# Post Launch Testing Game Plan

Written by Dominik Szahidewicz
Published: 2025-09-15
Updated: 2025-09-16

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This guide walks you through a structured game plan for what to test right after launch and how to keep testing alive over time. You’ll learn how to set up smoke checks, cross-browser baselines, performance snapshots, and regression cadences. 

We’ll then dive into how to implement it all using BugBug, a no-code Chrome-based end-to-end testing tool, and show how to integrate schedules, alerts, and CI/CD gates. Finally, you’ll find ready-made suites, variable templates, and practical examples you can adapt to your own staging and production environments.

\[TABLE\_OF\_CONTENTS\]

## 🎯 TL;DR - Post Launch Testing Game Plan

*   **Start simple with smoke checks**: Record core user flows (home, login, signup, conversion, health) using BugBug’s Chrome recorder, no coding required.
*   **Organize tests into suites**: Group scenarios (Smoke, Core Journeys, Auth) for easier scheduling, parallel runs, and environment management.
*   **Run in the cloud & schedule tests**: Move execution off your laptop; set frequent runs (every 5–10 min for Smoke, hourly for Core Journeys, nightly for Auth).
*   **Enable alerts & CI/CD gates**: Connect Slack/webhooks for failure notifications and integrate with GitHub Actions or CI pipelines to block bad deploys.
*   **Keep tests stable & reusable**: Use BugBug’s auto-selectors, add “page ready” assertions, exclude experiments, and reuse components like login or checkout flows.

`<custom-yellow-tip><json>{"name":"yellow-tip","children":[{"name":"yellow-tip-title","children":[{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"data":"Check also:"}]},{"name":"paragraph"}]},{"name":"yellow-tip-details","children":[{"name":"paragraph"},{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"data":"👉 "},{"attributes":{"linkHref":"https://bugbug.io/blog/test-automation-tools/free-test-automation-tools/"},"data":"Top Free Test Automation Tools"}]},{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"data":"👉 "},{"attributes":{"linkHref":"https://bugbug.io/blog/test-automation-tools/web-test-recorder/"},"data":"Web Test Recorder - Which One Is The Best?"}]},{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"data":"👉 "},{"attributes":{"linkHref":"https://bugbug.io/blog/software-testing/StaleElementReferenceException/"},"data":"How to Handle StaleElementReferenceException in Selenium"}]}]}]}</json>  <yellow-tip-title-md>  **Check also:**  </yellow-tip-title-md>  <yellow-tip-details-md>  👉 [Top Free Test Automation Tools](https://bugbug.io/blog/test-automation-tools/free-test-automation-tools/)  👉 [Web Test Recorder - Which One Is The Best?](https://bugbug.io/blog/test-automation-tools/web-test-recorder/)  👉 [How to Handle StaleElementReferenceException in Selenium](https://bugbug.io/blog/software-testing/StaleElementReferenceException/)  </yellow-tip-details-md>  </custom-yellow-tip>`

## How to do all that with BugBug (HOW to implement)

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## 1) Record the critical journeys (minutes, no code)

*   **Install the BugBug Chrome recorder and record flows** (login → do X → assert Y). You can create reliable end-to-end tests without writing code.  
*   **Add assertions as you record** (text present / element visible) so failures map to user-visible issues.  
*   **Use Variables for base URLs, emails, product names**; reference as {{baseUrl}}, {{uniqueEmail}}.  
*   **Optional**: Built-in inbox testing accelerates signup/reset flows (email capture/confirmation).

## 2) Structure tests into Suites

Create suites like:

*   **Smoke—Prod** (P0s only)  
*   **Core Journeys**—Prod (search, profile, payments, i18n)  
*   **Auth—Prod** (login, reset, SSO)  
     Suites run tests in parallel, can be scheduled, and help manage environments.

## 3) Prove they work in the cloud

After local playback, switch each test/suite to Run in cloud—this moves execution off your laptop and is required for scheduling.

## 4) Add Schedules (your 24/7 monitors)

From Schedules → New schedule, pick Every 5 minutes / Hourly / Daily / Weekly / Monthly. Start with:

*   **Smoke—Prod**: every 5–10 minutes  
*   **Core Journeys—Prod**: hourly at :15  
*   **Auth—Prod**: nightly  
     No infra or CI needed to schedule.

## 5) Turn on alerts

*   **Slac**k: send failures to a channel/DM.  
*   **Webhooks**: post to incident bots, ticketing, or on-call routers; you can include built-in variables like {{testRunId}}.

## 6) Gate deploys with CI/CD

*   **GitHub Actions**: official action runs BugBug tests/suites in the cloud (paid plans). Use it post-deploy (or as a gate) to auto-fail/rollback. [GitHub](https://github.com/bugbug-io/bugbug-github-action?utm_source=chatgpt.com)  
*   **API/CLI:** trigger specific tests/suites with environment variables from any CI.

