The text emphasizes the critical role of quality assurance (QA) in software development, highlighting that neglecting thorough testing can lead to detrimental consequences for businesses, such as damage to reputation, financial losses, or security breaches. It argues against the misconception that frequent deployments facilitated by automated CI/CD pipelines can replace pre-release testing. Instead, it advocates for incorporating automated testing into the development process to efficiently catch and fix bugs early, thereby preventing the compounding of errors as new functionalities are added. The piece outlines various types of automated tests, including static analysis, unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests, stressing the importance of using these alongside manual testing where creativity and human judgment are required, such as in exploratory and acceptance testing. The article concludes by suggesting that even with robust pre-release QA activities, complexities in software make it essential to maintain observability and proactive monitoring in production to quickly address any emerging issues.