Notes

Practical notes on testing and quality

For engineering teams without a dedicated QA function. Straight talk, no vendor spin.

Latest note

Abstract geometric shapes representing a structured test strategy
· Yunhao Jiao

Flaky Tests, Bypassed CI: Building a Test Strategy

A practical framework for small engineering teams owning quality without a dedicated QA function.

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Hidden cost of manual test maintenance
· Arjun Nair

Two hours a sprint lost to test upkeep

Most teams miss the hours lost each sprint to test changes unrelated to new features.

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Playwright vs Cypress comparison
· Marcus Delgado

Playwright or Cypress in 2025: Why the framework matters less

The framework choice matters less than test maintenance for small teams.

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Anatomy of a test that never breaks
· Arjun Nair

A Test That Survives Untouched

Why some tests keep passing indefinitely while others fail on their second deploy.

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Why integration tests age worse than unit tests
· Marcus Delgado

Integration Tests Go Stale First and Fastest

Integration tests go stale first and get updated last. Here is why, plus ways to maintain them.

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QA without a QA team patterns
· Yunhao Jiao

Four Patterns for QA Without a Dedicated Team

Engineering teams that ship without dedicated QA rely on different habits, not different tools.

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Self-healing tests and UI changes
· Arjun Nair

Self-Healing Tests: What They Technically Require

The term is used loosely. Here is what a test must do to repair itself under the hood.

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Shipping daily without breaking things
· Yunhao Jiao

Daily Deploys Start with a Test Pipeline You Can Trust

Daily deploys depend on reliable infrastructure, not motivation. That problem can be solved.

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Test coverage as a living number
· Marcus Delgado

Coverage Fell Quietly in One Sprint

A coverage milestone can quietly erode across the next four sprints.

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Flaky tests are a symptom not the problem
· Arjun Nair

Flaky Tests Expose Coupling and State

Retries conceal flaky tests' causes. Knowing why tests flake changes how you repair them.

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Running a CI pipeline without a QA engineer
· Yunhao Jiao

The CI Mistake Small Teams Make

Configuration choices that help a small team trust CI without a dedicated reviewer for quality gates.

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How an AI agent decides which tests to write
· Marcus Delgado

How an AI Agent Chooses Tests to Write

See which codebase signals an autonomous testing agent uses to find the coverage gaps that matter most.

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Why your test suite fails in the month after launch
· Yunhao Jiao

Stable in development, broken in weeks after launch

Tests stable in development can break within weeks of launch as shipping speed exposes predictable, preventable weaknesses.

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