What is the best Regression Testing approach?

In this article on several different test approaches for Manual Regression Testing and how they compare to each other, I focus on Regression Testing rather than general Test Execution in the SDLC.

This is because I believe we need to consider extra factors such as repeatability, transferability etc. to select a Regression Test approach and different approaches can be adopted under different circumstances.

I haven’t considered Automated Testing in this article, even though I’m a big fan of it. This is because I’ve found that project teams often don’t have enough time/skillsets/budget to build automated tests or regression tests aren’t worth being automated because they’re not always cost effective. Thus, we often need to build and run a Regression Test Suite with a manual approach.

When I started thinking about this, I asked:

• What kind of approaches are there? And what are the pros and cons for each approach?
• How can we choose the best approach under different circumstances?
• Some testers ‘HATE’ Script Based Testing. Is Script Based Testing totally useless?

I’ve used three manual testing approaches – traditional Script Based Testing, Session Based Testing and Checklist Based Testing in my two years’ testing experience and created the following diagram based on this.

If there’s a test approach with all the benefits of those three approaches – low maintenance, high repeatability and low requirement for existing knowledge – it would be ideal. I haven’t come across one myself yet. Until I find one, I’ll decide on my Regression Test approach by considering the pros and cons in the diagram above and the project circumstances.