Have We Tested the Changes?

Have We Tested the Changes? Throughout the lifecycle, the application changes. Regressions are bugs in the software under test that did not appear in previous versions. Regression testing is the term for testing a new version of the software to find those bugs. Almost all types of tests can be used as regression tests, but in keeping with the tenet of "Important problems fast," your regression testing strategy must be very efficient. Ideally, you should test the most recent changes first. Not only does this mitigate the risk of unforeseen side effects of the changes, but also if you do find bugs and report them, the more recent changes are more current in everyone's memory. One of the challenges in most test teams is identifying what exactly the changes are. Fortunately, the daily build report shows you exactly what changesets have made it into the build and what work items (scenarios, QoS, tasks, and bugs) have been resolved, thereby identifying the functionality that should be tested first (see Figure 7.13). Moreover, if you have reasonable build verification tests (BVTs), then you can check their results and code coverage. Figure 7.13. One of the many purposes of the daily build report is to focus testing activity on the newly built functionality. This list of work items resolved in the build is like an automatic release note, showing what new functionality needs to be tested. [View full size image]