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

i've done this

[krog]

back when i was the site developer for a porn company (streaming online video of 24-hr live cumshots and barely-legal type stuff.... quite an operation) i regression-tested the whole darn thing. it was a hell of an operation but the finished product is worth it in the end.

i just did what i learned in Software Engineering Lab class :)

Obviously not

[Mordant]

if you work for Microsoft, where they don't seem to care about backwards compatibility. ;>