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Software Retesting

As a software has been completed from the development perspective, it comes to the testing team’s bucket. At that time, a tester detects bugs in it while executing the test cases. Once a bug has been found to be a valid one, the developer fixes it, and it again goes back to the tester who re-verifies it.

What is Retesting?

While a test case is executed again to verify a bug in the software, it is known as the retesting. Also, there are certain situations where test cases are re-executed due to some other issues.

Let us take a scenario, where the tester is testing an e-commerce application having a functionality which lists all the products in the cart for the user. The tester finds that the review feature on the products added to cart is not working and thus he logs a bug. Once that is fixed, it is retested to check if the same functionality is working as expected.

Characteristics of Retesting

The characteristics of retesting are listed below −

The software testing is similar to normal testing with the only difference that in software retesting an already executed test case or a fixed bug is again validated in a new build.
Normally a failed test case is considered for retesting.
While a bug in the software is logged, and it is not accepted by the developer as a valid one, the same test case, or the bug, or the entire software feature is retested by the testing team to recheck it.
Due to quality issues faced in the production, all the test cases designed for the software may be retested.
Retesting helps the developers to get the information if a specific software component is not functional at all.

Why is Retesting Done?

A software retesting is done to reverify a bug in the software. It is also used to reconfirm if a bug which is not accepted by the developers is actually a valid one. Sometimes, a software retesting is done on the total software or a part of it to detect any possible deviations. There are instances where the software retesting request comes from the customers side as well.

Advantages of Retesting

The advantages of retesting are listed below −

The software retesting reconfirms if a bug has been resolved, thereby enhancing its quality.
It does not require any additional tools, it is performed on the same application under test.
It is to be carried out with the identical data, and process but only on a different build.

Disadvantages of Retesting

The disadvantages of retesting are listed below −

A new build or a new version of the software is mandatory to perform retesting.
The software retesting of test cases can be done only after the test cases have been completely designed, and not prior to that.
If the retested test cases have failed again, then it is a huge effort to fix all the issues and resolve them.

Difference Between Retesting and Regression

Sr.No	Retesting	Regression
1	It primarily aims at revalidating if a defect has been fixed.	It is done to ensure that the new code changes have not introduced issues in the software.
2	It is only limited to a specific bug or a feature.	It is done to check unassociated features of the software as well.
3	It is done once only when a particular bug has been fixed	It happens if a new feature is introduced in the software, or a bug fix has been fixed, or a code refactoring has been done.
4	It is performed mainly for a bug fix.	It is a continuous process that is conducted for every code change.
5	It involves re-executing the only failed test cases.	It involves executing the previous and current test cases for the software to confirm its stability.

Conclusion

This concludes our comprehensive take on the tutorial on Software Retesting. We’ve started with describing what is retesting, what are the characteristics of retesting, why retesting is done, advantages and disadvantages of retesting, and what are the differences between retesting and regression.

This equips you with in-depth knowledge of Software Retesting. It is wise to keep practicing what you’ve learned and exploring others relevant to Software Testing to deepen your understanding and expand your horizons.