Here's a rathole that software test engineers often fall into. When you test software, you frequently encounter situations where some bugs block certain sets or types of tests. Until these bugs are resolved, you often resort to "workarounds" to avoid these problems and to enable you to continue to make testing progress. The danger is that in the course of "working around" these problems, you forget that the workarounds each have at their core an actual bug. And, if these bugs are not correctly resolved, you may never catch them. But, if you don't, your customers probably will.
So, in your earnest attempt to make as much testing progress as you can, even with immature and buggy software, don't forget to remove any workarounds that you put into place. Each workaround should always be treated as a "canary in a coal mine" and as a pointer to a potential serious bug. A good way to deal with these workarounds is to track them in your bug tracking system along with the bugs. You should close out one of these workarounds when the underlying bug is resolved and you can begin to take the road that you wanted to take in the first place! (And that will really make all the difference. My apologies to Robert Frost. ;-)
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