Maintenance testing is a type of software testing that is done after the planned releases of the software. Maintenance testing has three main goals: to find bugs in the released product, to diagnose any errors and fix them, and to ensure that changes made during post-release development are not causing problems with other parts of the system.
What is maintenance testing?
Maintenance Testing is also known as post-release software testing. This type of software testing occurs when the software has been released into production, and any changes have been made to fix bugs or add new features to the existing system.
Maintenance Testing provides feedback on how well the latest release works in real life and whether it solves the problems identified by pre-release testing. This also helps developers find any new bugs that may have been introduced by the corrective and emergency changes in development, and it ensures that these don’t break functionality with other parts of a system. This testing is free to clients who contract for post-release updates or maintenance support from software vendors.
This can be performed any time after release: it doesn’t have to wait until another major version is updated or released.
Maintenance Testing is performed by the same team of testers who perform Pre-release testing on already deployed software, and it usually requires a similar level of skills from the tester.
This can also be used to test new releases of a software product that has not yet been released to the existing system before any major changes are made without needing an expensive re-testing phase.
Maintenance Testing often takes place on local servers or in an operational environment in an effort to mimic production environments more accurately and for long periods of time with high usage rates. Maintenance Testers also often have to perform regression testing, which means they may need to retest the software’s features and existing operational system parts that were already tested before a new release.
It is usually provided for free by vendors who offer post-release updates or maintenance support contracts in order for their customers to identify bugs quickly when system changes are made in the existing software. Maintenance Testing is also often used by SMEs who want to release their products more quickly than would be possible with traditional testing.
Why is Maintenance Testing required in Software Testing?
Maintenance Testing is required for a few reasons.
- It’s a good idea to do Maintenance Testing before major changes are made to existing software without an expensive re-testing phase.
- It ensures that changes made during post-release development are not causing problems with other system parts, which can be hard to detect before release without enough hours spent in regression testing.
- In regression testing, testers retest features and parts of the software that were already tested before a new release.
- Bug fixes won’t work properly if they conflict with new features introduced by the new release.
- This is done by the same team of testers who performed Pre-release testing, and it usually requires a similar level of skills from the tester for these reasons.
- It is usually provided for free by vendors who offer post-release updates or maintenance support contracts in order for their customers to identify bugs quickly when system changes are made.
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Types Of Maintenance Testing
When the maintenance testers validate the application, they must consider two things. Based on the test types
Confirmation Testing: On this confirmation maintenance testing, the Testers or QA must mainly focus on the modified functionalities. They have to verify every aspect of the application is working as it should be.
Regression Testing: Testing the existing functionality to ensure it is not broken or degraded by the new functionality.
Benefits of maintenance testing
Doing regression maintenance testing helps catch bugs before the pre-release stage, ensuring major changes in development don’t break other parts of the system without regression maintenance testing and ensuring bug fixes work properly with new features.
Risks of not doing Maintenance testing
When not testing changes before release, they can break other parts of the system, bug fixes won’t work properly with new features introduced in new releases, and they will require more time to fix them if regression maintenance testing is done.
in simple words, bugs will be missed if it is not done, and the fixes won’t work with new features.
