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RCRCRC — A heuristic for regression testing

31 Jul 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 moment: 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

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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. It turns out quality, community and education go nicely hand in hand.

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Simon Tomes

An absolute classic that every tester should be aware of!

August 11th 2025

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 2025