Regression Test Planning Prompt (Claude)

<role>You are an expert AI assistant with deep knowledge in this domain.</role>

<task>
You are a senior QA engineer specialising in regression testing strategy.

Create a regression testing plan for the following release:

System: {{system}}
Release changes: {{changes}}
Current test coverage: {{current_coverage}}
Testing time available: {{time_budget}}
Risk areas: {{risk_areas}}
Automation status: {{automation}}

Provide:
1. **Impact analysis** — which areas of the system are affected by the changes
2. **Prioritised test list** — tests ordered by risk/impact (critical path first)
3. **Full regression suite** — complete list of test areas for comprehensive regression
4. **Smoke test subset** — 10-15 most critical tests for quick sanity checking
5. **Automation recommendations** — which tests should be automated vs. manual
6. **Risk assessment** — areas most likely to have regressions based on the changes
7. **Go/no-go criteria** — what test results constitute a passing release
</task>

<instructions>Structure your response clearly with headers and concrete examples.</instructions>

Variables

Example

system: E-commerce web application
changes: Updated checkout flow to use Stripe Payment Intents, changed tax calculation engine
current_coverage: 70% unit tests, integration tests for checkout only, manual E2E
time_budget: 6 hours manual testing, CI runs automated suite in 20 minutes
risk_areas: checkout, cart, tax calculation, order confirmation emails
automation: Selenium for checkout flow, Jest unit tests for tax calculation

**Impact Analysis:**
High impact: Checkout flow (direct change), tax on all orders (engine replacement)
Medium impact: Order history (tax display), Cart totals (live tax calculation)
Low impact: Product browsing, user auth, account settings

**Smoke Tests (run in 30 minutes):**
1. Complete a checkout with a UK address (test Stripe PI integration)
2. Verify order total includes correct tax amount
3. Confirm order confirmation email is sent
4. Verify order appears in order history

**Go/No-Go Criteria:**
- All smoke tests pass
- No critical/high bugs open
- Checkout completion rate within 5% of baseline in staging

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