The last two weeks, I wrote about the 5 things automated tests miss that break real experiences and the 5 things automated tests catch that actually matter.
Cool.
But knowing what and how to test isn't everything. Neither is code coverage. You can have 80% code coverage and still ship broken features. You can have a comprehensive test suite and still miss what actually matters. The gap between good testing and good products isn't about test coverage.
It's about culture.
Testing culture is how your team thinks about quality.
It's the difference between checking boxes and actually caring whether something works. When testing is a cultural value, people instinctively ask better questions. What could go wrong here? Is this worth automating? What would break a real user's day?
Without that mindset, automated tests become theater. You're running them to say you ran them, not to catch real problems. You run them on a schedule and think you've done all you needed to. You might look at the results once in a while or before you release.
What's worse, it gives you a false sense of security that replaces vigilance.
The teams that ship reliable software aren't necessarily testing more. They've built a mentality where quality is everyone's job, where failing tests aren't interruptions. They're signals worth listening to. They know which tests matter and which ones are just noise.
This is where culture becomes a competitive advantage. Teams with strong testing cultures move faster, catch problems earlier and ship with confidence. They're deliberate.
How do you build that culture?
Forget the tooling. Forget the metrics.
What are the actual practices that make your team think differently about testing?
We'll explore that in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!