Test Runners

Overview

In this tutorial, we will learn about Test Runners. We will define the Test Runner and
look at some examples.

What is a Test Runner?

Test Runner is a tool that is capable of picking up the tests, executing the tests, and reporting the test results. The test runner can pick one test case at a time or pick a batch of test cases ( Test Suite).

Test Runner Illustration

The QA professionals / Developers need to feed the test suites of the Application under test. The test runner runs the tests and produces understandable test results and test log reports.

Test Runners Types

We can categorize test runners into many types based on different criteria and capabilities. For example, a JUnit-based test runner is capable of running unit test cases. Load Runner is capable of running load test cases.

The test runner can be a command-line or GUI tool. A command line test runner accepts some command line arguments and runs the tests with minimum user interaction. A GUI test runner is virtual and the user should interact with the UI to invoke the tests.

Some test runners are capable of running tests on a single machine, on the other hand, some runners can be distributed and capable of running tests on many machines/real or virtual cloud devices.