Restore Confidence in Test Automation - part 2

By Eduard Dubilyer, CTO & Automation Testing Expert at Skipper Soft

In the previous article, I discussed how flaky tests quietly erode trust in your automation strategy.

And I ended with this:

You don’t need to accept this as normal anymore.

Because today, we have powerful AI and ML-driven tools that help detect, isolate, and fix flakiness before it costs you a release.

But here’s the key: tools only work if you use them well.

It’s a tool that connects to your CI pipeline and:

Think of it as a test reliability radar built into your dev workflow.

Here are five of the most effective flake-tracking platforms we’ve integrated for startup teams:

Simple GitHub CI integration, flake scoring, visual dashboards. Great for early-stage teams.

ML-based flake detection + test optimization. Ideal for larger, growing test suites.

If you’re already on CircleCI, this built-in dashboard shows flake rates and trends.

This is for teams who want to customize their own CI-level tracking with scripts.

Native dashboards for test retries, stability, and failure reasons. Great for frontend teams.

Installing the tool isn’t the hard part.

Using it well is.

I’ve seen teams install BuildPulse or Launchable… and then ignore the results.

Or worse, they auto-quarantine flaky tests and never go back.

That’s not quality. That’s avoidance.

Here’s how we coach teams to turn insights into action:

You can use a tag, dashboard widget, or Slack bot to show the top flaky tests weekly.

Agree on a flakiness threshold (e.g., <2%)—if exceeded, a sprint item must address it.

Ask in code reviews:

“Is this test stable?”

Let tools surface patterns, but have code owners confirm the fix or refactor direction.

Look for systemic issues: shared state, timing-based assertions, and environment variance.

Then, fix the pattern, not just the test.