Four Horsemen of the Flaky Tests

Flaky automation tests can be a bane for QA engineers, introducing uncertainty and undermining the reliability of test suites. Drawing from my experience as an SDET and QA Automation mentor, this article offers practical advice to conquer flakiness. While I’ll provide JavaScript and Playwright examples, these universal tips are applicable in any language and framework, helping you write robust and dependable automation tests. Let’s dive in and ensure your tests stand firm.

1. Avoid the implicit wait methods

Occasionally, you will encounter situations where you must wait for elements to appear in the DOM or for your application to reach a specific state to proceed with your test scenario. Even with modern, intelligent automation frameworks like Playwright’s auto-wait features, there will be instances where you need to implement custom wait methods. For instance, consider a scenario with text fields and a confirmation button. Due to specific server-side behavior, the confirmation button becomes visible only after approximately five seconds of completing the form. In such cases, resisting the temptation of inserting a five-second implicit wait between two test steps is essential.

textField.fill('Some text')
waitForTime(5000)
confirmationButton.click()