Application development market has progressed a lot and evolved with the changing times. For instance, during the early years of the app development market, the apps were quite basic and didn’t pose many obstacles in the path of development. However, to maintain the stand in the competitive app development market, the apps started to evolve. For instance, a modern app can perform multiple tasks at the same time. The basic structure of the applications has also changed to keep up with the rising demands of the end users.
All these changes have complicated the code base and resulted in frequent bugs and errors. Therefore, the testing process which was previously ignored has now become one of the internal parts of the application lifecycle. Regression testing is one such important part of the testing phase that ensures proper functioning of an application. As you can see, if regression testing has to be carried out manually, it defeats the whole purpose of regression testing. This is because manual testing is prone to errors and consumes more time. Additionally, doing the same set of tests repeatedly can be very mundane. Therefore,automation testing can be beneficial.
In this article, we will discuss everything that you need to know about regression testing. We will also discuss some of the best tools that can help the developers to efficiently perform regression test cases.
The basics of Regression Testing
The modern applications go through a lot of updating process. These updating processes ensured that the application stands up to the demands of the end users and also can compete with the modern times. The developers accomplish this goal by constantly adding new features and polishing the old ones. One of the common errors that can arise while updating an application is an active conflict between the older and new features. This means that certain existing functions of an application can refuse to work completely as being incompatible with the new ones. Due to this error, there might be various malfunctioning in the application, and it might crash completely in a worst-case scenario. Regression testing aims to solve this error by verifying the performance of the functional and nonfunctional aspects of an application after a new build or a change.
Regression testing comes under the category of repetitive test cases that needs to be conducted frequently after every minor change in the application code base. Therefore, it is a good idea for companies to introduce automation testing in regression codebase. Using test automation, the developers can automatically execute the test cases with the help of predetermined automated test cases. Automation testing helps to eliminate the hassle of conducting repetitive test cases from a human tester. Instead, the developers can focus on adding new innovative features to the application that can help to improve the end user satisfaction. However, the developers must remember that it is quite an expensive process to introduce automation testing. Therefore, it is very important to consider whether your business perspective can sustain the expenses of test automation.
Advantages of Using Regression Testing
Other than performing functional test cases, regression testing can also help the developers to ensure the stability of the application at every stage of the application development lifecycle. regression test cases can also help the DevOps teams to ensure that none of the new additions to the application break the basic functioning of the code structure. Let us discuss some of the major benefits of using regression testing:
- Regression testing has a massive role in improving the overall productivity of the application. This is because it helps to maintain a smooth business operation for the company by ensuring the application is functional at all times.
- Developers can also introduce regression testing during integration test cases. Using this process, the application testers can ensure that there aren’t any bugs in the application when two different systems are put together.
- By automating the regression test cases, the developers can massively cut down the test execution phase and also the expenses involved behind the application testing lifecycle.
- Successful regression test cases help to ensure that bugs are detected and removed from the final application at the early stage of the development process. Therefore, we can say that regression testing has a massive role in maintaining the highest level of customer satisfaction index.
- Regression testing helps to ensure that new additions to the code base do not hamper the functioning of the already verified code structure. This means in simple terms regression testing helps to verify the side effects of any changes in the code of the application.
Role of Tools in Regression Testing
Introducing automation testing in regression test cases can be overwhelming for new developers and testers. So, there are multiple tools and platforms currently available to solve and simplify this issue. These tools also provide unique features to improve the quality of the final application. A common issue in the app testing process is the absence of a physical device testing bench. This is because it is very expensive and often unjustifiable for individual developers and small companies. Therefore, certain companies are forced to release a final application by testing its performance only on emulators and simulators.
