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Thomas Howard

Thomas Howard

Seattle, WA

Director of Quality Engineering | Disruptor & thought leader in building, testing & scaling enterprise automation systems

The Real Reason Your Test Automation Is Failing: Bad Leadership

The Real Reason Your Test Automation Is Failing: Bad Leadership

Test automation isn’t failing because of bad engineers—it’s failing because no one is investing in them. That’s not a hot take. That’s a painful, persistent truth I see in startup after startup, enterprise after enterprise. And it’s time we talked about it. The Villain

Stop Test Failures in Their Tracks: Build a Self-Healing Playwright Pipeline with AI

Stop Test Failures in Their Tracks: Build a Self-Healing Playwright Pipeline with AI

What Is a Self-Healing Pipeline? In the world of end-to-end testing, UI changes are the bane of automation. A slight tweak in your button’s CSS class or a restructured DOM can send your CI jobs into an endless loop of red failures—often false alarms that sap your team’

Forward-Deployed Engineers: The Secret Weapon for Quality Engineering in 2025

Forward-Deployed Engineers: The Secret Weapon for Quality Engineering in 2025

In today’s fast-moving software landscape, doing more with less isn’t just a mantra—it’s an imperative. With teams operating leaner than ever, quality engineering (QE) and software leadership must find novel approaches to maximize productivity, streamline feedback loops, and deliver robust solutions at breakneck speed. Enter the

When AI Became My Co‑Pilot: A New Era for Quality Engineering

When AI Became My Co‑Pilot: A New Era for Quality Engineering

"I used to believe that every bug I caught, every test I wrote, was proof of my indispensability. Then the AI agent suggested a fix—pushed it through a pipeline—and I wondered: am I the pilot, or the passenger?" I still remember the day I first watched

Automation Paradox: Why AI-Powered QE Is Slowing Down Your Release Velocity (Despite What You Believe)

Automation Paradox: Why AI-Powered QE Is Slowing Down Your Release Velocity (Despite What You Believe)

In the age of “GenAI everything,” Quality Engineering (QE) teams have rushed to adopt AI-powered tooling—hoping to shave days off release cycles and free engineers from tedious tasks. Yet mounting evidence shows that, counterintuitively, these tools can slow down your delivery pipeline. In this post, we unpack the Automation

The Hidden Tax of Traditional Test Automation

The Hidden Tax of Traditional Test Automation

“Test automation isn’t failing because of bad testers. It’s failing because testers are being forced to write and maintain code like developers… just to verify if a login button works.” Catalina Zapata nailed a pain point that resonates across the software quality industry. If you've worked

“Ready for Test” Isn’t the Problem — But How You Use It Might Be

“Ready for Test” Isn’t the Problem — But How You Use It Might Be

In the age of DevOps and CI/CD, does the "Ready for Test" status still belong in your workflow? The answer isn’t black and white. “Ready for Test” — three words that spark heated debates in QA circles. Some say it undermines shift-left. Others say it creates silos.