UX Research SoftwareSourced

Case Study: How Optimal Workshop runs its test suite in under 7 minutes on Semaphore

Optimal Workshop Case StudySourced & dated by Case Study Desk

Key facts · TL;DR

Company

Optimal Workshop

Industry

UX Research Software

Challenge

Test suites running well past an hour

Headline result

Optimal Workshop cut test-suite runtime from well past an hour to under 7 minutes with 12+ parallel jobs on Semaphore

Key results

<7 min

Test suite runtime

down from well past an hour

12+

Parallel jobs

of 16 available

10+ hrs

Engineering hours saved daily

via parallel testing

The challenge

Optimal Workshop, a SaaS company making UX research and usability tools, had a test suite that ran well past an hour when executed serially, slowing every build.

The solution

The team used Semaphore to split its test suite across 12 or more parallel jobs, with up to 16 jobs available.

“The ability to split the test suite up across 12 or more jobs in Semaphore and have the test suite run in under 7 minutes is so important for us and it saves us a lot of development time.”
RB
Ross Baird
Lead Developer, Optimal Workshop

The results, in context

Optimal Workshop reported its test suite running in under 7 minutes when split across 12 or more parallel jobs, versus well past an hour serially, saving 10 or more engineering hours daily. Figures are quoted from Semaphore's published story and dated January 21, 2020.

Products used

Semaphore Parallel jobsSemaphore Test parallelization