Building E2E Test Automation with Playwright.
Overview
When I first started writing automated tests, everything was in one file — locators, actions, and assertions all mixed together. It worked, but it didn't scale. The moment a selector changed, I had to hunt through every test file to fix it. That's when I started learning about the Page Object Model (POM) pattern, and it changed how I approach test automation entirely. This article walks through how I structured an end-to-end test automation project using Playwright, POM, and a CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins.
What to Verify
The suite verifies end-to-end authentication flows in a modular way:
- Login, registration, forgot password, and forgot login name, each with its own coverage.
- Scenarios that need unpredictable input (e.g. a wrong password must trigger an error) use random data so it never accidentally matches a real account.
- Consistent behavior across browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge).
How to Verify
- Built with Playwright + Cucumber using the Page Object Model. Each feature has its own page class (locators and actions centralized).
- Shared elements (e.g. the navbar) are extracted into a component file, so one change updates everything that uses it.
- A dynamic data helper generates random strings and numbers for realistic but unpredictable input.
- Credentials, error messages, and boundary values live in an .env file, not in test files, making it easy to switch environments and keeping sensitive data out of the codebase.
- Cross-browser runs execute with a single command; screenshots are captured automatically and traces are saved on failure to speed up debugging.
Testing Stack
