HyperExecute: Transforming the Future of Software Testing
LambdaTest
Posted On: August 22, 2024
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11 Min Read
Software testing is evolving rapidly, and traditional testing methods are no longer sufficient for today’s fast-paced development cycles. This session at TestMu Conference 2024 dives into how HyperExecute is revolutionizing software testing with faster, more reliable, and more efficient testing solutions.
HyperExecute is an innovative solution designed to tackle the inefficiencies and manual interventions in current testing practices. Anmol Gupta, Senior Product Manager at LambdaTest, explains how HyperExecute accelerates testing cycles, offers flexibility in frameworks, optimizes testing through smart orchestration, and leverages AI for faster root cause analysis.
If you couldn’t catch all the sessions live, don’t worry! You can access the recordings at your convenience by visiting the LambdaTest YouTube Channel.
Current Challenges in Software Testing
Before diving into the benefits of HyperExecute, it is important to understand the limitations of current testing practices:
- Time Allocation: Only 30% of testing time is spent on authoring test cases, while 70% is consumed by mundane tasks like fixing broken test cases, monitoring test environments, debugging, and more.
- Manual Interventions: Multiple manual steps such as infrastructure provisioning, checking infrastructure stability, managing dependencies, and analyzing test results lead to slower release cycles and degraded deliverables.
- Inefficiencies in the CI/CD Pipeline: Gaps in the CI/CD process, such as infrastructure setup, dependency management, and manual test execution, result in inefficiencies and wasted resources.
These inefficiencies result in slower test execution, delayed release cycles, wasted testing resources, and ultimately, a degradation in software quality.
How HyperExecute Addresses These Challenges?
To address these challenges, LambdaTest introduced HyperExecute, targeting five main problem areas. HyperExecute targets five main areas to solve these problems:
- Unified Test Execution Platform: Provides a single platform for all test executions, reducing the complexity of managing multiple tools.
- Efficient Orchestration and Distribution: Offers optimized orchestration and distribution of test cases to ensure efficient use of resources and faster test execution.
- Framework Agnostic: Supports running test cases across any framework, including low-code and no-code tools.
- Integrated Test Observability and Analytics: Embeds test observability and analytics directly into the platform, offering real-time insights into test performance and issues.
- AI-Powered Test Intelligence: Uses AI to build test intelligence, aiding QA teams in identifying root causes of failures and improving overall testing efficiency.
HyperExecute uses AI to enhance test intelligence, allowing QA teams to identify the root causes of failures more efficiently and improve overall testing performance. By analyzing large amounts of data and learning from previous tests, AI can predict flaky tests, detect patterns, and offer actionable insights for faster resolution.
In addition to HyperExecute AI-powered tools like KaneAI further accelerate the process by intelligently automating compatibility testing across diverse environments. KaneAI AI-driven insights can identify potential compatibility issues across different browsers, devices, and operating systems, enabling teams to optimize their testing cycles and reduce manual intervention.
Key Features of LambdaTest’s HyperExecute Platform
HyperExecute by LambdaTest brings a revolutionary approach to software testing designed to optimize testing cycles, improve efficiency, and deliver faster, more reliable results. Below is an overview of the key features that make HyperExecute a game-changer in the testing landscape.
Scalable and Customizable Infrastructure
LambdaTest’s HyperExecute provides a robust infrastructure that is both scalable and customizable to accommodate the diverse needs of QA teams:
- Framework Support: Supports multiple testing frameworks, making it adaptable and versatile.
- Intelligent Caching Mechanisms: Caches dependencies to speed up consecutive test runs, reducing setup time and improving overall efficiency.
Advanced Orchestration Capabilities
The platform includes a variety of orchestration features that enhance the efficiency and reliability of test execution:
- Automatic Retries for Failed Test Cases: Reduces manual intervention by automatically retrying failed tests.
- Test Reordering and Fail-Fast Mechanisms: Optimizes test execution sequence to save time and resources.
