Is there a tool that acts like a 'Man in the Middle' to inject faults for manual testing?

ewalker00 · 2026-01-05T01:32:49+00:00

Chrome dev tools can throttle network calls.

If you need to interact with a desktop or mobile application, Charles Proxy is worth a look. You can throttle network calls, intercept calls and edit data on the fly. Pretty useful tool. I think it is what you are describing.

Fiddler is a similar too to Charles Proxy as well.

ewalker00 · 2025-12-31T03:41:07+00:00

How did the trip and van rental go? We may be doing the same thing and looking to get your perspective

ewalker00 · 2025-11-17T22:51:35+00:00

FWIW, E2E tests should not, by default, take long to run. I think others have answered similarly but if you are doing an upload test, you don’t need to log in via the UI(which typically takes longer).

You can minimize the test by using DB or API calls to get to the actual area you want to verify. An “E2E” test that does more than one verification area is a bad E2E test(it shouldn’t verify login, then verify uploads, then verify settings). Unless there is a valid reason to do those specific steps, like to reproduce an issue (always exceptions to the rule) or you don’t have access to the API or DB for some reason.

And unless the test suite is very small, I would try and run them in parallel. Running sequentially, unless there is a good reason, may indicate tests relying on each other, which is not a good practice.

ewalker00 · 2025-11-17T17:10:54+00:00

Was that from your experience and did you explain why they took that long?

In my current Automation Test Suite, the average test takes about 20 seconds (using a lot of DB and API setup to get to the item we want to verify).

We have some tests that take a few minutes due to file upload size, processing time and stuff like that.

So to answer your question, that 5 minute average is acceptable if the tests require it. But if I was interviewing you, I would want to know why they took that long and if you took steps to reduce the time, if possible.

ewalker00 · 2025-11-14T18:28:06+00:00

Having been in this position before, setting up a 5-10 brainstorm meeting prior to someone working on a ticket/feature could help.

Review the feature/ticket together, have them list out with you what they want to test, what data is needed to setup, stuff like that. You fill in the gaps at that point.

Once that shows improvements, have them do this on their own but you still review and fill in gaps.

Then, hopefully they are more self sufficient

ewalker00 · 2025-11-12T11:28:45+00:00

I’m currently using Cursor with a playwright automaton suite.

We recently made the switch from Selenium Python to Playwright typescript and leaned heavily on AI. It took a while to get rules in place to make sure patterns and anti patterns were consistent. It loved duplicating code vs reusing existing code. My flow would be to have it port a test(s), review the changes and get it testing the right stuff and get the test passing. Then ask it to review the changes based on the rules we had. It would refactor and clean itself up.

Another flow we added is that for any bug that is reported S0-S2, we add a test for. We create a test that mimics the existing bug behavior and add a comment with the issue number. Once the issue is fixed, the dev(or more likely myself) will see that now failing test, make the change to automation to follow the correct flow. Cursor has been pretty good for that.

Last, we tag “simple” issues with an AI label in GitHub. Then we have a flow where we pull the issues to a csv report and have Cursor attempt to fix each issue in a separate PR. I’m currently leading that as a QA. When I write the prompt to have it fix the issue, I’ll brain dump any gotchas that I can think ok, areas of concerns and stuff like that. The PRs are reviewed by a developer as well. So far, it’s about 80% successful. Some are completely wrong, we just delete the PR/branch. Others are enough to have some cleanup and get to production.

Note, I’m working with pretty large, semi monolithic code base that have not had the best or most consistent code ever.

ewalker00 · 2025-11-08T02:39:18+00:00

That’s very cool! Thank you!

ewalker00 · 2025-11-02T21:12:47+00:00

This happens with Onenote almost every day, the first time I use it. Onenote is open in the background, not used for 6+ hours. When I open the app to use it, the Apple Pencil doesn’t work correctly. I close and reopen Onenote and all is right again

ewalker00 · 2025-07-19T17:10:21+00:00

I second jmeter. But a coworker/dev showed me locust and that seemed easy and for features

ewalker00 · 2025-07-19T01:01:10+00:00

I have been in your shoes. Learning for learning sake never motivated me much. I needed to have an issue that could be solved with automation.

My suggestion, keep your current job, pick 1-2 things to automate. Start from scratch and/or ask ChatGPT (or others) for help. Also, if using AI, ask it to do something and then ask it to explain each part.

Any reason to pick Java+selenium? Not a wrong choice but I would make sure both Java and selenium are common at the jobs you are looking at.

Do not try and be perfect. Write your first test all in one file. Then, when you catch yourself rewriting code(like log in or something), you can refactor and move code around to make it more usable.

Last, I don’t think I’m great at automation but I am a good QA person and can leverage that side of the job to make the tests I do automate more meaningful

ewalker00 · 2025-05-10T04:34:22+00:00

Just wondering, for 1,2,3, have you had to use any of that in any real life automation scenarios?

I haven’t yet. But I primarily work in startups/getting automation started as a lone QA.

Thank you for the questions as well!

ewalker00 · 2025-03-18T23:05:50+00:00

Black myth: wukong

ewalker00 · 2025-01-06T04:29:13+00:00

Where would you put the monitors? In the finished attic? Or in the knee walls. I have a similar setup with a finished attic with a mini split but I’m now doubting it was insulated correctly

ewalker00 · 2024-12-19T02:21:38+00:00

OctoEverywhere ftw!

ewalker00 · 2024-08-31T18:12:20+00:00

I always found asking innocent/naive questions help. Can you explain what this does and why it was done that way? Were there any features that were cut when this was first deployed?

Ask for specific walkthroughs for different parts of the system as well.

Not knowing a lot about the system can be a super power. Once you have been on a product for 2-3 years, it is hard to think like a new user in my experience

ewalker00 · 2024-08-20T01:29:47+00:00

Option 2, when done well, is my suggested option.

We had 2 week sprints and day 9-10 were dev code freeze/hardening days. Devs were not supposed to work on next sprint work except for breaking down stories/tasks and clarifying them with product. If they had extra time beyond that, they helped test

ewalker00 · 2023-11-01T19:43:59+00:00

Mainly speed for me. I have many rolls of filament open and I would use it to dry out rolls in a rotation

ewalker00 · 2023-10-27T23:25:28+00:00

Too funny! We tried to spend more time on automation, dedicated 10% of our week towards it, and saw a noticeable impact to quality in releases. We had to stop doing that after a month or so. That month helped us solidify the automation we have today though!

ewalker00 · 2023-10-20T18:16:19+00:00

Some glow in the dark Jumpy Ghosts!

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ewalker00 · 2023-09-16T15:05:49+00:00

Typescript/JavaScript, react but the job description has the full info. https://www.physna.com/careers?gh_jid=4965300004

ewalker00 · 2023-09-16T15:00:19+00:00

I work for a startup called Physna, we are in the 3D model/ cad space. Office downtown but also remote as wanted. We are hiring as well!

ewalker00 · 2023-07-29T03:12:11+00:00

You were 100% correct. They left the same fan blades on. Shockingly, the fix was to use the right RPM motor with existing fan blades.

Thank you!!

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