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WEBINAR

Watch Escaping Regression Slowdowns in Long-Lived Software

As software evolves over time, regression testing becomes more complex and time-consuming. Growing test suites, increasing system complexity, and constant change can slow feedback cycles and delay releases. What once protected quality can quickly become a bottleneck to delivery.

In this video, learn how Test Impact Analysis transforms regression testing into a faster, more focused, and data-driven process. Instead of running every test for every change, teams can identify exactly which tests are impacted and execute only what’s necessary. See how modern teams are reducing regression overhead, accelerating feedback, and maintaining confidence in long-lived systems without sacrificing quality.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Why regression growth is inevitable in long-lived software
  • How large test suites slow feedback and release cycles
  • How Test Impact Analysis maps tests to code changes
  • How to run only the tests that matter for each update
  • How to scale testing without slowing development

Turn regression testing from a bottleneck into a strategic advantage. Deliver faster, test smarter, and keep your software moving forward.

The Problem: Growing Regression Suites

Think about your oldest app at work. Odds are, it’s been live for years—maybe a decade or more. Over time, every new feature, bug fix, and integration made things a bit more complicated. None of this happened overnight. Most decisions along the way made sense in that moment.

But here’s the catch: as software grows more complex, the test suite grows right alongside it. You end up with huge banks of tests, some added after bugs, others in anticipation of breaking changes. This slow build-up isn’t bad—it’s the cost of making software that people depend on. But eventually, running all those tests turns into a major drag.

How Fast Are You Really Testing?

In practice, companies report running all their regression tests on different schedules. Here’s what people said during the session:

Frequency % of
Respondents
Notes
Every build 50% Quick feedback, but can get costly/time-consuming
Every month 25% Typical when regression suite is enormous
Every week 10% Faster, but still a compromise
Every quarter 10% Not ideal—feedback comes late
Other 5% Custom, mixed, or ad-hoc schedules

Teams aren’t slowing down because they want to, but because it just takes longer to earn the confidence to move forward. This is what some call regression gravity: the weight of all that testing pulling down release speed.

Testing Smarter, Not Harder

Everyone wants to test efficiently. Some teams try mapping tests to features or modules. That’s a decent start—you tag tests, run just what’s touched by changes. But this isn’t totally reliable. Sometimes code changes have unexpected side-effects, and it’s easy to miss the impact.

So the default ends up being: run all the tests. That’s safe, but slow. Nobody wants to be the one who missed a bug by skipping tests.

Here’s where Test Impact Analysis comes in.

What Is Test Impact Analysis?

Test Impact Analysis (TIA) links code changes to the tests they affect. It works by collecting code coverage data—showing you exactly what code each test touches.

How It Works:

  1. Track what tests touch which areas of code (code coverage)
  2. When new changes go in, see exactly what code got updated
  3. Only run the tests that interact with changed code

It’s evidence-based. No guessing. If a test doesn’t cover changed code, you can skip it for that run.

Example from the session:
One team found that out of 4,000 total test cases, on a typical build only about 300 (about 8%) needed to run for that cycle. That’s a massive reduction—both in time and cloud costs.

What If There’s Brand-New Code?

Great question. If you add new code and don’t have tests for it, TIA will show you exactly where the gaps are using code coverage metrics. The goal is to make sure the code getting the most changes right now gets the most attention in testing—not some piece of code nobody’s touched in years.

Is Architecture a Problem?

Nope. Whether you’re running microservices, monoliths, or something in-between, TIA works as long as you can track what code got changed and what code is exercised by your tests. You don’t even need source code—tracking from the built app (binaries) works.

TIA is especially useful once your test suite gets to the size where full regression just isn’t practical every time. There’s no shame in using it with older, layered applications.

Smarter Testing Means Better Releases

With Test Impact Analysis, teams can:

  • Prioritize tests based on what’s actually changed
  • Save time and reduce parallel cloud spend
  • Find missing coverage for new changes
  • Shorten feedback loops (faster builds, fewer false alarms)

Running only what matters makes releases less painful. You get to keep all the protection against bugs, but without the drag on speed. Plus, you can choose how aggressive you want to be—some teams still do a full regression before major releases, but use TIA on everything in between.

Final Thoughts

There’s no silver bullet in testing, but Test Impact Analysis is about as close as it gets to working smarter, not harder. Cut the gravity. Run the tests that count. Get back to releasing—and stop regression testing from running your life.