. Automation test tools are used to automate the regression test cases
Automated regression testing is a type of software testing that uses special software tools to control the execution of tests and compares actual outcomes with predicted outcomes. Automation test tools are used to automate the regression test cases.
Regression testing is a testing technique that is performed on modified/enhanced software products to ensure that the modifications/enhancements that have been made in the product do not affect the existing functionality of the product. It makes sure that existing bugs are not re-introduced into already tested code due to changes made by programmers. Regression testing can be applied both in manual and automated testing.
Why Do We Need Regression Testing?
The software changes over time, and we need to be sure that existing functionality doesn’t break when we add new features or fix bugs. This is especially important for large applications, where a change to one module might have an unexpected impact on another part of the application.
In this article, we’ll explore how to perform regression testing using Selenium Webdriver, which is a tool for automating browsers for the purposes of web application testing. We’ll also use Java as the programming language and JUnit as the unit testing framework.
Automated Regression Testing Best Practices:
Regression testing is a type of software testing that ensures previous software functionality still works after new software changes or updates are made.
Automated regression testing can be particularly useful for teams that have frequent releases or need to make sure their product works across multiple platforms, devices, and browsers.
Here’s a look at some best practices for automated regression testing:
Start with unit tests — They are the easiest to develop and the most important. They can be used to catch any bugs introduced during development and help developers fix them faster. In fact, unit tests are often developed before the code is written.
Use a test-driven approach — Test-driven development is an approach where you write code that fails, then write tests against it until it passes. The goal is not to write code that passes your tests, but rather to write code that satisfies specific requirements. If you’re using TDD, create your first test while your code is in its most broken state and build from there, adding features one at a time until you reach a working version of your application.
Practice continuous integration — Continuous integration makes sure changes made by developers integrate with what already exists in the main repository without breaking anything else. This helps prevent bugs from being released into production and saves hours of troubleshooting
Here are some of the benefits of automated regression testing:
Productivity. Automated regression testing will save time and effort. Once an automated test has been created, it can be run repeatedly. Developers don’t have to work out new test cases or write them down in a test script. This also allows developers to focus on writing new code rather than re-testing old code.
Improved software quality. Automated regression testing identifies defects quickly, meaning that there’s less chance of them being missed. Also, it makes sure that no new defects are introduced into existing code, which can happen when making changes to an application.
Cost-effectiveness. Automated regression testing is more cost-effective over time because it can be run over and over again without human intervention. It also helps improve software quality and productivity, which means a higher return on investment (ROI) for your company.
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Advantages of automation testing:
There are several advantages to test automation. Some of the more compelling reasons to consider automation testing are:
Time savings. Automated testing can increase the depth and scope of tests to help improve software quality. Lengthy tests that are often avoided during manual testing can be run unattended. They can even be run on multiple computers with different configurations.
Improved accuracy. Even the most experienced testers can make mistakes when running tests manually. Automated testing can help eliminate such errors caused by tiredness, distraction or other factors.
Increased coverage. Automated testing tools allow you to cover more scenarios, without spending more time, because you’re not running the same test cases over and over again. This helps you increase your coverage, so you can find more bugs and regressions sooner. Moreover, some automated software lets you parallelize test suites across multiple machines, which means you can execute several tests at once and complete your regression faster than ever before.
Faster test execution. Automated tests don’t need a tester’s intervention in order to be executed; they run unattended, which is a great advantage for teams practicing continuous integration (CI). Running automated tests on a regular basis also ensures that teams deliver
There are also some disadvantages of automation testing. A few of them are:
– The cost of the automation tool and the initial time spent setting it up is more than the cost and time in manual testing.
– If new functionality is added to the application, then automation scripts need to be changed.
– Automation cannot replace human intelligence. It can only replicate actions, but it can’t think like a human.