Ten Factors for a Successful Regression Test. No.6 Prioritization of risk.

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.