Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

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.

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 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—when done well—gives software teams the confidence that their entire application works properly after a code change. But doing regression testing manually is time-consuming, costly, and difficult to scale. As their applications grow in complexity, many teams end up having to throw more and more resources into regression testing—hiring more QA specialists and waiting longer for them to complete testing with each release cycle.

Regression testing involves repeatedly evaluating an upgraded web app, software program, or system's existing functionalities as we went through Regression Testing Challenges and Best Practices in a previous post. Testers use it to verify an app's live and new features operate properly. Under regression testing, the quality analyst evaluates current features' functional and non-functional aspects for defects and mistakes.

In a world where technological advances are made on a daily basis, software products are often affected by routine updates. While updating software is necessary for all businesses, it can introduce a slew of bugs into applications and websites. If these software bugs are not thoroughly tested, validated, and fixed, they could end up costing the company a lot of money in production. User interface (UI) and visual bugs in software products are often disregarded due to the focus on functional testing.