Test Automation: From Ground Zero to a CI/CD Suite
Senior Software Test EngineerDBDeep Barot
Founder, ContextQA (host)
A practical, ground-level walkthrough of building test automation from scratch: how to scope what to automate, pick the right framework, and stand up a CI/CD-integrated suite. The session is honest about where automation time actually goes — and how to report its value without hiding the gaps.
Walk away knowing how to apply it
What the conversation covers
What test automation really is: codifying repetitive cases for on-demand runs
Starting from zero: objective, programming basics, tool architecture, then locators
Why automating 200+ cases takes months — "this is not magic"
The three biggest time sinks: finding locators, coding steps, CI/CD upkeep
The "all green" reporting gap where flakiness and manual gap-filling hide
Build vs buy: low-code vs open-source based on team capability
CI/CD value: regression on every commit, and the DevOps/SRE dependency
The ideas worth remembering
Scope by value, not volume — don't automate what's cheaper to run manually
Automation is not set-and-forget; someone must maintain scripts and chase flaky tests
Communicate the hidden manual gap with evidence rather than letting "all green" mislead
Report time saved and real bugs found, not test counts
This is not magic — you need a person to maintain the automated test cases. There's a term for it: flaky tests.— Nikhil Kumar
Who you'll hear from
Nikhil Kumar
Senior Software Test Engineer
Deep Barot
Founder, ContextQA (host)
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