Manual testing is critical to ensuring product quality. It has always been the backbone of quality assurance because with manual testing, you can perform exploratory testing, usability checks, and catch unexpected behaviors. Basically, the QA is looking at the product and interacting with it like a real end-user, which is good for checking its quality.
The Problem
When the QA is tasked with doing only manual testing and repeating the same regression tests release after release, the value of those tests can begin to erode. Running the same test cases every sprint or before every release can wear down even the most dedicated QA professional. Manual regression is often tedious—navigating the same screens, clicking the same buttons, verifying the same outputs.
Over time, the work becomes mechanical. The QA is less alert and starts assuming things will work as they always have. This can lead to skipped steps, overlooked bugs, or even failing to notice subtle UI or logic issues.
Humans are not consistent by nature; we are adaptable, and our attention drifts, especially under stress or boredom. Even small mistakes, like forgetting a test step or misinterpreting expected behavior, can allow bugs to slip through.
The other problem is the deadline and time pressure. When there are a lot of test cases and regression testing becomes too time-consuming, the testing is often rushed, or sometimes some parts must be skipped. This creates a dangerous illusion that the testing is done, but in reality, that is not the case, and some bugs can slip through.
When QA is constantly stuck in a loop of repeated manual tasks, there’s less time for activities that matter and that can improve the quality of the product significantly. For example, when the QA has more time, he/she can focus more on exploratory testing, usability testing, pairing, and communicating with the developers, improving the test cases and other documentation, etc.
When the stagnation starts, the quality starts to go down.
What Can This Cause?
With all these problems from above, we can expect that more and more bugs to make it into production. This will start a chain reaction; when the quality of the product decreases, customer satisfaction will also decrease, and that can also cause decreasing of a trust in QA because the bugs were not found during testing. The QA will start doing tasks mechanically, without critical thinking, without creativity, and proactivity.
QA morale will start to drop, leading to even more mistakes or burnout.
Also, the technical dept will increase day by day with every newly developed feature, and with every change in the product, because we are not writing automation tests to cover that.
The Solutions
The first and most important thing that you can do to solve these issues is to start automating. Begin by automating the most critical and repetitive test cases—like login, checkout, or form validation. After that, you can increase the automation coverage with even more scenarios. Use tools like Cypress, Appium, Playwright, or any other tool that suits your project needs. Automation gives you consistency, speed, and frees up the QA to focus on higher-value tasks.
If manual regression is still necessary, don’t let one person carry the full load every sprint. Rotate responsibilities among team members. Fresh eyes can catch different things and reduce fatigue.
If it is not necessary, you don’t need to test everything every time. Prioritize what matters by checking what’s most likely to break, what has changed, and what has the highest impact if it fails. This will help you to optimize the manual efforts where they matter most.
Manual testing is far from obsolete, but it shouldn’t be used as the only solution for a long time to perform repetitive regression testing. The cost isn’t just in time—it’s in missed bugs, demotivated QAs, and declining product quality.
Let automation handle the repetitive tasks. Stop using humans for what machines can do better. Let humans do what they do best—thinking critically, exploring creatively, and catching what automation can’t. This can truly improve the quality of the product and the user experience.
