Built the test strategy, test automation framework and CI pipeline from scratch for a new product and team
- 3,600+UI and API tests in CI, with a test strategy for a new team
- 6people in the team
- Risk-basedautomation roadmap
Challenge
The product and the team were both new, and I joined as the lead test automation engineer with no testing strategy or approach to build on. It was unclear what to test, at which level, and how much to automate, so there was no basis for deciding where testing effort should go.
My Solution
- Communicated closely with the product owner and the development lead to clarify requirements and the product architecture, and used that understanding as the basis for the test strategy.
- Defined the test strategy and a test automation roadmap based on product risks, business priorities, technical feasibility, and ROI, so automation effort went first to where it paid off most.
- Set up test automation and CI from scratch and built the suites across layers: both UI and API tests with Playwright, with the API tests covering WebSocket interfaces.
- Automated the highest-risk flows first: critical user scenarios for the UI, plus basic and security-related tests for the API, so the most important behavior was covered early and coverage was extended from there.
- Grew the team to 6 people: interviewed test automation engineer candidates, then mentored the engineers and built a culture of learning and improvement in the team.
Result
the team went from no testing approach to a risk-based roadmap and automated UI and API tests for the microservice-based product running in CI with test reporting, growing into a combined suite of more than 3,600 UI and API tests.