4.6Maintaining Test Suites

Test suites require ongoing maintenance. Without it, they become stale and untrustworthy.

Regular Maintenance Tasks

Task	Frequency	Why
Review and update test cases for changed features	Every sprint	Features evolve; tests must keep up
Remove obsolete test cases	Monthly	Dead tests clutter the suite and waste execution time
Update test data and preconditions	As environments change	Stale test data causes false failures
Review automation status	Every sprint	Identify manual tests that should be automated
Consolidate duplicate test cases	Quarterly	Duplicates waste execution effort

Version Control for Test Cases

If your test management platform supports versioning, use it. If not, document significant changes in the test case's history or comments. You should be able to answer: "What was this test case like when we tested release 2.3.0?"