When you hear the words record and playback, you may wish we were referring to an old-school VCR. That’s because this type of software testing technology is often met with looks of skepticism from developers. But that perspective is based on a past generation of tools, which were known for creating brittle or flaky tests that broke whenever there were changes to the UI of the application under test.

But like all testing technology, record and playback test automation has evolved significantly, and many of its original limitations are a thing of the past. Modern versions can benefit any team that needs a more efficient way to test and a faster path to release. Whether you’re a developer who doesn’t have time to write scripts to test your own code or you’re a tester looking to scale automation without extensive programming skills, record and playback tools deserve a second look.

In this guide, we’ll cover how record and playback testing tools have evolved, and how the next generation of this technology can help your team release with confidence in high-change software development environments.