Because retesting and regression testing have many similarities, it’s easy to get them mixed up. Both are software testing methods used to maintain the usability of a website or web app, and both involve testing your software repeatedly. Thankfully, there are some key differences between the two that are easy to remember when learning how to distinguish one from the other. Read on for a simple breakdown of retesting vs regression testing, so you never end up confusing them again.

Quality assurance is a crucial differentiator in today's software marketplace. Gartner reports, "48% of software engineering leaders say customer or user satisfaction are among the top three objectives they are measured on." (Source: 2022 Gartner Software Engineering Leaders Role Survey). In essence, software quality directly influences customer satisfaction. A cornerstone in ensuring such quality is regression testing.

Let’s say a developer introduced some changes and 2 days later the team observes that a feature does not work partially. This feature is not related to this developer’s change. However, since it was working fine a day later, all the changes may be reviewed by the manager. The conversation may start with the manager asking a question such as, “Did your changes regress?” To which the developer might agree after analysis or go into debugging mode.

Regression testing is a critical aspect of software testing that ensures the reliability and stability of software systems after changes have been made. As software systems are updated, and new bugs are created, previously functioning features may stop working as intended. If you ask, “What is regression testing” or “How do I use it in my QA strategy,” let’s start here.

Regression testing is a software testing process that involves verifying the functionalities of an application or system after modifications have been made that could impact its performance. Unit testing is a software testing process that involves thoroughly testing individual functions or modules of a program using specialized tools. Unit testing helps testers to catch bugs early in the development process when they can be addressed more efficiently.

Regression Testig has its importance with regards to software maintenance. Its primary goal is to discover bugs across the system that were missed during first rollout of a new feature.

Visual regression testing is a type of regression testing to ensure that no changes to the program adversely affect the Graphical User Interface (GUI). It is also referred to as visual validation testing. Instead of focusing on the functionality of the software, it aims to validate the software’s aesthetic side. Visual regression testing verifies that all visual elements are displayed properly across all available browsers, devices, and platforms.

While ‘Smoke Testing’, ‘Sanity Testing’, and ‘Regression Testing’ are widely practiced in the world of QA, there still exist some misinterpretations or misconceptions around these concepts. For your team to make the most optimal use of the 3 methods, this article will help you to understand and differentiate them from one another.

Regression testing ensures changes to the source code are not causing unexpected issues to the existing system or to see if software functionality has regressed. Visual regression tests focus on how the user will receive the final interface that the user interacts with is essential and ultimately paramount to how web pages are displayed.