The development of agile and DevOps, along with the demand it places on QA teams for faster delivery cycles, are forcing teams to switch from their older development processes to a more streamlined approach. Due to the increasing demand for quicker release cycles and higher application quality, many application development teams are considering implementing flexible practices like regression testing in continuous integration or continuous delivery pipeline to improve their workflow.
In the current DevOps era, numerous organizations are utilizing the DevOps approaches to speed up the time to market with higher-quality releases. The utilization of the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline and DevOps architecture ensures that operations and development teams work together effectively. They work to achieve the end goal, which is to ensure that apps are delivered more quickly and often updated to offer the best user experience and meet the needs of new users.
Changes are inevitable and ongoing with the introduction of the CI/CD process. Any modifications made to the applications have the potential to have an unforeseen effect and have a wider influence on organizations. Regression testing makes sure that any change in the code does not damage the application’s current functions in this fast-paced effort to produce a high-quality application in less time.
Regression testing in a CI/CD pipeline enables teams to push an ongoing flow of application updates into production, which speeds up release cycles, lowers costs, lowers development risks, and improves the quality of the application. Thus Regression testing integrated into CI/CD pipelines and DevOps environments guarantees that the application maintains its bug-free condition even after frequent code changes.
In this article, we will talk about how web application regression testing works in a DevOps environment. Before continuing, it is crucial to comprehend what DevOps regression testing is, why it is crucial, how to conduct it, its different types, different regression testing techniques that fit in with DevOps, and much more. So let’s begin.
DevOps Regression testing
Any application development process must include testing to ensure that everything functions as intended. The functionality of already-existing applications is not compromised, and the addition of new requirements does not introduce additional errors. It allows developers to spot any mistakes that can appear as a result of modifying, expanding, or otherwise altering existing application code.
Regression testing is typically the last step in a set of tests that every application must go through before changes are included in the development process. It accounts for the entire behavior of the application.
Regression testing is a testing method that repeats both successful and failed tests to ensure that an application that has already been built and tested continues to function as intended after being altered or interfaced with new changes. Application improvements, patches, updates, performance adjustments, configuration modifications, and code optimizations are a few examples of changes.
Code changes could lead to a shift in dependencies, which would then cause flaws or malfunctions in the application. Regression testing can be used to lessen this kind of risk. By closely monitoring the performance of the current elements, it provides total stability to the application. Regression testing is a necessary step after any new code adjustments to make sure that the application can endure and maintain frequent changes.
Why is regression testing important in DevOps?
- After a newly introduced feature has been confirmed to be stable, regression testing is the most significant and vital step in the development of any application because it double-checks the entire application’s functionality.
- By ensuring that functionality continues to function as it did before the new modifications are made to the application’s code, effective regression testing integrated into DevOps improves the quality of the application as a whole. This guarantees an excellent user experience.
- Implementing automation regression testing in a DevOps environment ensures faster deployment of the applications to the market in light of the rising need for high-quality applications.
- Early in the application development life cycle, DevOps infrastructure improves risk visibility. After new additions, regression tests the system’s stability.
- Regression testing is becoming increasingly significant in DevOps for application development. As testing is done in sprints, regression testing aids in the development of a stable application.
- Continuous testing is the goal of regression testing. The overall quality and stability of the application are improved via continuous testing.
- By starting regression testing early, the possibility of missing the hidden requirements is reduced.
- For quicker resolution, regression testing assists the team in finding, reporting, and removing bugs at an early stage of application development. Hence, excessive rework is avoided. As a result, the testing team is better able to deliver applications free of bugs and improve the user experience for the built application.
Ideal DevOps Regression testing scenarios
Regression testing is always carried out after integration testing and before user testing and implementation to production, regardless of whether one is working in a DevOps or Agile application development environment. Regression testing should be taken into account whenever the code base is modified or changes in any way in a perfect DevOps environment.
Here are a few situations where regression testing helps a DevOps workflow achieve the ideal balance between continuous development and continuous testing.
- When improvements to the application are made.
- When new patches are added.
- When a configuration modification to the application is made.
- When a new feature is added that requires modifying the code.
- Whenever a patch is fixed or an existing functionality is upgraded.
- When other apps are integrated.
- When code modifications are made to improve an application’s performance.
- During code base modification in the DevOps environment.
In understanding the above-mentioned instances, where regression testing is essential for assuring bug-free deployment, let’s now examine how regression testing fits into a DevOps workflow.
Techniques for regression testing that are compatible with CI/CD and DevOps
Regression testing techniques vary depending on the type of application changes or issue fixes made. Select the one that best meets the testing demand. Let’s examine a few prevalent Regression testing methods.
Regression analysis at the build level
This occurs during the second build of an upcoming release and allows for the compatibility and behavior of a newer version of the application to be verified.
Complete Regression analysis
The entire application is examined during comprehensive regression testing. This thorough testing method aids the testers in undoing any potential modifications made when several updates or source code changes are made.
