A test suite that went from four minutes to eleven over six weeks, with no test added that was individually slow.
$ ./bin/slowest junit.xml | head -3
0.412s OrderFlowTest::testCheckout
0.408s OrderFlowTest::testRefund
0.401s InvoiceTest::testTotals
# nothing stands out. but:
$ grep -c 'seedRealisticDistribution' tests/
188
# a seeder added in July, creating 5 customers with
# 900 orders each, called from a base class that 188
# tests inherit.
A fixture that is individually reasonable and inherited by half the suite is invisible in a slowest-tests report, because it makes everything slightly slower rather than anything much slower. The measurement that finds it is total time divided by test count over the weeks — the per-test mean went from 0.17s to 0.47s, and that number is the one worth graphing.