Test Plans Before the PR

May 25, 2026 Small workflow note. Every PR I created with AI came with a test plan section. I liked having it there, but it always felt superficial. A short checklist, mostly happy paths, easy to skim and move on. Now I ask for the test plan explicitly before opening the PR. Not as something the PR template fills in at the end, but as a step while I'm still in the session. The result is different. The plan gets longer and more specific. It covers paths I would skip when I'm eager to merge. The plans also push me past "it looks fine in the UI." They guide me to check fields in the database and verify they have the expected values. Obvious in theory, easy to skip in practice. Same thread as We're Wasting the Real Benefits of AI. Using AI is not only about implementation speed. It can boost planning and testing too, if you ask for that on purpose.