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From Chaos to Coverage: The Architecture Behind TRT

The Backstory: Hackathon Idea to QA Transformation

Picture this: a team trapped in endless hours debugging client test suites to unblock failing CI/CD builds so clients can confidently deploy. Deployments stall, frustration mounts, and morale suffers. At ProdPerfect, this was our reality. Testing keeps software humming, guarding new features from wrecking what already works. At ProdPerfect, we live for the Golden Path, those must-not-fail user flows. But manual test suites? A total slog. During an internal hackathon, I tackled this chaos head-on by building the Test Recording Tool (TRT), a Chrome extension and backend system that transformed our QA process, bringing clarity and speed to testing.

The Chaos: Manual QA Grind

Before TRT, QA at ProdPerfect involved:

  • Dynamic UI Complexity: Constant selector changes due to dynamic CSS frameworks caused frequent test failures.
  • Hidden UI Elements: Crucial UI components were obscured behind multiple modals and conditional flows, wasting valuable engineering hours.
  • Delayed Feedback: Engineers waited hours for test coverage reports, testing blindly and repeatedly, uncertain if they’d met requirements.

This cycle drained productivity and stalled deployments.

The Problem: The Painful Reality of Regression Testing

Imagine trying to test a feature that keeps changing. UI selectors shift with each new build, important buttons hide behind modals, and environments don’t match up correctly. That was the situation we faced.

Writing tests was difficult, and keeping them updated was even harder. The main challenges were:

  • Constantly Changing UI: Selectors created by dynamic styling frameworks changed often, causing tests to fail frequently.
  • Unclear Logs: Error logs were often confusing, making it hard to pinpoint exactly where something broke.
  • Lengthy Debugging: Fixing just one problematic test could take hours or even days, delaying deployments and frustrating the team.

This process wasn’t just slow; it was exhausting and made our work harder than it needed to be. We needed a better way.

TRT Architecture: Engineering Clarity

TRT System Design Diagram
TRT system architecture showing EC2 session flow, VNC interaction, and data validation pipeline.

TRT reshaped QA by automating the entire testing workflow:

  1. Dashboard-Driven Testing: QA engineers trigger testing sessions directly from an intuitive dashboard. Each session spins up an ephemeral EC2 environment running the client’s web application.
  2. Remote Interaction via VNC: Engineers remotely interact through a browser-based noVNC session, removing environment setup overhead.
  3. Comprehensive Session Capture: TRT records DOM interactions, screenshots, and videos. This data flows through an Express backend and is stored securely in an AWS S3 bucket.
  4. Real-Time Data Analysis: Captured data is instantly analyzed by a dedicated Data Service, validating tests against real user paths (the Golden Path), clearly highlighting coverage gaps.
  5. Instant Reporting & Integration: QA engineers immediately see comprehensive coverage results, eliminating guesswork. Validated test sessions automatically generate detailed Jira tickets, ready for immediate follow-up.

Collaboration and Iteration

Building TRT required constant collaboration with different teams: QA engineers, product managers, and data engineers. Their direct input ensured TRT precisely solved real-world pain points, evolving quickly from hackathon prototype to a critical system within our workflow.

The Coverage Impact: A 600% Improvement

TRT’s implementation transformed our QA effectiveness:

  • Debugging and achieving test suite coverage dropped from 72 hours to less than 12 hours.
  • Provided instant, clear test coverage visibility.
  • Enabled teams to proactively identify and resolve issues through data-driven insights.

One client used TRT to swiftly pinpoint a dynamic selector issue during checkout—a process that previously took days. TRT’s efficiency became our new standard.

Lessons Learned

Developing TRT reinforced valuable principles:

  • Solve tangible problems first through user collaboration.
  • Trust data-driven insights over gut instinct.
  • Maintain simplicity, even when handling complexity.

TRT was not merely a tool but a transformative shift in our QA culture.

Conclusion

TRT turned our QA grind into a glide, shrinking debug time from endless hours to a breeze and making test creation a data-driven snap. Encounter similar challenges or have insights to share? Let’s connect and innovate together.

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Tags: #QA #TestAutomation #ChromeExtension #DataDrivenTesting #SoftwareEngineering

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