How To Perform Regression Testing In Mobile Apps?

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

Keeping in mind the mobile-first approach, organizations are developing mobile apps keeping this in mind. Regression testing has become an important part of testing new mobile apps, and it ensures that no breakage of functionalities takes place when an app is used by different mobile devices. If you are launching a new app, regression testing allows you to fix bugs in your mobile app.

This blog will discuss key 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 reviewing the definition of ‘regression’ first. Regression is a phenomenon where any changes to a mobile app cause defects or crashes of existing functionalities. The purpose of regression testing is to ensure and check that the system has not regressed or backtracked because of the new changes.

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 ensure that the user experience is optimized after introducing any new feature. It is one of the processes that can ensure the success of your mobile app.

Regression testing is an important part of the software development cycle. It easily helps testers to 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 easily check functionalities 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.

Things To Consider While Developing A Regression Testing Plan For Mobile Apps?

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

1. 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 defined as the conditions that must be satisfied before a test is executed. In contrast, existing criteria are the conditions that must be fulfilled to consider a test to be complete. Entry criteria ensure that a test is run under appropriate conditions. The exit criteria ensure a comprehensive assessment of the functionality of the mobile app. The following conditions should be agreed upon during the test planning period:

•       All the tests should be executed
•       All bugs that hamper functionality should be fixed and tested
•       The required code coverage limit should be met

2. Manual testing of the mobile app

The regression testing process should also focus on manual testing of the mobile app. The test case scenarios should be developed based on recent changes in the mobile app. In addition, the testing team should be familiar with the functionalities of the mobile app to prevent unnecessary test case scenarios.

3. Proper analysis of bug reports

Current regression testing tools are integrated with bug-tracking tools. Such tools are useful in creating a properly documented bug report. It enables testers to easily capture and integrate screenshots of the defect. 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 important as the process is time-consuming, and when it is not executed in a proper manner, there is a chance of missing some defects. It may create inefficiencies in regression testing.

4. 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.

5. Work on critical app flows

Providing optimal user experience is important when adding new features to a mobile app. While performing regression testing, testers should ensure analyzing the end-user app journey. The end-user app journey is the critical app flow that 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 the capabilities of regression testing 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 of the fundamental steps of performing regression testing are the same. The list of steps is as follows:

A. Identify source code changes

In this step, all the source code changes or the modification to be done are identified. It is followed by an analysis of the overall impact of the new feature or change components on the existing features of the app.  

B. Prioritize changes and product requirements

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

C. Select test-cased that should be re-run

In this step, the entire test suite is not tested. Instead, the test cases to rerun are selected based on the source-code-modified module. After selecting the test cases, they are categorized into reusable and obsolete test cases. Then, the reusable one is segregated for regression testing. In addition, the obsolete ones are not considered for testing.

D. Consider test scenarios to finalize test-case execution time

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

E. Categorize manual and automated test cases

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

F. Prioritize test cases

The aim of this stage is 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:

• Priority 0 for test cases covering all essential features
• Priority 1 for those features that are not under the essential category
• Priority 2 for test cases that deal with technical complexities

G. Develop a schedule and execute test cases

The final step is to ensure that each test is conducted at its scheduled time. It enables the tester to ensure that the products are performing as per expectation. At this stage, either manual or automated testing can be used depending on the needs and requirements. Some of the automated tools that can help you in executing 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 challenges 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 easy and efficient. The extra time can be utilized by testers for exploratory tests and working on user experience.
• Try to maintain a regularly revised regression pack, as it can help in integrating random or ad-hoc tests.
• 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 single build; it should be done only when needed.
• Conduct repeat test cases to promote authenticity.

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

Conclusion  

To summarize, regression testing is a useful tool to identify bugs and fix 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 due to any update or changes in the code.

The blog post discussed key steps to consider while proceeding with regression testing. Some of these considerations were developing entry and exit criteria, analyzing bug reports, working on manual testing, ensuring automated regression testing, and working on critical app flows. These steps can further enhance the quality of regression testing.

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