The Real Cost of Test Automation: Why Maintenance Matters More Than Volume

Most organizations underestimate test automation's true challenge: not writing the first test, but maintaining hundreds of reliable ones as products evolve continuously. This article reframes what makes a test suite valuable—not raw test count, but maintenance metrics like flaky test rates, selector stability, and debugging speed, revealing that even powerful frameworks like Playwright require strong engineering discipline around test data strategies and ongoing maintenance culture.