Hi, I am Irfan
Quality engineering leader. Welcome in. I write about testing, leading teams, and the tools that make the work easier.
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How can I help you?
Tech Leadership
How I lead quality teams, and what I wish I had known earlier.
02Test Automation
Learnings from suites that stay reliable after the happy path.
03Tech Tools
CheckOps, the directory I keep for finding the right testing tool.
04Tech Talks
Talks and notes from Selenium Conference in India and the UK.
Writing
Four essays if you are new. The shelf goes back to 2016.
If you are choosing the path
Is QA a Good Career in 2026? An Honest Look
Is QA a good career in 2026? Job outlook, pay, how AI is changing testing work, the skills that matter now, and realistic paths for new and experienced testers.
If you care how quality actually works
Testing vs. Checking: Why Your Software Needs Both
Checking asks whether software does the named thing. Testing asks what else can happen, and why a product needs both in practice.
If you want the year in the craft
The QA Engineer Role in the AI Era: 2025 Year in Review
Cloudflare's outage, React2Shell, Shai-Hulud 2.0, the Agentic AI Foundation and OWASP's agentic Top 10 close out 2025. What the year means for QA engineers.
If you want the person behind the work
Deep Work in a Shallow World: The Superpower We're Losing
How the ability to focus deeply is becoming a rare and valuable skill
Latest
- Comprehensive Logging and Reporting in Cypress (Part 3) Learn how to implement advanced logging and reporting in Cypress to track test execution, debug issues faster, and create professional test reports
- Building Maintainable Cypress Tests with Page Object Model (Part 2) Learn how to refactor Cypress tests using the Page Object Model pattern for better maintainability and scalability
- Getting Started with Cypress: A Step-by-Step Guide to Setup and First Test (Part 1) A comprehensive guide to setting up Cypress and creating your first automated test for YouTube search
- Launced a free website checker Launced a free website checker. Notes by Irfan Ahmad.
- How to Stop ChatGPT From Using Your Website Content How to Stop ChatGPT From Using Your Website Content. Notes by Irfan Ahmad.
The work
A short map of the teams, the systems, and the talks. The full record lives on the about page.
Agentic quality engineering
A 40+ person QA organisation. The practice moved from manual checks, to automated ones, to agentic quality engineering. Delivery went from about four weeks to under four days, with defect leakage held under 5%.
02The teams, and the release
Founded test engineering, DevOps, and a platform team. Self-serve releases on Docker, EKS, and Spinnaker. All of upGrad moved from ECS to Kubernetes, finished with zero issues.
03Talks in India and the UK
Three talks: tests shipped as containers, a container stack for Selenium with a live demo, and testing driven from chat so a team can see what ran.
The next essay can find you
I send new writing through CheckOps, the testing-tools directory I keep. Leave an email if you'd like an essay in your inbox. Or write to me at [email protected]. I read every note.
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