I have worked on a few teams recently where testing is split between exploratory manual passes and a growing set of automated checks. The common pain point has been test management tooling feeling heavier than the value it provides.

On smaller or fast moving teams, we usually do not need deep traceability or enterprise reporting. What we do need is a simple way to organize test cases, log runs quickly, and see what actually ran without turning test execution into admin work. Spreadsheets start breaking down pretty fast, but a lot of tools feel like they assume a dedicated QA ops role.

I have seen some teams stick with lightweight tools that focus on fast run logging and low setup cost. Others still prefer keeping most of the context in code and only tracking higher level manual scenarios in something like Tuskr because it stays out of the way and does not force a lot of ceremony.