10 Benefits of Automated Regression Testing

Regression testing can be downright boring. You have to continually go back through your existing code just to see if something broke after new releases. Most of the time, you won’t run into any bugs, which makes this process even more tedious.

Luckily, regression testing can be automated, which frees you from the monotony and delivers many benefits.

Scale Your Regression Testing

One of the worst parts of regression testing is that as your application grows, you’ll have to run more tests on increasingly complex code. It doesn’t take long to reach a point where you spend most of your time and resources on double-checking existing features, or you de-prioritize regression tests in favor of others.

Automated regression testing makes it possible to scale your testing efforts and test as often as you should to ensure high quality software releases.

Standardize Regression Tests

Do you run into problems where you can’t repeat the results of a regression test because you’re not sure of the tester’s process? If everyone has their own testing method, it becomes challenging to determine whether the right things are being tested.

A lack of consistency can lead to bugs being overlooked, which can lead to development and software quality issues.

Automated regression tests are performed exactly as you program them, so consistency is built into the process. You know exactly what type of regression test is used, the code that’s tested, and the scripts used. When you encounter bugs, you won’t have to question whether human error played a part in the result.

Learn More About Regression Test Results

Your automated regression testing solution can create a comprehensive report that gives you all the information you need to know to quickly identify and correct bugs. You can configure your test reports so that they deliver the most essential information so you don’t have to waste time digging through extraneous data. As your application grows, you can adjust these reports to accommodate for new data that helps you understand the state of the software when bugs occur.

Reuse Your Test Cases

Creating regression test cases requires a great deal of work and specialized skill sets. It’s not efficient to create new test cases for each round of regression testing, especially if you have new releases on a continual basis.

Automated regression testing reuses your test cases so you maximize your investment and make the best use of your testers’ time.

Streamline Test Case Maintenance

Managing test cases and ensuring that they remain effective is another time-consuming part of regression testing. As your application changes, your test cases may no longer be effective at identifying bugs.

With automated regression testing, your testers no longer need to go through manual processes, so they have enough time to monitor and maintain test cases.

Improve Test Coverage

Another area that improves when testers have more time is test coverage. Since your test cases are reusable with automated regression testing, testers can create more tests. As your test coverage improves, your AppDev team is more likely to pick up unexpected bugs that were introduced by the latest code changes. In addition to the automated testing, your testers gain more opportunities to perform manual exploratory tests and other out of the box options.

Accelerate Application Deployment Speed

Agile software development is a necessity for many organizations, but rapid development doesn’t mean much if the applications are filled with bugs. You need the right combination of deployment speed and application quality to make this methodology work.

Automated regression testing runs 24x7x365, so it’s capable of running through its test suite as soon as the developers release new code. It eliminates one major development roadblock, allowing you to innovate at a fast pace.

Create Higher Quality Applications

Manual regression testing has a way of being put on the back burner. If the developers are responsible for regression testing, they may not have the time to do it as often as they should. The developers also lack the testing background to truly go through effective regression tests, as that’s not within their core competencies.

If testers have to handle manual regression testing, they can struggle with the time commitment and the repetitive work. They may not perform tests at the right frequency, or use test cases that fail to meet test coverage requirements.

Automated regression testing catches bugs that would be overlooked in these two scenarios, resulting in higher quality applications that are safe, secure, and reliable for users.

Begin Testing Earlier in Development

Since automated regression testing does not require manual input, you can implement it early on in the development process. By putting these tests in place right from the start, you pick up on bugs before they lead to cascading issues multiple releases down the line. Small bugs don’t snowball into catastrophic issues that impact the project’s schedule or its quality.

Happier and More Productive Developers and Testers

Regression testing is necessary for high-quality software development, but that doesn’t mean it’s the most exciting process to perform manually. If you have frequent releases, your team will need to go through this testing constantly, taking up the bulk of their time. If they have other responsibilities regression testing quickly becomes overwhelming.

Automating the regression testing process allows developers and testers to focus on high-value tasks that are an intellectual challenge. They get to focus on problem-solving rather than running the same battery of tests at every little application change. The AppDev team ends up being more fulfilled and productive.

Automated regression testing is one of the best things you can adopt to support your AppDev team. Learn more about these tests by downloading our white paper, The Key to Accelerating Your Pace of Innovation – Automated Regression Testing.