A healthcare platform I worked with needed two and a half weeks to complete a regression pass. Smoke testing alone took seven days. The obvious recommendation — the one everyone reaches for — was "automate everything." It would also have been the wrong place to start. Here's the trap. If you point automation at a bloated, outdated, UI-heavy suite, you don't get fast regression. You get an oversized, expensive, automated version of the same slow process, plus a maintenance bill that grows ever...