Regression Testing, unfortunately, accounts for nearly 80% of a tester’s daily job. There are many various ways for engineers to deal with this daily routine, but the process can get time-consuming and tedious at some point. Regression testing is undoubtedly the least pleasurable aspect of any software testing engineer’s work. As a result, a tester’s sight becomes less sharp. They lose interest during the process, resulting in a decrease in the quality of their work.
So, how do testers cope with such a difficult task? How can they keep the process exciting while avoiding the negative impacts of daily regression testing? In this post, I’d like to discuss with you a few tactics and methods that our software testing teams at TestDel utilize to make regression testing fun and keep our workdays from getting tedious and exhausting.
Regression testing is a type of testing that is done using procedures and test cases that have already been created. Generally, such documentation is written using either specialized tools like TestRail, Jira plugins, or Google Sheets. To develop and manage testing documentation, we at TestDel, for example, employ a hybrid approach.
However, irrespective of the techniques you utilize, there is another element to how you can keep your regression testing as effective as possible while also ensuring the highest quality of the output. Let’s look more closely at how to use checklists to properly organize the tasks:
- Update the regression checklist on a regular basis.
- Alter the testing environment.
- Exploratory testing can help to improve Regression testing.
- Bring in new people to help with the project.
Let’s discuss them in brief:
I. Update the Checklist on a Regular Basis
We utilize low-level checklists for daily regression testing on certain modules, checklists that were developed about a year earlier depending on the requirements and prototypes. But, as requirements change and additional innovations are introduced to the product, we keep these checklists up to date throughout the development phase. This indicates that we can take breaks from regression testing by upgrading our documentation on a regular basis. This not only prevents regression testing from becoming a terrible job, but it also allows us to enhance and alter some tests to prevent the bug dilemma.
II. Alter the Testing Environment
Daily testing in the same test environment can become a tedious duty that is filled without motivation and tunnel vision. You should always use the opportunity to modify the environment and test on various platforms, browsers, and systems to keep your quality assurance team focused. For instance, today you perform regression testing on the Windows platform using the Google Chrome browser, tomorrow you test on an iPhone, and the next day you work on a Mac. This method will assist you in identifying bugs that are specific to existing platforms, browsers, and devices. Moreover, because your testers are understanding the technical features of a particular test environment at the same time, they do not tired during the testing process.
III. Exploratory Testing can help you Improve your Regression Testing.
Why not use the chance to advance your boundaries with certain exploratory testing if you’re running the same tests regularly from the same checklist you already know intimately? Our team frequently incorporates Dr. James A. Whittaker’s Exploratory Testing Trips into the regression testing process to make it much more engaging and effective. This technique will not only make things interesting a little, but it will also allow your team to look at these test cases from a different point of view, going further than the limits of the checklist. Such steps can sometimes assist in the improvement of lengthy test cases and the effective detection of problems with expected results in both the checklists and the program under the test. By including exploratory testing into your regression testing process, you may prevent your testing team from becoming stuck in a track of repeating the same, lengthy daily tests.
IV. Bring in New People to help with the Project
At TestDel, we frequently have new personnel joining our projects for onboarding. They learn about the features of the product being tested, the technology we utilize on the assignment, and our processes. This is a wonderful chance for us to include them in the regression testing process. The checklists and the software we’re testing are being seen for the first time by such new staff. They also have a series of doubts to answer. This is fantastic for the project! Assisting your new testers in finding answers provides an exceptional possibility to spot mistakes and inefficiencies in your checklists that you might have missed due to monotonous repeating over the long-term project. New employees can assist you in identifying a test that is no longer valid on the checklist. As an example, suppose the functionality was changed but the test was not.
They can also assist you in identifying excessively complex test cases—those that generate too many explanatory queries and could utilize some simplification. Finally, throughout the testing, fresh engineers on the project might uncover additional cases, giving you the critical data to add to your checklist. The same is true for finding flaws that haven’t been discovered using existing test cases.
Conclusion
The above-listed techniques are complete and comprehensive, so you could use them to maintain your regression testing routine at its highest level of efficiency, and these simple tricks sure do work tremendously for your software testing teams.
Software testing engineers constantly follow the rules, procedures, and logic that assure the highest quality results, whether they’re testing or updating documentation. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be creative with your processes to make them less monotonous.
TestDel expert Quality Assurance team is dedicated to streamlining the deployment process. We’ve helped many customers spanning diverse industries for preparing and executing regression tests. Contact us to find out more.