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9 Strategies To Improve Your Regression Testing In Agile

Updated: Jul 3, 2023


Kazeem Razaq @K.Razaq / 6:00 PM EDT. August 5, 2022.



Regression testing in Agile is an important part of the software development process. It ensures that your software meets change requirements and has a steady performance throughout the application lifecycle. Although testing is a common practice, there are many things that you can learn about regression testing to better improve its value to your organization.


Are you looking for ways to improve your regression testing and delivery in Agile?

If you're looking for ways to improve your regression testing and delivery in Agile, then this article is for you. I've put together nine strategies that can be put into practice today; so that you can start getting the most out of your testing process. As always, I'll be presenting these strategies from a practical standpoint. Yes, I know that some may already be familiar with each one, but just as importantly hopefully after reading through this article – everyone will also have a better idea of how to implement these techniques into their Agile Development Process.


You're working in an Agile team. You need to create some effective regression tests, right? You've been given a lot of different strategies and tips, but they all seem pretty confusing. How do you understand all this information that's going to help your team? It's not as easy as it seems. But don't worry, I'm here to help you! Here are nine strategies that will help improve the process of creating regression tests in your Agile project.


It's no secret that the software development life cycle, especially Agile, is all about continuous improvement. The Agile process emphasizes the need for frequent, fast feedback by testing the product often. And since test coverage can be a challenge to improve in large projects, regression testing is crucial for any large-scale software development company.


The quality of your software is one of the key success factors for any business. It’s important to perform regression testing in the Agile development process to ensure that your changes don’t break existing functionality.


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What is regression testing?


Regression testing is the process of testing a new release of software to ensure that it does not break any previously working features. It's a type of software testing that is used to verify that new code changes have not broken any previously working features.

Regression testers are responsible for finding bugs in the old versions and fixing them before they can be found by other types of testers who might be more focused on finding new bugs or new features (or even just doing exploratory work).


1. Why do you need to perform a regression test?

Here are a few reasons why you may need to perform a regression test:

  • Regression testing is the process of verifying that a software product continues to function properly after an update or change.

  • It helps you avoid bugs being introduced in new releases, and can be used to identify if a new feature is working as expected and whether it has been fully integrated into the codebase.

  • Regression testing also helps you identify any issues that may have been missed during development, including those caused by changes to hardware or software configuration during testing (e.g., when using different operating systems).

2. How do you prepare a complete list of test cases for regression testing?


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When you are ready to perform regression testing, the first thing that you need to do is write down all the test cases that were performed before. This will help in identifying which ones have been changed and if there are any errors left behind from previous versions of your software.

Then, you should also decide on what kind of tests should be performed again as well as which ones are not needed anymore because they were already fixed in previous releases. It’s best if these changes can be made without breaking existing functionality so that there isn't any risk of causing problems with other parts of your application when implementing them!


Finally, put together a list with all possible inputs or values for each test case so it's easy for developers who work on different branches throughout development cycles (or even across multiple teams within one organization).


4. What types of regression tests are performed in Agile?


The type of regression test you perform depends on the level of risk involved in your application. For example, if you’re shipping an application with a new feature and you want to be sure that it works as expected, then sanity testing is the best option for your team. However, if there are major bugs or issues with any part of the code base (and this could happen), then branch testing may be more appropriate since it can identify problems at different levels (e.g., branches) within an application or even outside its boundaries altogether.


There are several other types of regression tests as well: smoke tests are performed before each release; branch testers focus on specific parts within existing branches while re-testers look at older versions themselves rather than just their effects on other parts/branches etc.



5. Regression Testing Strategies


Regression testing is the process of testing a new build to ensure that it has not broken any existing functionality. This allows you to make sure that your code is working as expected, and if it isn't, find out why and fix it.


Regression testing can be very time-consuming if done manually, but there are many tools available today that can help automate this process so you don't have to worry about maintaining a huge amount of manual tasks every time an update is made in your project or organization.


6. Sanity Testing Strategy


Sanity testing is a type of testing in which we check if the application is working as expected. This means that we need to work on our understanding of what makes an application good and bad so that when something goes wrong it can be identified quickly and efficiently.

7. Smoke testing strategy

Smoke testing is a type of software testing that is used to detect gross violations of functional requirements. It's the first phase in an Agile development process, and it's performed at the end of the development process.

When you smoke test, you're testing your code for bugs as if it was running in production. You don't have to worry about any special requirements or features; instead, all you need is some test data (such as users' input), which can be generated quickly using tools like Selenium WebDriver or Capybara.

Smoke testing can be useful because it allows developers to quickly identify issues with their code before they get into production environments where they'll affect customers' experience negatively—and without involving testers who might be busy elsewhere on another project.


8. Branch Testing strategy


Branch Testing is a test strategy used to execute tests in small increments or branches. It allows you to test specific features of an application without having to run all the branches of an application at once.

In Agile environments, there are two types of Branch Tests:

  • Feature Test: Tests the feature itself by using its own data set and parameters

  • Integration Test: Uses data from other packages (or other versions)

9. Re-testing Strategy


One of the most common ways to improve your regression testing is by using a re-testing strategy. A re-testing strategy is also known as a re-execution strategy because it’s similar to how a software developer works on his project. The main difference between these two approaches is that in Agile teams, there are no deadlines for delivering new features or bug fixes (you can deliver them any time). This means that you need some other way of making sure that everything works as expected when you release new builds!

During my time working with different companies around the world I have seen many different ways of approaching this problem and here are some tips for how you can improve upon them:


Regression testing is essential for maintaining the quality of your code. It’s a way to ensure that new changes to the code do not break existing functionality, as well as ensure that it is still working as expected and functioning as expected after every change.


Regression testing can be done manually or automatically, depending on how much time you have available on your hands. If you are using a manual process then there are some steps involved in doing this:

  • Define what you want to test by writing down scenarios (elements) and conditions (ways they could occur). This will help with narrowing down what needs testing later on when determining which tests need running first so everyone else knows where they stand in relation to each other!


In this article, we have explored the different strategies for regression testing in Agile. We hope that you will find our suggestions useful and will take advantage of them to improve your quality assurance process.


If you're already practising Agile or lean development, and if you're tired of the bugs in your software, then it's time for you to consider selecting some of these options. The practices laid out here aren't necessarily required for Agile and lean teams; they may not even be right for your specific project right now. But what they do provide is a way to systematically address some of the big issues that Agile teams often face.


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