How to build a Playwright test suite for a SaaS MVP (sample plan)

Table of contents

• Why Playwright for an MVP?

• Goals for a Playwright suite (what success looks like)

• Sample plan — phases & timeline

• Test pyramid: what to automate first

• Test design: selectors, fixtures, and stability tips

• CI integration & releasing safely

• What success looks like and next steps

• External resources

1. Why Playwright for an MVP?

When you’re building a SaaS MVP, you need speed + confidence. Playwright gives both: fast cross-browser automation, reliable selectors, and excellent headless support. For startups that need to move quickly — and hire QA that scales — Playwright delivers repeatable end-to-end coverage without the flakiness that kills velocity.

2. Goals for a Playwright suite

Before writing a single test, define measurable goals:

• Prevent critical regressions for core user flows (signup, billing, core feature).

• Keep test run time under a practical limit (e.g., 10–20 minutes on CI).

• Surface meaningful failures with clear logs/screenshots.

• Allow developers to run quick smoke tests locally.

3. Sample plan — phases & timeline

Phase 0 — Prep (1 week)
Set up repository, install Playwright, add linters, and a test scaffold. Create a “golden” checklist of critical user journeys (3–5 items).

Phase 1 — Smoke & Core Flows (1–2 weeks)
Automate 3–5 core flows: signup/login, create project, core action, billing flow, logout. Keep tests atomic and resilient.

Phase 2 — Secondary Flows & Edge Cases (2–4 weeks)
Add search, permissions, integrations, and error states. Prioritize based on user impact.

Phase 3 — Flaky-guard & CI (1 week)
Stabilize flaky tests, integrate with CI (parallel runs), and add screenshot/trace capture on failures.

Phase 4 — Maintenance (ongoing)
Rotate tests, prune brittle cases, and add new tests when features stabilize.

4. Test pyramid: what to automate first

• Unit tests (fast) for business logic — not Playwright.

• Integration/API tests for backend and contracts.

• End-to-end (Playwright) for critical user journeys only. Aim for 10–20% of total tests but cover 80–90% of user value paths.

5. Test design: selectors, fixtures, and stability tips

• Use data-test-id attributes for selectors — stable and intention-revealing.

• Isolate environment with fixtures: API seeds, test accounts, and clear teardown.

• Prefer role/accessible selectors where possible (Playwright supports this).

• Capture video/screenshot/trace on failure — make debugging quick.

• Limit test timeouts to sane values but allow retries for flakiness during PR runs.

6. CI integration & releasing safely

• Run a quick smoke suite on PRs (fast, critical flows).

• Run the full Playwright suite nightly or on main branch merges.

• Fail-fast on PR-level critical tests; run non-blocking longer suites and report results.

• Integrate test results with your ticketing or Slack to make failures visible.

7. What success looks like and next steps

Success = predictable feedback loops: devs get a failing test + trace quickly, fixes are fast, and test runtime is stable. Next: add API contract tests, performance checks, and integrate visual regression guards.

8. External resources

External references:

• Playwright docs — https://playwright.dev/

• Browser automation patterns — https://developer.mozilla.org/ (search Playwright best practices)

• CI patterns — https://circleci.com/docs or your CI docs of choice