Enhancing Performance of Software Testing Automation using Selenium Web Grid

Abstract

Web application testing is crucial to ensuring software quality and dependability. Selenium, a popular open-source testing framework, is widely used for automating web browsers to perform various testing tasks. One of the key components of Selenium is Selenium WebGrid, a distributed testing infrastructure that allows running tests in parallel across multiple nodes. This paper presents a comprehensive study on measuring the performance of Selenium WebGrid. The objective is to evaluate its efficiency, scalability, and reliability in executing test scripts across different browsers and operating systems. The study compares the performance of Selenium WebGrid with other testing approaches, such as traditional Selenium Grid and single-node Selenium execution. The methodology employed in this study involves designing a set of representative test cases that simulate real-world scenarios. These test cases cover a range of typical web application functionalities, including form submissions, page navigation, and data validation. The performance metrics considered for evaluation include execution time, resource utilization, and test throughput. To measure the performance of Selenium WebGrid, a testbed environment is set up consisting of multiple nodes with different configurations. The test scenarios are executed on the WebGrid infrastructure, and the performance metrics are collected and analyzed. The results are then compared with those obtained from traditional Selenium Grid and single-node Selenium execution to identify the performance advantages and limitations of Selenium WebGrid. It demonstrates the improved scalability and efficiency of WebGrid in executing tests across multiple nodes simultaneously. The results also provide insights into the resource requirements and trade-offs associated with using Selenium WebGrid compared to other testing approaches. This work adds to the body of knowledge by presenting empirical data on Selenium WebGrid's performance characteristics. It serves as a valuable resource for software testing professionals and researchers interested in leveraging Selenium WebGrid for distributed web application testing.