I got the honour of speaking at the Refactor DX 2023 conference in my hometown – Toronto. This was a great opportunity for me to share my knowledge and insights on end-to-end testing for modern web applications.
My talk was titled “The State of End-to-End Testing for modern web applications.” In this session, I discussed how the landscape for end-to-end testing has evolved since 2004. Back then, testing complex web apps end-to-end was painfully difficult and time-consuming. But today, thanks to modern testing frameworks and cloud services, it’s much easier to thoroughly test front-end, back-end, APIs, and everything in between.
You can watch the recorded version of my talk below:
During my talk, I outlined some of the main challenges we used to face when doing end-to-end testing:
- Setting up and maintaining our own testing environments
- Dealing with flaky tests and false failures
- Writing and maintaining tons of complex test code
- Slow and unreliable feedback loops
I then showcased some of the tools and techniques we can leverage today to overcome these challenges. With the addition of showing how testing tools will be much more improved by adding AI and LLM assistance into the mix. The audience was very engaged during the talk and asked some thoughtful questions afterward. It was clear many of them had experienced the testing pains I referenced from early in my career. Overall, I found Refactor DX 2023 to be exceptional, here are some of my main takeaways:
- Testing is more important than ever as web apps become more complex. We can’t skimp on end-to-end testing.
- There are fantastic open source tools available today that make testing much easier and faster than before. Taking time to learn them is worth the investment.
- Good testing requires strategic thinking, not just tools. Set your team up for testing success by instilling the right culture and values around quality.
I’m so glad I had the chance to present at Refactor DX this year. Conferences like this are such a great way to both share knowledge and stay on top of the latest industry trends. Looking forward to what the Refactor community will be up to in the coming months! If you are looking to follow along, join the community on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/refactor-community.