Testing work that looks impressive, generates artifacts, and fulfills metrics while providing little value. Performative Testing is testing effort devoted to tasks make it appear as if QA is doing work while often ticking off mandated checkboxes.
End-to-End test automation is an example. There is often an outsized focused on E2E tests as they look impressive visually, yet they are expensive to write and maintain while finding very few real bugs. Meanwhile Functional and Exploratory ("manual") testing efforts provide high value but are difficult to quantify and therefore can be neglected or deprioritized.
"Looks busy. Feels productive. Delivers nothing" - Rahul Parwal
