In the fast-paced world of Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform, updates and customizations are frequent. Each deployment—whether it involves adding new entities, modifying business rules, or updating plugins—carries a risk of inadvertently breaking existing functionality. This is where regression testing plays a critical role.
Regression testing ensures that new changes do not negatively impact existing features. It helps teams maintain system stability, user confidence, and functional integrity across deployments.
✅ What is Regression Testing?
Regression testing is the process of re-running existing test cases to verify that previously developed and tested features still perform as expected after a change. In Dynamics 365, this can include:
- Deploying a new solution version
- Modifying workflows, business rules, or plugins
- Adding new components to an environment
- Applying Microsoft platform updates
Why Regression Testing is Important After Deployment
- Detects Breakages Early
Prevents issues from reaching production by identifying broken functionality before go-live. - Ensures Stability
Guarantees that mission-critical features like lead conversion, case creation, or business process flows still function. - Supports Agile & DevOps
Enables safe, frequent deployments in CI/CD pipelines. - Improves Confidence in Releases
Gives stakeholders peace of mind that new changes won’t disrupt core business processes.
What to Include in Regression Testing
When planning a regression suite after solution deployment, prioritize:
Core Functional Areas:
- Sales Processes: Lead → Opportunity → Quote → Order → Invoice
- Customer Service: Case creation, assignment, resolution
- Custom Workflows and Plugins
- Form-level Business Rules
- Security Roles and Field Visibility
- Entity Relationships and Lookups
- Dashboards and Reports
- Canvas/Model-driven App Navigation
UI and User Experience:
- Field visibility/logic
- Quick create forms
- Button visibility (Command bar)
Data Layer:
- Record creation/edit/delete across key entities
- Lookup field integrity
- Business process stage movement
Types of Regression Tests
1. Manual Regression Testing
Used for exploratory testing or scenarios where automation isn’t feasible.
- Pros: Human intuition catches subtle UI/UX issues
- Cons: Time-consuming, error-prone
2. Automated Regression Testing
Ideal for repeatable and high-frequency deployments.
- Tools:
- EasyRepro (for UI automation)
- FakeXrmEasy (for unit tests)
- Selenium (browser-level tests)
- Power Platform CLI / PAC (solution validation)
- Postman / Power Automate (for API and integration tests)
- Pros: Scalable, fast, repeatable
- Cons: Requires upfront effort to set up and maintain
Automating Regression Testing in CI/CD
Step-by-Step:
- Define Test Suite
Identify critical test cases across core features and customizations. - Create Automation Scripts
Use EasyRepro for UI testing or unit tests with FakeXrmEasy. - Integrate with Pipelines
Add your test scripts to your Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions pipeline. - Run After Deployment
Trigger tests automatically after deploying the solution to a test/UAT environment. - Review and Report
Analyze test results, log bugs, and notify the team.
Sample CI/CD Regression Testing Flow:
# Azure DevOps YAML snippet
- task: PowerPlatformImportSolution@0
inputs:
authenticationType: 'ServicePrincipal'
environmentUrl: 'https://env.crm.dynamics.com'
solutionInputFile: 'drop/YourSolution.zip'
- task: VSTest@2
inputs:
testAssemblyVer2: '**\*Tests.dll'
searchFolder: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)'
Building a Regression Test Suite
Organize your regression suite by modules:
| Module | Example Test Cases |
|---|---|
| Leads & Opportunities | Lead creation, qualification, opportunity stage changes |
| Case Management | Case creation, assignment, closure |
| Workflows & Plugins | Trigger conditions, expected data updates |
| Forms | Field-level logic, mandatory field checks |
| Permissions | Verify security roles and field-level access |
Best Practices
- Test Stable Features: Prioritize features that rarely change but are business-critical.
- Automate Repetitive Scenarios: Start with high-use, low-variance test cases.
- Version Your Tests: Align test scripts with solution versions.
- Use Sandboxes: Always test in sandbox or UAT environments, not production.
- Tag & Categorize: Use tags to group tests by area or deployment impact.
Common Challenges
- Flaky Tests: UI tests may fail due to loading times or environment instability. Use retries and waits.
- Data Dependencies: Keep tests independent; use mock data or reset state before each run.
- Overhead: Managing large test suites can be time-consuming. Prioritize automation.
Useful Tools
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| EasyRepro | UI automation for model-driven apps |
| FakeXrmEasy | Unit testing for plugins and workflows |
| Postman | API testing for Dataverse |
| XrmToolBox | Data validation and metadata inspection |
| Azure DevOps | CI/CD automation |
| Test Plans (Azure) | Manual + automated test case management |