Parallel testing reduces overall test execution time by testing several versions of the application or various components of the application at the same time. Parallel testing may be done manually or using test automation technologies. Both developers, as well as testers, run several tests at the same time on various devices and browser setups.
Parallel testing combines the automation framework with virtualization and cloud-based solutions, which manages device management and allows us to expand automated tests across platforms at the same time.
It makes use of virtual machines, which are computer resources that execute applications using software rather than a real computer. They appear as a whole independent computer in an application window on a desktop. Customers are using a rising number of various devices and browsers, making cross-platform testing in a short amount of time difficult.
Selenium Grid enables us to run tests in several settings and browsers at the same time. It enables us to do automated cross-browser testing across multiple browsers and versions at the same time. The major goal of doing parallel tests is to reduce overall testing time and effort while ensuring that the product’s quality is not compromised.
The easiest way to do parallel testing is to build several projects for browser compatibility testing in numerous pieces of web applications, as well as a master project to test all of them. In Selenium, there are two levels of criteria for parallel testing: entry-level and exit-level criteria.
Advantages Of Parallel Testing
There are a few additional reasons to consider parallel testing now that we’ve scraped the top of what parallel testing is and how it affects the test cycle.
1. Transitioning from Sequential Testing Gradually
If you attempt to accomplish everything at once, transitioning your QA routine from sequential to parallel testing will be a massive task. Your best chance could be to start small. You may start with the test cases that are the easiest to adapt to the parallel testing environment, allowing your engineers ample time to alter the remainder of the tests.
2. Speed
Sequential testing takes time; however, parallel testing allows you to split the time spent on each environment by the number of environments. To test your app on ten different devices, you simply need to create one script and execute it on all of your target devices, reducing your test time by ten times.
3. Increased Coverage
It’s usually a good idea to test your software across as many platforms, devices, and browsers as possible to ensure that no bugs creep through. Parallel testing will improve your test coverage to the next level, resulting in a higher return on investment.
4. Cost-Efficiency
The cost of creating, maintaining, and updating your own test environment may quickly add up. When it comes to parallel testing, upkeep is no longer an issue; instead, you just lease the required testing environment, which is constantly up to date. Furthermore, cloud-based testing grids enable you to execute tests at high concurrency, lowering the cost per test.
5. Your CI/CD Processes Should Be Optimized
Continuous integration and delivery’s greatest buddy is parallel testing. You may run tests as soon as developers submit new code changes across the SDLC by testing in parallel. Better communication between departments will be facilitated by timely reporting and rapid feedback in parallel testing.
6. Practices of Testing Improvement
Parallel testing enhances your company’s QA practice. The explanation is simple: testing at a fast pace allows you to test more. This allows your QA team to enhance their testing processes and find errors more quickly.
Best-Practices To Consider While Using Parallel Testing
Nowadays, many firms have shifted to parallelism in just a few areas of their QA processes rather than parallelizing all of them. Why? The most prevalent restrictions include infrastructure limits, data dependencies, inadequate test case data management, and hard coding. The best part is that there are methods for securing them and reaping their full advantages.
1. Create Tests That Can Run In Parallel
You don’t want to have a number of tests that can’t be performed in parallel shortly before the deadline. When time runs out, or a deadline approaches, properly planning ahead of time can prevent you from unpleasant surprises. Your best bet is to write your test cases with parallelization in mind. And trust us when we say that it sounds more difficult than it is: test cases written for parallel execution are easier, shorter, and quicker to construct.
2. Dependencies Should Be Avoided In Between Tests
Making the transition to parallel testing is difficult for many teams because of dependencies between distinct test cases. Simply said, if test cases are interdependent, they should be executed in a certain sequence, which may sabotage any parallel testing technique. As a result, it’s vital that your test cases be atomic and self-contained. Only then will you be able to implement them at any time and in any sequence, completely liberating your testing procedures.
3. Hard-Coding Should Be Avoided
Instead of producing data at runtime, hard-coding means incorporating it directly into the source code. This concept is antithetical to effective parallelization since it produces the previously noted interdependence between test cases. When scripting your test cases, it is highly advised that you avoid hard-coding values to ensure that each of your tests is self-contained and can be executed whenever required. When your test cases are executing in parallel, use the data-driven method to configure them.
4. In A Cloud-Based Environment Conduct Tests
One of the most common blunders is employing in-house resources to implement a parallel testing method. It is inefficient to build and maintain your own infrastructure. It’s not just time and money-consuming; you won’t be able to take advantage of parallel testing, where the ability to test at high concurrency is a significant benefit. Furthermore, maintaining your testing environment up to date takes a significant amount of time and effort. For this purpose, cloud-based services that enable you to access the essential devices at any time are a smart option.
5. Organize Your Test Data Effectively
The key to effective parallel test execution is efficient test data handling. But first, you’ll need a plan. You could wish to add two components to it: a creational strategy (that generates test data requirements) and a cleaning strategy (which cleans it up). Still, the most important factor is that your plan is tailored to your own situation. The following are really simple, which may be why these data management tactics are so effective:
- There are no creational or cleaning procedures in this basic approach
- The refresh-your-data technique, which refreshes your source code between test runs but has no creational strategy
- A self-serving data generation strategy with a creative strategy but no cleanup plan.
These are the most fundamental tactics. You may mix and combine them to suit your needs, or you can look into additional options like producing new data or renewing existing data.
Challenges Of Parallel-Testing
Along with a set of advantages, parallel testing comes with a number of challenges too that developers and testers must overcome in order to have seamless experiences. Following is a set of the most common challenges faced during parallel testing.
1. Issues with test execution
When we come into execution difficulties for a single machine performing automation scripts, we make modifications to the code, upgrade or downgrade the browser, move to a different package, and so on. What if we run into a problem in simultaneous testing? We’ll have to test many systems, gadgets, and virtual computers. If done incorrectly, it may be taxing.
2. Browser compatibility difficulties
Although parallel testing may aid in the execution of cross-browser compatibility testing, its coverage of several browsers is limited.
3. Resource Management
We must plan intricately to implement parallel testing to our project; we must know how many tests we must run concurrently, how many browsers we must use, how much RAM we must use, how many hours of testing we must complete, and how much time we must lock down our system during this process, among other details.
4. Minimize/eliminate reliance
Because separate modules execute in parallel during parallel testing, we must establish distinct modules. Modules with dependencies cannot be included in the test suite as a result.
5. Automation know-how
To successfully perform parallel testing, we must first have a thorough understanding of the goods and their functionality. As a result, we want an automation specialist with extensive experience in parallel testing and a thorough grasp of the project.
If you know how to develop a Selenium script, Cross-browser testing makes it simple to integrate that script. If you’re new to test automation, Record and Replay is an excellent place to start for creating codeless tests. Regardless of the option you pick, you may run many suites in parallel to greatly reduce testing time and increase coverage. At LambdaTest, you can use a scalable, dependable, and secure automation cloud to run automated browser tests. You can perform Selenium testing and Cypress test automation on 3000+ browsers and devices at scale.
Learn more from development and read Your Guide to Cross-Platform Apps Made.