Testing for partial Regression
This testing is utilized when alterations, revisions, or updates are performed to the application’s present source code. This is to make sure that the new programming codes have not been affected or disrupted by the application’s overall performance,
Unit Regression Testing
Regression testing employs a specific and narrowly focused methodology that allows the testers to test the source code as a single unit by dividing it into smaller units that can then be tested without interfering with their interdependencies.
Retest-all Regression Testing
This form of regression testing takes a thorough approach to re-run each test scenario with the aid of all the earlier test cases in comparison to the results of the previous testing. It also makes sure that any new changes to the source code don’t affect how well the application works as a whole.
Developing a test plan for regression testing in a DevOps environment
An effective DevOps program requires structure and organization. No matter who is directly tasked with running the tests, the testing effort remains the same. Organizations must be aware of the essential components of a regression test plan to carefully organize their resources and direct their QA efforts in the proper direction and ensure that testing is complete and effective. An effective test plan serves several purposes. They are as follows:
Coverage
It is impossible to determine which area of the application needs regression testing without a comprehensive test plan. The number of lines of code, statements, functions, or use pathways can be used to measure coverage. The QA teams should make use of the reports on code coverage that show exactly how much code has been verified by unit tests. This report indicates whether areas of the code need extra testing, although it may assess the effectiveness of tests.
Consistency
It’s crucial to properly test the complete application from beginning to end while conducting regression testing. Making sure that every component of the application has been tested is one aspect of this. The other consideration is to guarantee that the various components of the application are successfully tested using comparable tests and test variables to produce consistent test results.
Thus, maintaining and adhering to a test plan like this speeds up the testing process while ensuring test accuracy and application quality.
Speed
The ability to run a regression test quickly and effectively is greatly enhanced by a strong regression test plan. This is because all the relevant exam information is presented in a well-thought-out layout that is simple to read, comprehend, and use.
Accountability
Each test or test section has a designated stakeholder, such as a QA lead or senior QA, who takes ownership of the recorded tests and collaborates on their approval for future production. Effective Regression testing is ensured when accountability is given to reliable stakeholders.
Continuity
Access to a solid test plan should be provided to all associated team members. Every necessary detail for recreating the test environment, setting up the test scenario, running the test, defining the data inputs, and assessing the outcomes should be included. In the event of reassignment, this level of documentation will guarantee continuity from one test series to the next and from one person to another.
Show Test Coverage
It is nearly impossible to demonstrate which components of an application will be tested or have been tested without a test plan. Similar to how a coloring book provides an outline, giving an overview of what needs to be tested makes it simple to understand the state of regression testing at any time, and if necessary, where to pick up and continue the tests. One part at a time is colored in as each test is run.
Utilize LambdaTest to Automate Regression Testing
Regression testing frequently facilitates the discovery of application flaws before release deadlines. The regression test suite, however, expands along with the application and is difficult to manually run. Therefore they are frequently automated in DevOps sprints to speed up testing. But keep in mind that early on, testers must put in some manual test work, such as researching application logic, flow, and UI adjustments. It is ideal to incorporate automated regression tests when the application has undergone some significant modifications and has been developed to a certain amount.
Regression tests may need some extra resources, regardless of how or where they are utilized. It guarantees significant benefits that are worth the effort and money spent on them. It is an essential element of the DevOps development cycle, which emphasizes output maximization and promises to simplify life for developers and QA while also delivering a positive user experience.
Therefore, it is essential to have access to the infrastructure that can support both this and the various types of testing that testers conduct throughout the pipeline. Teams who want to produce higher-quality apps more quickly can use the LambdaTest Continuous Testing Cloud, which offers the most complete cloud-based platform.
LambdaTest offers the capability to scale testing in large parallelization and has extensive support for browsers, emulators and simulators, and real mobile devices. Testers need to be able to support a wide variety of tests, and this platform gives them the flexibility to build the environment accordingly.
LambdaTest is a cross-browser compatibility testing platform built in the cloud that supports both automated and manual regression testing. It gives testers access to a cloud-based infrastructure with more than 3000 real mobile devices, browsers, and operating system combinations and is capable of running tests while offering timely feedback. Thus, LambdaTest can provide quick, effective automated testing on both desktop and mobile platforms. To get speedy feedback, testers can run hundreds of regression tests in parallel, distributing them across many threads, at once.
Additionally, LambdaTest supports numerous testing frameworks, like Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Appium, etc. It has built-in debugging capabilities that facilitate rapid bug fixing and is completely compatible with CI/CD tools such as JIRA, Jenkins, TeamCity, CircleCI, and Travis CI, among others.
Conclusion
Faster quality releases are necessary for today’s modern organizations to ensure flawless, high-quality user experiences. Therefore, it may be inferred that utilizing testing from the early stages of application development can result in high-quality applications that successfully meet users’ expectations. Effective regression testing integrated with DevOps and CI/CD practices guarantees the timely release of high-quality applications to market since all features are tested end-to-end.
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