[Moto Z Play ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Dev] KrisM22:
Just before I want to change, I check google play store My Apps and games and update any of my apps that are listed as having updates.

Tell TBPro to back up everything.

Boot to TWRP and connect my phone USB to my computer and copy the Titanium Backup folder to my computer in case the update erases Internal Storage. This can only be copied when in TWRP.

Boot to TWRP and backup my ROM checking that the date on the label is today so I can find it again.

If I am coming from the same ROM, I do Wipe/Advanced and check dalvik/art, system, data, and cache and slide the slider to wipe them. If coming from 64bit ROM you will have to Format Data.

Flash ROM.

Flash gapps.

Press Reboot and go through the install procedure.

When i am at desktop, I usually wait a couple minutes for google to finish updating itself and then boot back to TWRP.

Flash magisk and reboot.

Sometimes it takes magisk a couple of reboots to appear.

Use Play Store to install Titanium Backup, and Titanium backup Pro.

Click on TBPro (it will ask for superuser priv) and tell it to restore missing apps with data. (if you are coming from a 64 bit ROM, only restore the apps - NO DATA.)

Since Nova is one of those apps, i will usually get asked for a default launcher when I leave TBPro.

This gives me a desktop with all my app icons where I left them in my last build, and except for asking for permissions, they are ready to go.

Since I use a live wallpaper, I unchecked that from the TBPro restore, and install that by clicking on the app on the SDcard. Then hard press wallpaper and slide to right and choose live wallpapers an choose the one I want.

That's it. Then I do things like test calls in/out, test that location is working correctly, and that's about it. Whole thing might take 10 min if that. The first time through this it might take a few minutes more as you want to be careful that you do it right, But I clean rebuild every month, and more if I need to test something, so it's pretty quick as I am used to it. I don't dare do a "dirty" update/upgrade - you wind up with a mixture and you are never sure where your problems are coming from.

I needed this fast way of setting things up in case I see something that I want to test - I don't want that test to take up a lot of my time. Yes, sometimes TBPro seems not to quite restore things correctly, but any slip-up is very minor. This last go-around I had wiped data and thus Internal Storage about 5 times so I wound up restoring TBPro stuff from a 3-07 backup, so i might have lost a day or 2, but didn't notice a difference (I have a few past Titanium Backup folders sitting on a 2TB hd I have plugged to my laptop.)

I am sure there are other quick ways of setting things up. Perhaps others will jump in with their fav.

Nova Backup backs up the settings on the launcher. (1.2MB) If I did not have Nova backed up on TBPro, I would need a Nova Backup. If all I had was Nova and Nova Backup, I would have to manually install each app and position it where I want it on the desktop.

TBPro backs up the 30-40 or so apps I normally want on a test build, with data(672MB) - one of those apps happens to be the Nova Launcher. It would take me a long time to individually install all those apps. Long ago before GB(Gingerbread), I did that a couple times - then bought Pro. TBPro does it in a couple minutes. By including Nova in that, when TBPro finishes the install, I have a complete launcher desktop as it was before, because Nova remembers where the app icons were positioned. It screws up the Weather Underground widget so I have to remove that and replace it. Additional 15 secs. Done.

For me, any test build has the extreme liklihood of becoming my daily driver. It is no good to me if it doesn't have everything.