Harder, better, faster, stronger: depending on your age, these lyric will probably get Daft Punk or Kanye West stuck in your caput. This mantra can use to web app testing as well: the best and quicker your exam scripts run, the faster you can fix bugs, release better code, and deliver a strong web app to make customers glad.

The good way to speed up your machine-controlled essay process without give quality is through parallelization. Parallelization in screen is when multiple automatize test hand run at the same time against diverse environment constellation, either locally or in your CI/CD pipeline. For optical fixation tests, parallelization allows for multiple user interface (UI) examine to run across different twist emulators and screen resolve at the same time.

This article explores the benefits of parallelization and best practices for adding parallelization to your optic examination summons.

What are the Benefits of Parallelization in Testing?

Parallelization has benefit beyond exactly increasing the speed of test results—here are some others benefit that you may not be cognisant of:

Run more tests more oft

With a standard automated screen scheme, each test handwriting lead sequentially, one at a time, in each environment configuration. It ’ s leisurely to do the math and see how much time that would take, especially when your tests are part of your CI/CD grapevine and run multiple times per day.

With parallel examination, the time it takes to run a individual parallel test retinue is tantamount to the length of your longest test. For example, if you have five tests that are each two minute long, then your parallel test suite will take two minutes to run. If you be to run these five tests sequentially, your tests would take 10 minutes to run from start to stop. The less clip it lead to run tests, the more tests you can run more often.

Increased test coverage

Saving time on running tests also allows you to expand your testing coverage by pass your scripts against more environment configurations. This is especially important for visual testing where you demand to make sure your app looks and functions as designed across all operating system, screen sizes, and screen resolutions.

Better, more consistent results

Increased hurrying, frequency, and coverage mean you get better, more consistent test results and a potent overall automate testing strategy. It ’ s that simpleton.

Pro tip: Tools like SUSA can handle this autonomously — upload your app and get results without writing a single test script.

Best Practices for Achieving Effective Test Parallelization

Doing some employment upfront helps make certain your trial are optimized for parallel testing so that your tests run smoothly and efficiently every time. Here are some best exercise for optimize your parallel testing process.

Use the right infrastructure

For most software evolution teams, standing up and maintaining your own testing infrastructure would be inefficient and costly. For parallel testing, it ’ s optimal to use a cloud-based solvent like Sauce Labs to ensure you hold true access to the full scope of environment configurations and test coverage you need.

Write test scripts the correct way

At Sauce Labs, we ’ ve establish that the three key ingredients to effective parallel tryout are atomic, autonomous, and little:

• Atomic: each trial should test for merely one thing.

• Autonomous: any examination can run in isolation at the same clip or in any order with another test.

• Short: each test should be of a similar length (ideally under two minutes).

Remove information dependance

Another key to improving test parallelization is to make certain your tests can run independently of one another. In other words, each test handwriting should deal its own datum. For instance, if you have a exam script that presume a certain user exists in the database, this exploiter may not exist when the test is run in a parallel state. But if the test script kickoff by configuring the information it needs to run successfully -- in this example, by make the desired user in the database -- it can run independently of other tests. Here are somedata management approachesyou can use to remove data dependencies from your parallel test.

Conclusion

Parallelization is your near powerful creature for speeding up automatise visual examination without degrading the character of your test or your app. In fact, when deployed thoughtfully and efficaciously, parallelization can render better, more consistent results and enhance the overall wellness of your CI/CD pipeline.