The best solution to this problem is using cloud integrated platforms in a test bench. These platforms allow the developers to perform test cases on hundreds of devices present on multiple cloud servers. The developers can also access these servers from anywhere in the world. A great example of a cloud-based platform for automation testing is LambdaTest. In this article, we will discuss some of the best tools and platforms for performing automated regression testing in 2023. These Tools help the companies to save a lot of time and resources by automatically executing the regression test cases
- Selenium
Selenium is a framework to introduce automated testing on web applications. Using this framework, the developers can ensure that all the components of a web application is working as expected. Selenium is a test suite consisting of multiple different tools like the integrated development environment, WebDriver, remote controller and Selenium grid.
Selenium helps the developers to write the automated test cases in popular programming languages like JavaScript, Python and Ruby. The developers can also integrate other tools and platforms to further elevate the functioning of selenium test cases. Let us understand how the addition of LambdaTest can help to improve the execution of automated test cases with Selenium. Since Its initial release in 2004, Selenium has managed to maintain a top position in the application development market for almost a decade now.
LambdaTest is a cloud platform that helps the developers to ensure that the modern web and mobile applications stand to the cross-browser compatibility standards. Cross browser compatibility test cases ensures that the application maintains its peak performance irrespective of multiple changes in browser version, device hardware specifications or the operating system.
This is important as the modern browser industry consists of a diverse set of multiple devices. Using LambdaTest, the developers can execute the Selenium test cases on more than 3000 different browsers. The cloud platform of LambdaTest helps the developers to verify the functioning of the web application on hundreds of real devices.
LambdaTest helps the developers to run parallel test cases. Parallel test cases facilitate the execution of different testing configurations simultaneously. Using this feature, the developers can speed up the overall testing period by almost 15 times. Using this platform, the developers can also ensure that all local web pages are functioning properly.
- Subject7
Using Subject7, the developers can conduct all different types of automation test cases on a cloud-based platform. This platform helps to simplify the test cases to ensure that even a beginner in the software testing industry can become an automation expert. The simple user interface helps the developers to quickly create highly sophisticated regression test cases. The single line codebase helps the developers to execute the final Test script on thousands of different testing configurations in a short time. The simplicity of the platform helps even the developers from a non-technical background to use it smoothly. It also helps the developers to initiate parallel testing on their test cases. It provides soc 2 type 2 certified business practices that ensure that all the test cases go through an enterprise level security for storing sensitive user data.
- Cerberus Testing
Cerberus testing is a completely open-source test automation platform. Using this platform, the developers can test the functioning of mobile API desktop and database applications. The open-source nature ensures that all developers can access its features without paying any form of license fee. It provides an easy-to-use cloud-based development platform that does not require any programming knowledge to use and access. The automated test cases developed with Cerberus testing are accessible by all the teams involved in the application development lifecycle. This means the development quality and business teams can access the test cases to not only execute them but also monitor the progress. This is a very important step towards improving the synchronization between all the teams of a development project.
- Testimony
Testimony is developed by a company known as basic technologies. It is the only cloud-based test automation platform that helps the developers to verify the functioning of SAP applications. It helps to further innovate the typical practices of SAP testing. This is because with this software, the developers do not have to create test cases for initiating the testing process. It also has a unique way for managing all the vital data required for the test cases. After the initial configuration and setup process, the artificial intelligence of this platform can help the developers to automatically configure the regression test cases. It also maintains an up-to-date regression test library that the developers can use as a reference whenever they need it. It minimizes the business risks by testing the application for every minute form of human interaction or business operation.
The Conclusion
In this article, we discussed all the basic information regarding regression testing. We also justified why regression testing is an important process of delivering a stable application to your customers. Using regression test cases, the developers can ensure that you are building a positive image for your brand. We also discussed some of the tools that can help to massively improve the quality of the regression testing process for a developer. However, it is very important for the developers to remember every tool is different and serves a specific purpose. So, it is very important for the regression testers to analyze their requirements and choose the perfect tool accordingly. This process will help them to utilize the full potential of their application test bench. Lastly, it is very important for the app developing companies to spread proper awareness regarding the importance of automated regression test cases.