- Auto-Healing Functionalities: Automatically fixes failing test cases, minimizing manual correction efforts.
- Error Categorization and AI-Powered Root Cause Analysis: Uses AI to analyze test failures, quickly identifying root causes.
Flaky Test Detection and Management
The dashboard addresses one of the most common testing challenges – flaky tests:
- Flaky Test Detection: Identifies tests that are unstable and may produce inconsistent results.
- Automatic Muting of Flaky Tests: Mutes tests that are detected as flaky to prevent false positives.
- Built-In Smart Waits: Removes the need for explicit waits in test scripts, allowing testers to focus solely on test authoring.
Additional Functionalities
It also offers several advanced features to streamline the testing process:
- Scheduled Execution: Allows for the scheduling of test runs, enabling continuous testing.
- Support for Low-Code and No-Code Tools: Provides flexibility for teams using various testing tools, including low-code and no-code platforms.
- Comprehensive Test Analytics: Offers in-depth analysis, trends, and dashboards, all within a single platform.
Continuous Integration (CI) Enhancements
HyperExecute improves the CI process by providing:
- Customizable Functionalities: Features like dependency caching, differential uploads, and workflow scheduling.
- Enterprise-Grade Platform: A unified platform that dynamically scales, ensuring fast and efficient test execution.
- Cost Efficiency: Scales up or down based on real-time needs, offering significant cost savings for large-scale deployments.
Orchestration Advancements
The platform supports multiple orchestration modes to optimize test execution:
- Auto-Split and Metric Modes: Facilitates efficient test distribution and parallel execution.
- Job Prioritization: Ensures critical tests are prioritized to provide faster results.
- AI-Driven Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Analyzes test failures using AI to provide actionable insights.
Comprehensive Analytics
HyperExecute’s analytics capabilities provide deep insights into test performance:
- Test Analysis and Trends: Visualizes performance over time, helping identify patterns and areas for improvement.
- Shareable Dashboards: Enables easy collaboration and reporting.
- Performance KPIs: Consolidates all key performance indicators in one place, offering a comprehensive view of testing efficiency.
Setting Up Tests in LambdaTest’s HyperExecute Dashboard
To demonstrate LambdaTest’s HyperExecute capabilities, Anmol started with a simple set of test cases configured to run on both Linux and Windows environments using the Chrome browser. The configuration is managed through a YAML file that contains all the instructions required to run the test cases. Anmol highlighted:
- YAML Configuration: This file includes various parameters that determine how and where the tests are executed. For example, it allows users to specify the operating systems, browsers, and other variables to customize their test runs.
- Command Line Interface (CLI): The CLI, a binary file, is another key component that facilitates communication with the HyperExecute platform. The user must invoke this binary with their access keys and the YAML file to trigger the tests.
Execution and Analysis
Once the tests are initiated, the CLI communicates with the HyperExecute platform to process the scripts and execute them. Anmol explained how the platform dynamically spins up infrastructure “just in time” to handle the test cases. Key features include:
- Configurable Infrastructure: The platform sets up and configures the necessary infrastructure based on the YAML instructions, and the tests start running almost immediately.
- Test Observability: Users can view console logs, command logs, network logs, and metadata related to the test cases, all consolidated under a single dashboard. This provides comprehensive visibility into the testing process.
- Automatic Concurrency Optimization: The platform automatically suggests the optimal number of concurrent threads for execution, helping users save significant time.
Advanced Orchestration and Error Handling
Anmol described several advanced orchestration features of HyperExecute:
- Fail-Fast Mechanisms: The platform identifies failed test cases due to external reasons and automatically halts the execution, conserving resources and time.
- Multiple Orchestration Modes: HyperExecute supports running test cases across multiple operating systems and devices simultaneously. Users can share iOS or Appium-based test cases for parallel execution on different devices.
- Auto-Heal Functionality: The platform automatically detects and corrects locator issues in test cases, significantly reducing manual effort and reruns.
