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Artifacts & Reporting

Overview

Artifacts and reporting represent the output of test execution within CI/CD pipelines. From a QA perspective, they are essential for understanding what was tested, what failed, and why a pipeline passed or failed.

Running automated tests alone is not sufficient. Without clear artifacts and readable reports, QA teams cannot properly analyze failures or assess product quality.

What Are Artifacts in CI/CD?

Artifacts are files generated during pipeline execution and stored for later review.

Common QA-related artifacts include:

  • Test execution reports
  • Log files
  • Screenshots from failed UI tests
  • Video recordings or traces
  • Result files in standard formats (e.g., JUnit, JSON)

Artifacts allow QA engineers to investigate issues without rerunning tests.

Why Artifacts Matter for QA

Artifacts provide:

  • Evidence of test execution
  • Visibility into failure details
  • Support for defect reporting
  • Traceability across pipeline runs

For QA, artifacts act as the primary source of truth when analyzing test results.

Test Reporting in Pipelines

Test reporting focuses on presenting execution results in a clear and structured way.

A useful test report should show:

  • Which tests were executed
  • Pass and fail counts
  • Failure messages and stack traces
  • Execution duration

From a QA standpoint, reports must be readable, consistent, and actionable.

Common Reporting Approaches

QA teams commonly encounter:

  • HTML-based reports
  • JUnit-compatible result summaries
  • Step-level or scenario-based reports

The chosen format should support fast analysis and team-wide understanding.

Accessibility and Visibility

Artifacts and reports must be easy to access.

Good QA practices include:

  • Linking reports directly in pipeline results
  • Storing artifacts for historical comparison
  • Making reports accessible to the entire team

Reports that are difficult to find quickly lose their value.

Using Reports for Quality Assessment

QA teams use reports not only for debugging, but also for quality evaluation.

Reports help QA:

  • Identify recurring failures
  • Detect flaky tests
  • Evaluate release readiness

This allows quality discussions to be data-driven rather than subjective.

QA Responsibility

QA responsibilities related to artifacts and reporting include:

  • Defining which artifacts must be generated
  • Validating report accuracy
  • Ensuring failures provide sufficient detail
  • Preventing misleading or incomplete reporting

QA ensures that reports support decision-making, not confusion.

Final Thoughts

Artifacts and reporting turn automated testing into actionable quality insight. Without them, CI/CD pipelines provide limited value to QA teams.

Clear reporting and well-managed artifacts enable faster analysis, better communication, and more reliable release decisions.