Highly scalable model for tests execution in cloud environments

Cloud computing works on various service models like SaaS, PaaS, IaaS. The enterprises outsource data and computation to cloud and benefit from cloud computing unique attributes like abundant storage, network and compute. This paradigm also brings forth many challenges for data security and access control. Many organizations are choosing Cloud platforms for software development/testing, particularly teams based on agile software development need faster software integration. As cloud turns out to be cost-effective and performance intensive it remains as obvious choice for organizations. In this paper we provide an efficient model for software testing which leverages cloud environment and supports rigorous requirements of agile development model viz., continuous build integration and we provide an approach to run automation testcases easily (particularly User Interface automation testcases). The regression tests developed as part of software lifecycle can be executed either on-demand or selectively based on tags provided. The proposed model scales well to accommodate any number of testcases can be run flexibly. Surprisingly our model input is a single CSV (comma separated file) with test case information. The proposed model takes care of automatic segregation of the testcases into test suites and then executes them individually either parallel or serially based on configuration. We rely on Jenkins tool (an open source build management tool) for creating required jobs and scheduling. The proposed model of Tests execution is extremely useful in high demanding agile environments where feature development is many times faster than traditional water fall model. The approach also takes advantage of virtualized environment for tests execution compared to traditional hardware.