What are the really important processes that could cause the most harm if they went wrong?
After smoke tests are completed, a more thorough set of sanity tests should be run. These would verify all the important processes, i.e. those that would cause real harm if they went wrong in a live situation. After these, it is acceptable to look into the following areas: –
- Most used processes
- Areas with recent changes
- Recent defects fixed
- Clean run and negative testing
- Historical areas of defect density
Test cases can be scored based on the above criteria and the severity/impact technique can give the appropriate risk score. If the test cases are prioritized in this way with a time estimate it should be easier to plan what can be used to give the best results
This is an extract from a whitepaper titled “Top Ten Factors for a Successful Regression Test”, which takes you through the key factors that will ensure the best outcome – if all is as it should be and no defects have found their way through – then you have conducted a successful regression test.
Jonathan Pearson is a Customer Success Manager at Original Software.
