SaaS Platform Achieves 80% Test Coverage in 8 Weeks
QA Automation • B2B SaaS Platform • 12 weeks
The Challenge
Manual testing bottleneck slowing releases. No automated test coverage. 3-week regression cycles.
Goals
- Reduce regression testing time from 3 weeks to 3 days
- Achieve 80% automated test coverage
- Enable weekly release cadence
Constraints
- • Legacy test infrastructure
- • Limited QA team bandwidth
- • Complex microservices architecture
The Team
QA Automation Pod
- 1 QA Automation Lead (US)
- 2 Senior SDET Engineers
- 2 QA Automation Engineers
Seniority: Senior-level automation expertise
The Approach
Week 1-2: Discovery - Analyzed existing test suite, identified automation gaps, selected tooling (Playwright + Cypress)
Week 3-4: Sprint 0 - Set up CI/CD integration, created test framework, established DoD for test coverage
Week 5-8: Core automation - Built end-to-end test suites for critical user journeys, integrated with deployment pipeline
Week 9-12: Expansion - Added API testing, visual regression tests, performance benchmarks
Key Decisions
- Chose Playwright over Selenium for better cross-browser stability
- Implemented parallel test execution to reduce run time
- Created shared test utilities library for consistency
The Results
Key Outcomes
- Enabled weekly releases with confidence
- Reduced manual testing effort by 70%
- Improved developer velocity with fast feedback loops
- Built reusable automation framework for future squads
"The QA pod didn't just write tests — they transformed our entire release process. We went from dreading releases to shipping every week with confidence."
Director of Engineering
B2B SaaS Platform