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Why and when automate regression testing?

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Pamela Mer
Why and when automate regression testing?

Repetitive and big data test cases are the best candidates for automation. But automation is expensive and unnecessary for small and short-term projects with small codebases. Sometimes automation regression testing is impossible due to the low ROI of it. In this case, manual testing is the best choice for regression testing. 

So the first lesson of automation regression testing is automation isn't a panacea for regression. Be selective and business-oriented for it. Besides, to make automation testing more effective, you should provide it after conducting manual regression tests. Automation regression testing should be based on manual test cases that repeatedly reveal failures.

Automation testing is extremely useful for big and mid-sized projects with increasing codebases. 

Despite the effectiveness of automation testing, it has many pitfalls and can be improved by two approaches: data-driven and keyword-driven approaches.

  • The data-driven approach allows engineers to create one automation test case for multiply test data. Test cases and test data keep separately and independently of each other. A script reads data from a file and executes test cases without the need to create a new script for every set of data.  
  • The keyword-driven approach engineers create action keywords for imitating users' actions in test cases. This approach has a high level of reusability too, as existing keywords can be used to multiply test cases. 
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Pamela Mer
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