An Easy Guide To Master Regression Testing For Mobile Applications

With the rise in digital transformation, people are now actively using mobile devices and apps to achieve their goals.

Organizations are developing mobile apps with the mobile-first approach in mind. Regression testing has become an essential part of testing new mobile apps, and it ensures that no breakage of functionalities occurs when different mobile devices use an app.

If you are launching a new app, regression testing allows you to fix bugs in your mobile app.

This blog will discuss critical considerations while performing regression testing and provide insight into the steps needed to perform regression testing in mobile apps.

What Is Regression Testing?

Regression testing can be understood by first reviewing the definition of ‘regression.’ Regression is a phenomenon where changes to a mobile app cause defects or crashes of existing functionalities.

The purpose of regression testing is to ensure and check that the new changes are creating any regression and backtracking on the system.

Thus, regression testing is a process that ensures that the system is still functioning after changes or new features have been added to any app.

Its advantage for testers is that they can optimize the user experience after introducing any new feature. It is one of the processes that can ensure the success of your mobile app.

Regression testing is an integral part of the software development cycle. It quickly helps testers detect unexpected faults after any code changes or updates in the app. Hence, performing regression testing can provide stability to your mobile app.

Testers can quickly check functionality post-code changes. It is effective in controlling defects or malfunctions in the mobile app.

During the software development cycle, the software goes through multiple steps, and regression testing is the last step of the cycle. Thus, regression testing allows testers to validate the functionality of the app.

What Are Some Things To Consider When Developing A Regression Testing Plan For Mobile Apps?

You need to consider the following points while performing regression testing:

Developing defect entry and exit criteria

The entry and exit criteria refer to the conditions that must be fulfilled while executing a test. The entry criteria are the conditions that must be satisfied before a test is executed.

In contrast, one must fulfill the existing criteria to consider a test complete. Entry criteria ensure that a test is run under appropriate conditions.

The exit criteria ensure a comprehensive assessment of the mobile app’s functionality. You must agree to the following conditions during the planning period:

• You must execute all the tests.
• All bugs that hamper functionality should be fixed and tested
• You must ensure you have met the code coverage limit.

Manual testing of the mobile app

The regression testing process should also focus on manual testing of the mobile app. You must develop the test case scenarios based on recent changes in the app.

In addition, the testing team should be familiar with the mobile app’s functionalities to prevent unnecessary test case scenarios.

Proper analysis of bug reports

Bug-tracking tools are integrated with current regression testing tools. Such tools help create an adequately documented bug report.

It enables testers to capture and incorporate screenshots of the defect easily. While creating the bug report, the following points should be considered by the tester:

• Avoid making subjective statements and consider sticking to the facts of the defect
• Provide detailed information about the defect to the developer
• Be sure about the exact functionality that has been hampered

Developing effective strategies for regression testing is essential as the process is time-consuming. If you fail to execute it, some defects can be missed. It may create inefficiencies in regression testing.

Ensure improving automated regression testing.

Automated testing is handy when there is less time for manual testing. Some of the best practices can ensure flawless regression testing:

• Try updating the regression testing pack regularly. It can ensure that newly added features are tested, and no obsolete functionalities are tested.
• Performs all tests that are important for the core domain. For example, in a mobile banking app, test case scenarios should check the robustness of the mobile app in terms of security.

Apart from the above best practices, the advantage of automated regression testing is that it can be executed in parallel with manual regression testing. Such features can enhance the productivity of the resource.

Work on critical app flows.

Providing optimal user experience is essential when adding new features to a mobile app. While performing regression testing, testers should ensure that they analyze the end-user app journey. The end-user app journey is the critical app flow an end-user uses to complete the task.

The significance of testing the app on these critical journeys is that it can help identify all malfunctions and ensure smooth completion of testing.

To maximize regression testing capabilities in mobile apps, you can utilize a cloud-based platform like LambdaTest.

This digital experience testing solution offers a vast range of 3000+ real browsers, devices, and OS combinations, perfect for conducting regression testing with

Appium to check the functionality of mobile apps. LambdaTest seamlessly integrates with Appium, enabling the execution of multiple parallel tests simultaneously, leading to faster feedback on code commits and significantly reducing overall execution time.

Related: 5 Best AI/RPA-Enabled Mobile Apps To Manage Your Finance Automatically

Steps To Perform Regression Testing In Mobile Apps?

The regression testing strategies for different organizations may vary depending on the products and offerings. However, some fundamental steps of performing regression testing are the same. The list of steps is as follows:

Identify source code changes

In this step, all the source code changes or modifications are identified. An analysis of the overall impact of the new feature or change components on the app’s existing features follows it.

Prioritize changes and product requirements.

The second step involves prioritizing code and product requirements by prioritizing and aligning the test process with requisite tools.

Select test cases that should be rerun.

In this step, you don’t have to test the entire test suite. Instead, you can select the test cases to rerun on the source-code-modified module. They are categorized as reusable and obsolete ones.

Once categorized, you can segregate the reusable one for regression testing. In addition, the obsolete ones are not considered for testing.

Consider test scenarios to finalize test-case execution time.

All the test case variables, such as regression test design and data preparation, are evaluated at this stage. It is crucial as it helps testers to estimate the test case execution time.

Categorize manual and automated test cases.

The test cases are divided into manual and automated at this stage. The advantage of computerized instances is that they are faster than manual ones and can be used multiple times. For this reason, it is one of the crucial steps in regression testing.

Prioritize test cases

This stage aims to collect all test cases and prioritize their significance based on low, medium, and high ranking. Urgent test cases are given high priority, followed by others. The priority is also decided based on the following criteria:

• You can select Priority 0 for the test cases that cover all the essential features.
• As for those features that are not under the essential category, you can opt for Priority 1.
• Lastly, Priority 2 for test cases that deal with technical complexities

Develop a schedule and execute test cases

The final step is to ensure you have conducted the test cases on time. It enables the tester to ensure that the products perform as expected.

At this stage, the needs and requirements influence either manual or automated testing. Some of the automated tools that can help you execute faster tests are Selenium and Watir.

Best Practices While Performing Regression Testing For Mobile Apps

Regression testing is associated with many challenges or roadblocks as it is time-consuming, expensive, and complex. Following certain best practices can help eliminate the obstacles for testers.

Here are the five best practices that you can follow to perform regression testing:

• Conduct automated regression testing as it makes the process more accessible and efficient. The testers can utilize the extra time can be utilized for exploratory tests and working on user experience.
• Try to maintain a regularly revised regression pack, as it can help integrate random or ad-hoc tests.
• Please pay special attention to high-trafficked paths, as they are the most frequently used cases for mobile apps.
• Don’t run a full regression suite for every build; You must do it only when you need it.
• Conduct repeat test cases to promote authenticity.

Thus, the above practices can help testers to minimize roadblocks during regression testing.

Mobile Regression Testing: Conclusion

To summarize, regression testing is a valuable tool for identifying bugs and fixing them while introducing any features in a mobile app.

It is a critical step of the software development cycle as it helps to test for faults in the mobile app and ensures that the system is not affected by any updates or changes in the code.

The blog post discussed vital steps to consider while proceeding with regression testing. These considerations included developing entry and exit criteria, analyzing bug reports, and working on manual testing.

As a result, it ensures automated regression testing and working on critical app flows. These steps can further enhance the quality of regression testing.

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