https://austin.is-a.dev/blog Testing, frontend, AI, and the occasional strong opinion. en Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:42:03 GMT https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/16 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/16 Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT QA & Testing Today I start as a QA Lead on a digital health system I've never seen. Not a "here's the perfect QA process" article — this is the reconnaissance plan I'm actually walking in with, written before I know whether it works. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/15 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/15 Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT AI Your AI has the brain. It has the skills. It still doesn't have hands. What MCP actually is, how it's different from a skill, and how to sketch your first AI-powered QA workflow. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/14 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/14 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT AI Stop asking one AI to be good at everything. How to install, call and write your own specialised AI skills for frontend, QA and backend work, and for the parts of the job you keep re-explaining. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/13 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/13 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT AI Twelve ways to use AI that make you a sharper engineer instead of a faster copy-paster. Debugging, breaking features, code review, test data and impact analysis. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/12 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/12 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT AI Most of us still use AI like a smarter Google search. The bigger shift is delegation: agents with tools, context and guardrails, and what MCP means for engineers and QAs. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/8 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/8 Tue, 20 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT QA & Testing Cypress interview prep: project structure, best practices, common questions, CI/CD setup, and how to explain your test architecture clearly. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/10 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/10 Tue, 20 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT QA & Testing How Playwright works, how to structure a project, and when to choose it over Cypress, with code examples and a side-by-side comparison. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/11 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/11 Tue, 20 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT AI What AI tools are already doing in QA, workflows you can use today, and skills that still require a human tester. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/1 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/1 Sun, 14 Apr 2024 12:00:00 GMT Development Component architecture, performance, state management, and tooling choices for shipping maintainable web apps. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/2 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/2 Wed, 10 Apr 2024 12:00:00 GMT AI Where AI coding assistants help today, where they fall short, and what that means for how you work. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/3 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/3 Fri, 05 Apr 2024 12:00:00 GMT Design Utility-first styling, responsive layouts, design tokens, and dark mode with Tailwind CSS. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/4 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/4 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT Development How TypeScript catches bugs early, improves editor support, and fits into existing JavaScript projects. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/5 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/5 Wed, 20 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT Career How to structure a developer portfolio so hiring managers understand your work quickly. https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/6 https://austin.is-a.dev/blog/6 Fri, 15 Mar 2024 12:00:00 GMT Development Custom elements, Shadow DOM, and where Web Components fit alongside React or Vue.