To further enhance testing efficiency, LambdaTest’s HyperExecute platform introduced several new updates last year:
- Project Section: This new feature allows users to view all testing results by project, schedule executions, and manage workflows more efficiently.
- Support for Performance Testing: HyperExecute now supports JMeter-based GMX files, enabling performance testing alongside functional and end-to-end tests.
- Integration with No-Code/Low-Code Tools: The platform extends support to tools like Tosca Decks, allowing seamless execution and result management.
Anmol shares some important updates to the HyperExecute platform! Now, HyperExecute can be leveraged to run performance tests (with JMeter) and execute accessibility tests. It now also supports popular No-Code tools like Tosca. More details in the graphical representation shared… pic.twitter.com/Vl5srFNbJC— LambdaTest (@lambdatesting) August 22, 2024
Demonstration of New Features
Anmol provided a live demonstration of these new features:
- HyperExecute GUI: The GUI allows users to select projects, configure test cases, and run them with just a few clicks, offering advanced configurations directly within the GUI.
- Test Manager Overview: The Test Manager showcases test cases created using AI, demonstrating how easy it is to create and execute tests.
- Accessibility Testing: HyperExecute now includes accessibility testing within the platform, with comprehensive reports and insights for each test.
HyperExecute + KaneAI – This combination is a boon to the QA community! As Anmol mentions, his 10 year old nephew could generate tests using KaneAI, it’s that easy. And HyperExecute provides the speed that helps you accelerate tests in a big way. pic.twitter.com/BhlvOaF3Wn— LambdaTest (@lambdatesting) August 22, 2024
Summing Up the Session
HyperExecute is reshaping the future of software testing with a powerful, unified, and flexible platform that addresses the critical challenges faced by modern QA teams. From tackling inefficiencies in the CI/CD pipeline to reducing manual interventions and providing intelligent orchestration, HyperExecute offers a comprehensive solution that accelerates testing cycles and enhances software quality.
By leveraging advanced AI features, smart orchestration capabilities, and seamless integration with various frameworks, it empowers teams to focus on writing high-quality test cases while achieving faster, more reliable test execution.
For organizations looking to streamline their testing processes and improve delivery timelines, head over to the support documentation for in-depth guidance to get started.
Time for Some Q&A
Here are some of the questions that Anmol took up at the end of the session:
- How can HyperExecute be more practical for an organization?
- What is the future of HyperExecute beyond AI, and what are the best practices for new users?
- Can you explain how Smart Autosplit improves resource utilization during testing?
- Can stability issues be handled using HyperExecute?
- Apart from Selenium, Cypress, and Playwright, which other frameworks are supported by HyperExecute?
Anmol: HyperExecute is designed for enterprise environments where multiple teams and thousands of developers are running numerous builds and test cases daily. It allows multiple teams to use the same infrastructure layer, regardless of the testing frameworks they use. The platform learns from previous runs, making subsequent executions faster and more efficient.
Anmol: Beyond AI, HyperExecute aims to support all types of testing under a single platform, including performance testing, low-code/no-code tools, and more. The vision is to create a broader platform that smoothens the entire QA journey, from writing test cases to debugging them faster. New users should explore the platform’s documentation to understand use cases and optimize their testing processes.
Anmol: Smart Autosplit uses prior data about test execution times, past failures, and other factors to intelligently group test cases. This approach minimizes the total testing duration by balancing long-running and short-running test cases, thereby optimizing resource utilization and reducing overall testing time.
Anmol: Yes, HyperExecute addresses stability issues by packing all components (scripts, dependencies, etc.) into a single machine or environment, much like running tests on a local machine. This approach ensures that the tests are executed in the most stable manner possible, even in a cloud environment.
Anmol: HyperExecute supports various other frameworks and low-code/no-code tools, including Puppeteer, Appium, Espresso, Maestro, XCUITest, Katalon, and Tosca. The platform is framework-agnostic, allowing it to run custom scripts or legacy code specific to your organization.
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