277 - Gregory Kapfhammer

Code with Jason

In this episode I talk with Gregory Kapfhammer about flaky tests. We cover their five main causes, why fixing individual flaky tests isn't enough, and how test suite health connects to broader engineering practices, team culture, and the overall quality mindset of an organization.

Links:

• https://www.gregorykapfhammer.com/
• The Beginning of Infinity
• Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
• Nonsense Monthly

Chapters

1. A Paper Newsletter For Programmers (00:00:00)

2. Introducing Gregory Caphammer (00:03:26)

3. Awe At The Foundations Of Computing (00:04:20)

4. Defining Flaky Tests And Why They Matter (00:08:48)

5. Order Dependence And Randomizing Test Runs (00:12:24)

6. The Five Causes Of Flakiness (00:18:06)

7. Environment Differences: Bug Or Flake (00:22:40)

8. The Boat Analogy: Suite Health Vs. Tests (00:27:12)

9. Architecture, Dependencies, And Flake Risk (00:32:48)

10. Focus Vs. Realism: Units, Mocks, End‑To‑End (00:37:20)

11. Coupling, Coverage, And Brittleness (00:42:16)

12. Metrics, Habits, And Shift‑Left Testing (00:48:12)

13. Craft, Culture, And Building For Quality (00:53:30)

14. Closing And Where To Find Greg (00:59:10)