Regression testing is usually carried out to confirm that program or code change does not adversely affect the performance of the existing features. Here, there is a full or partial selection of the already executed test cases to check their existing functionalities. Test coverage determines whether the executed test cases covered the application code and the amount of code exercised when you run the test cases.
Most of the tests are carried out through automated testing. In this case, a special testing software tool is used to execute the test case suites. There are many reasons why automated testing is used over manual testing.
Automated testing is not only a cost-saving method but also a process that leads to fast development and delivery of the regression results. It’s easier to run repetitive tasks with automated tools, which leads to better results. There are several types of automation testing used to improve the overall performance of the software application. They include functional testing, regression testing, unit testing, and smoke testing.
Here are different ways automated testing speeds up regression testing:
Speeds up regression suite building
To perform regression testing faster, you must first build a regression suite. That’s an overview of the software’s disparate functionalities and what you want to test. Regression suite is also referred to as test scenarios. Machine learning tools are designed to quickly learn the features of the system you are testing and determine the necessary actions that must be taken.
This process is usually done faster compared to when using a manual approach. It will take a lot of time to analyze different functionalities and decide on the necessary actions that must be taken. That’s why it’s vital to use automated tools to create test cases faster and efficiently from the existing test cases.
You can easily select a testing approach
The only way to be sure that you have selected the proper testing approach is if you know the requirements of your system well. This means that you must do a lot of analysis of the results from different functionalities. On the other hand, you have to determine which regression tasks should be automated. How easily you will land on the testing approach depends on how efficiently you automate your processes.
With automated testing, you can easily identify the right testing approach and avoid wasting a lot of time on issues that aren’t beneficial. In this case, you have to ensure that you fully understand the processes involved in regression testing to reap maximum benefits. The robots will check exactly what you have asked them to. Nothing more or nothing less.
Helps decide the frequency of test runs
Deciding on the frequency of the test runs is key to speeding up your regression testing process. Once you have finished building your test scenarios, you need to decide on the frequency of the test runs. To decide on this, you have to consider how often the code has been changed.
That means that regression testing should only be performed when a change is made to the code. If the software is large enough, automation will save you time. As a result, you can often run the tests whenever you make changes to the code. It can either be on-demand or scheduled automated test cases.
Apart from speeding up the regression testing process, there are still several ways through which automation increases test coverage. And these ways include.
Defining metrics for test coverage
It’s possible to develop metrics for defining good test coverage with automation. In most cases, QA engineers use a formula that presents the test coverage as the ratio of features you are testing to the total number of features. Sometimes, it can be the lines of the code you are testing to the total lines of code. It all depends on the goal of the testing process.
Even though maintaining 100% test coverage is challenging, defining the coverage metrics helps create time for more test cases. The number of the test cases executed tells you whether you are focusing on essential parts and how the testing will contribute to productivity.
Priority mapping
Priority mapping is very vital in every test coverage process. You can map all the features and test scenarios and rank them by their priority through automated testing. Here, you have to identify the common user scenarios and start with them. That means that the most heavily trafficked paths should be prioritized.
This helps determine the number of test cases you will cover in a day to increase the test coverage. To carry out effective priority mapping, all the QA engineers should actively participate in the process.
Limits the number of errors
Automation removes human error from the test execution process. This gives the QA engineers more confidence in the test results. If you limit the number of errors, you will likely cover more test cases.
This is because you don’t have to waste time trying to correct errors committed while testing. Changing these errors takes time, especially if you have to check each line to ascertain that the code is correct. With automated testing, you can run as many test cases as possible and be assured that the chances of error occurrence are very low.