## 7) Keep tests production-ready (reduce flake)

*   Prefer BugBug’s auto-selectors; add explicit ready assertions (e.g., “Dashboard” visible) to tame dynamic UIs.   
*   A/B tests & experiments: exclude BugBug cloud runner IPs (or your local IP) from experiments to avoid DOM drift.  
*   Use Step groups/components to reuse common flows (login, add-to-cart) and keep suites tidy.

## Ready-made suites & checks (copy the idea, implement in BugBug)

### Suite: Smoke—Prod (every 5–10 min)

1.  **Home renders**
    
    Go to / → assert hero heading text exists.
    
2.  **Login**
    
    Visit /login → enter creds (from {{smokeUser}}) → submit → assert username visible.
    
3.  **Primary conversion**
    
    Add product → checkout (test/sandbox) → assert confirmation number.
    
4.  **Health endpoint**
    
    Open /status → assert JSON contains "ok": true.
    
5.  **Cookie banner**
    
    Accept → assert preference stored (cookie/localStorage) and UI remains usable.
    

`<custom-yellow-tip><json>{"name":"yellow-tip","children":[{"name":"yellow-tip-title","children":[{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"attributes":{"bold":true,"italic":true},"data":"Implementation notes"},{"data":": "}]},{"name":"paragraph"}]},{"name":"yellow-tip-details","children":[{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"data":"Record with the Chrome extension; parameterize URLs like {{baseUrl}}/login; run in cloud; schedule every 5–10 minutes; send Slack + webhook alerts."},{"attributes":{"linkHref":"https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bugbug-automation-testing/oiedehaafceacbnnmindilfblafincjb?hl=en&utm_source=chatgpt.com"},"data":" "}]},{"name":"paragraph"}]}]}</json>  <yellow-tip-title-md>  _**Implementation notes**_:   </yellow-tip-title-md>  <yellow-tip-details-md>  Record with the Chrome extension; parameterize URLs like {{baseUrl}}/login; run in cloud; schedule every 5–10 minutes; send Slack + webhook alerts. [](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bugbug-automation-testing/oiedehaafceacbnnmindilfblafincjb?hl=en&utm_source=chatgpt.com)  </yellow-tip-details-md>  </custom-yellow-tip>`

## Suite: Core Journeys—Prod (hourly)

*   Signup with {{uniqueEmail}} → verify confirmation email → first-login checklist. (Use inbox feature.)  
*   Search/filter/sort: assert count/ordering changes.  
*   Profile update: update avatar/settings → reload → assert persisted.  
*   Payment fallback: try a “declined” card → assert friendly error.  
*   Locale switch: change language → assert translations persist.

## Suite: Auth—Prod (nightly)

*   Password reset flow (email link).  
*   SSO (if applicable).  
*   Session expiration → re-auth prompt.

## Variables & environments (quick templates)

Project variables

*   baseUrl → https://app.example.com
*   stagingUrl → https://staging.example.com
*   smokeUser / smokePass
*   uniqueEmail → generated per run (BugBug can set variables at runtime)

Use them in steps as {{baseUrl}}/dashboard or input fields.

**Per-suite overrides**

*   Run Smoke against prod but the same suite can target staging by swapping {{baseUrl}}. Suites are explicitly designed to support multiple environments.

## Monitoring & alerting patterns

*   **Channel alerts**: Slack channel for Smoke—Prod; team DMs for Auth—Prod nightly results.  
*   **Incident automation**: Webhook to your incident platform with {{suiteName}}, {{testRunId}}, failure URL; auto-open a Sev-2 ticket.  
*   **Noise control**: Alert only on consecutive failures or set a “cool-down” in your receiver (done on the webhook consumer side).

## Flake-resistant design checklist

*   Add an assertion after each navigation (“page ready”).   
*   Stabilize experiments (disable or pin variant for runner IPs).  
*   Reuse step groups/components for login, search, checkout.

`<custom-yellow-tip><json>{"name":"yellow-tip","children":[{"name":"yellow-tip-title","children":[{"name":"paragraph","children":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"data":"Also, check how to "},{"attributes":{"linkHref":"https://bugbug.io/blog/software-testing/flaky-test/","bold":true},"data":"fix flaky tests"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"data":"! "}]},{"name":"paragraph"}]},{"name":"yellow-tip-details","children":[{"name":"paragraph"},{"name":"paragraph"}]}]}</json>  <yellow-tip-title-md>  **Also, check how to** [**fix flaky tests**](https://bugbug.io/blog/software-testing/flaky-test/)**!**   </yellow-tip-title-md>  <yellow-tip-details-md>  </yellow-tip-details-md>  </custom-yellow-tip>`

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## Your next moves (straight to done)

1.  Record 5 tests: home, login, signup, conversion, health.  
2.  Add variables ({{baseUrl}}, users).  
3.  Put them into Smoke—Prod; Run in cloud; ensure they pass.  
4.  Create a Schedule: every 5–10 minutes; connect Slack + Webhook.   
5.  Wire CI to run Smoke after each prod deploy using the GitHub Action (or API/CLI).

**⚡ By following these steps, you’ll have an automated safety net that validates your app’s most critical journeys within minutes of each deploy and keeps monitoring them around the clock.**

Happy (automated) testing!