Regression
A bug where something that used to work stops working after a change.
What it is
A regression is a step backward: you asked for a new feature, and an old one broke. The export button worked last week; after the redesign, it doesn't.
Regressions are common when a codebase grows, because changes ripple. The cure is checking the important flows after every meaningful change, and saying "this is a regression since X" when reporting, which tells the builder to look at recent changes first.
Automated tests exist largely to catch regressions before users do.
How to ask for it
“Export is broken now.”
“Regression: CSV export worked before yesterday's table redesign and now downloads an empty file. Please check what the redesign changed in the export, fix it, and confirm the other table actions still work.”
"Broken now" doesn't point anywhere; calling it a regression tied to a specific change tells the builder where to look.
You've seen this in
- AA feature breaking after an app update
- R"Fixed a regression in…" lines in release notes
- OOld bugs reappearing