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RCRCRC — A heuristic for regression testing

Jul 31, 2025

RCRCRC heuristic by Karen N. Johnson helps identify areas that need testing when software changes:

Recent - What testing around new areas of code should I think about?

Core - What essential functions or features must continue to work?

Risky - What features or areas of code are inherently more risky?

Configuration Sensitive - What code is dependent on environment settings?

Repaired - What code has changed to address defects and potentially created issues?

Chronic - What code typically breaks features that need to be tested?

In this memory: Karen Johnson Rahul Parwal

RCRCRC is a regression testing heuristic developed by Karen Johnson that helps identify areas that need testing when software changes.

Recent: new features, new areas of code are more vulnerable
Core: essential functions must continue to work
Risk: some areas of an application pose more risk
Configuration sensitive: code that’s dependent on environment settings can be vulnerable
Repaired: bug fixes can introduce new issues
Chronic: some areas in an application may be perpetually sensitive to breaking

Original source: http://karennicolejohnson.com/2009/11/a-heuristic-for-regression-testing/

Image is a screenshot from STEC from a lesson led by Rahul Parwal.

Rosie Sherry

CEO & Founder at Ministry of Testing

She/Her

I've been working in the software testing and quality engineering space since the year 2000 whilst also combining it with my love for education and community building. 🎓 MoT-STEC qualified

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Simon Tomes

An absolute classic that every tester should be aware of!

August 11th

Imma Six

The link goes to a page that is down. This page is not down: (not sure if I am allowed to post a link in a comment, you don't want me to put spam or worse here) https://www.techtarget.com/searchsoftwarequality/tip/A-software-experts-heuristic-for-regression-testing

October 25th