Test automation: what to automate first (and what not to)

Test automation promises fast feedback and fewer regressions, yet many teams end up with a slow, brittle suite nobody trusts. The problem is rarely the tool: it's what was chosen for automation and in what order.

Automate for return, not for coverage

Chasing a coverage percentage on its own leads to automating what's easy instead of what's important. Prioritize like this:

1. Critical business flows: sign-up, login, payment, checkout; whatever hurts most when it breaks.
2. Stable regression: features that no longer change every week.
3. Repetitive, costly manual checks: data combinations, browsers and roles.
4. API tests: faster and more stable than UI tests.

What to keep manual

• Features that change constantly.
• Exploratory testing and usability evaluation.
• One-off cases.

The pyramid, in practice

Much of the logic is better validated lower down (unit and API) than at the top (UI). End-to-end tests should be few and focused on the user journeys that matter most.

Playwright, Cypress or Selenium

There is no single answer. Playwright stands out for multi-browser support, auto-waiting and solid CI integration. Cypress offers a very friendly developer experience. Selenium remains valid where there is already a large investment. Choose based on the team's stack and its capacity to maintain the suite.

Signs of a healthy suite

• It fails for real reasons, not because of timing or data.
• It runs in CI on every change and returns results in minutes.
• When it fails, it's quick to see why.
• Someone owns keeping it healthy.

For a concrete example, see how to automate your first Playwright test. And if you need help defining the strategy, get in touch.