Adventures in Automation: Table of Contents

This blog started when I was trying to find a place to put my research notes as I was attempting to switch over from being a manual tester to an automated tester. Since then, this blog has been the place I practice what I am learning on the job in order to deepen my knowledge. It's where I try out new concepts before presenting ideas back to the team. It's where I collaborate with the software testing community.

Visit the Articles and Programming Projects for more content, and Feedback to see what people have said about T.J. and his blog.

AI-Assist AI QA API Appium AWS Security Docker + Vagrant Java Ministry of Testing - Boston Meetup Playwright Python React Native Ruby + Capybara Ruby + Watir Security Testing Selenium WebDriver Serenity BDD SQA TypeScript

Software Quality Assurance

I have been working as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer for a while. Learn more about Waterfall and Agile methodologies, and how software testing has changed over the years.

What is a QA Engineer? (1/24/2015)
Waterfall & QA (1/26/2015)
Before Waterfall (1/26/2015)
Agile Software Development (1/30/2015)
How Google Tests Software — thoughts on the book (1/31/2015)
Shifts in Software Testing (2/1/2015)
How to Switch Careers in the Software Industry (4/20/2015)
Should You Have a Dedicated Automation Team in Your QA Team? (9/9/2015)
Are QA Engineers Becoming Extinct? (9/28/2015)
How Automation Recaptures the Magic of Testing (5/14/2025)
When Building Out Automation Frameworks, Keep the Stakeholders in Mind (5/15/2025)
AI Wants to Take Over QA? Let It! (1/23/2026)

Security Testing

I spent time as a junior security tester early in my career and have found the field fascinating ever since.

Security Testing with Kali Linux: Installation (4/22/2015)
Beginners Kali Linux: Setup with RailsGoat (4/23/2015)
Introduction to OWASP: A Security Testing Resource (4/30/2015)
OWASP Boston Meetup: Crowdsource Your Bugs (5/7/2015)

Automation Frameworks: Selenium + Java

I worked at Fitbit-Boston (2015–2016) as an automation developer, initially with Selenium + Java. These posts document building an automation framework from scratch: element selectors, page objects, API testing, and infrastructure.

Setting up a development environment with IntelliJ / Maven and Eclipse / Gradle
Taking a deeper dive into Gradle, exploring Groovy
Using TestNG and JUnit 4 assertions; introducing Hamcrest
Abstracting the page using the Page Object model
Using CSS Selectors to find and manipulate web elements
Organizing locators: first in enums, then in By statements
Wrapping Selenium calls in a CommonUtils library
Replacing CommonUtils with Page Factory
Performing API testing with Apache's HTTP Components
Passing data using POJOs and builder patterns
Examples of good logging for automated tests
Playing with Protractor, JavaScript, and Jasmine — an AngularJS testing tool

Infrastructure: Docker, Vagrant, and Selenium Grid

Experiments with virtual dev environments, Docker, and cloud-based Selenium Grid, spanning my time at Fitbit (2016) and Threat Stack (2018).

Setting Up a Virtual Dev Environment with VirtualBox, Vagrant, and Docker (5/2016)
Installing Docker with the Docker Toolbox (7/2016)
Setting Up Selenium Grid (for Beginners) (7/2016)
Setting Up Selenium Grid in a Docker Container (7/2016)
Starting a Selenium Grid Using AWS + SeleniumHQ Docker Images + Docker Compose (3/2018)
Setting Up Ubuntu Linux with Docker (4/2018)
Basic Chef + Test Kitchen: Setting Up Ubuntu with Vagrant + VirtualBox (6/2018)

AWS Cloud Security Testing (Threat Stack)

Starting in 2018, I wrote automated tests for a cloud security firm, Threat Stack, a provider of cloud security observability and compliance solutions. These posts cover their security domain and public educational content.

The AWS Alphabet Soup (1/24/2018)
An Introduction to Good Security Practices, with Sam Bisbee, Chief Security Officer of Threat Stack (1/28/2018)

API Testing (2016 - 2017)

REST API testing using Postman, Newman, REST Assured, and Apache HTTP Components.

RESTful Testing with Stripe: A Brief Introduction (2/2016)
Introduction to API Testing with Postman and Newman (7/2016)
Are You Sure the Bus Line is Still Listed? REST Assured API Testing (2/2017)

Learning Serenity BDD (2017)

Exploring Specification by Example (SBE) and behavior-driven development automation frameworks.

Learning Serenity BDD: An Automation Framework That Uses Specification by Example (SBE) (3/2017)

Build a Basic Appium Framework (2017)

A seven-part series building a mobile automation framework using Appium + Java, testing Android apps on emulators. GitHub: basic_appium_framework.

Ruby + Capybara + Gauge (2018 - 2019)

I created the Introduction to Capybara course for Test Automation University (2019). These posts document the framework setup and BDD integration.

Intro to setting up a BDD framework with VS Code + Gauge + Ruby (6/2018)
Basic Capybara + Gauge: Analyzing The-Internet (12/2018)

Ruby + Watir: The Cheezy Internet (2021)

A series based on Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan's Watir framework, testing against Dave Haefner's The-Internet site.

The Cheezy Internet: Writing Ruby + Watir tests for The-Internet (11/2021)

Playwright + TypeScript (2025 - 2026)

Exploring Microsoft Playwright for web automation, including AI-assisted test generation tools released in October 2025.

AI-Assisted Test Development (2025 - 2026)

Head-to-head evaluations of GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Claude as coding assistants for building test automation frameworks.

Detox + React Native Mobile Automation (2025 - 2026)

I built a complete mobile automation framework at SELF ID using Wix's Detox + TypeScript, then created an open-source demo project for my AutomationGuild 2026 talk. All source code is at github.com/tjmaher/detox-demo.

Becoming AI QA: Understanding Python's Connection to Machine Learning (2026)

A blog series documenting my attempt to bridge from SDET into AI Quality Engineering — picking up Python, exploring the tools and frameworks the field runs on, and figuring out what skills actually transfer from a decade of test automation work.

Ministry of Testing - Boston (2016 - 2024)

I was the Meetup Organizer for the now defunct Ministry of Testing - Boston Meetup from late 2016 through 2024. Originally it was the Greater Boston QA and Testing Meetup, founded by Conrad Holloman. When he had the group move under the Ministry of Testing banner he passed the group to me. These posts cover the group’s founding, Lean Coffee sessions, and speaker events. I stepped down from Meetup Organizer in 2024. The Meetup group was disbanded by the Ministry of Testing UK group in March 2026 when they moved to their own platform.

Adventures in Automation

Table of Contents