Distributed execution of test cases and continuous integration

Abstract

I present here a part of the research conducted in my Ph.D. course. In particular, I focus on my ongoing work on how to support testing in the context of Continuous Integration (CI) development by distributing the execution of test cases (TCs) on geographically dispersed servers. I show how to find a trade-off between the cost of leased servers and the time to execute a given test suite (TS). The distribution and the execution of TCs on servers is modeled as a multi-objective optimization problem, where the goal is to balance the cost to lease servers and the time to execute TCs. The preliminary results : (i) show evidence of the existence of a Pareto Front (trade-off between costs to lease servers and TCs time) and (ii) suggest that the found solutions are worthwhile as compared to a traditional non-distributed TS execution (i.e., a single server/PC). Although the obtained results cannot be considered conclusive, it seems that the solutions are worth to speed up the testing activities in the context of CI.