Are Regression Tests an Industry Standard?

Sludge asks: "I just finished leading a team through a software project. It was the first of it's type for our company: financial transactions were involved, and it was therefore very fault intolerant. In order to complete this, a set of regression tests were written. For example, if the amount of money collected doesn't match up to our order table, we get notified via our cellphone's text messaging as soon as the cronjob picks it up. Lots of other implementation-specific tests exist as well. My question is, how common is this for the software industry? My company had never heard of this before I came along. Is it the norm? (When you answer, also say whether or not your company does risk management.)"

Comments

Regression test tools?

[hackwrench]

What tools are being used for regression testing...and also I'd like more information on how to use regression testing to catch documentation errors.

Regression Testing

[SN74S181]

The last place I worked did extensive regression testing at all levels of software development. I was a member of a team developing telemetry firmware for communicating with implantable medical devices, so needless to say we needed to minimize any problems. Software 'bugs' in the field are not taken lightly.

Don't talk to me about managment....

[Mark Hood]

I wrote some automated test programs in my last job.

Used a very expensive tool (which we already had) to perform very simple regression testing on a new software package, and found more faults in an automated run over one weekend than we normally found in a two month period testing by hand.

Saved the company and customers untold amounts of money, and when the software went live we had at most 5% of the normal faults reported in that area. Customer was delighted.

For the next project I wanted to expand the tool to cover more of the functionality. Everyone appreciated the reasoning, and I asked for a month or two to develop it. (In a pinch I could have done it in a fortnight, but I'm an engineer, so I padded my estimate :)

The response? 'Do it the old way - our project timescales are too tight for this'.

Even a 'give me a fortnight and let me prove the concept' fell on stony ground. This DESPITE the fact I'd proved the concept already.

Shortly afterwards, I quit - this was the final straw for me.

All the wonderful automation, test tools and experienced testers count for nothing if management have an anus/cranium interface issue...