Show me a feature and I'll show you ten different ways to test it. Maybe a hundred. Eventually, we'll pick a set of test cases for our automated testing.

We approach automating tests by re-using, relying, re-purposing others we have. This seems like the faster way to go. But it may not be the best way.

Tests can be flaky. They can take time to run and debug. They can be short and accurate. Tell us what's wrong on failure, but maybe not give us the confidence we want.

We want the tests that help us. So we need a way to evaluate them. Then we can decide what are the best tests to write for the job.

In this session, I'm going to talk about different test types and techniques, what they offer, and what's their cost. We need to understand what we're testing, what the result of the tests mean, and if there are better alternatives to how we thought to automate.