Difference between retesting and regression testing

As the main intention of testing is to ensure the quality of the final product, understanding of various testing types is crucial for a tester. In this article we will see the main difference between two testing types- retesting and regression testing.

Retesting:
In this type of testing, the tester re tests the application which was earlier reported as a bug and now fixed by the developer. This bug can be due to functionality issues as well as design issues. Retesting the functionality of a button which was previously not working or testing the alignment issues of a page etc can be listed as examples for retesting.

Regression testing:
Regression testing is done to test whether the changes made on the site have any impact on other modules which were earlier working fine. New requirement change, implementation of new functionality are some of the scenarios where regression testing is effective. Regression testing can be automated using effective automated tools such as Selenium, Quick Test Professional etc.

Refer the given example for further understanding:

For example, we have a image uploading field which supports only certain image formats say JPG, PNG etc. Suppose one of the image formats failed (say JPG) and the developer fixed it. Testing the functionality, after fixing this bug is retesting. Here, testing and ensuring whether this new change (fixes) has not altered the working of other fields on that page is regression testing.

In normal cases, regression testing is carried out only after retesting of the application. But there are exceptions where both testing are carried out simultaneously. While testing a website, make sure that the application have undergone both retesting and regression testing.