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How to Do Parallel Test Execution in Cucumber with Serenity

Cucumber 7 has introduced native support for parallel execution at both the feature and scenario levels. This parallel execution can provide significant performance improvements in test runs. If you want to harness these performance improvements and run your Serenity BDD features and scenarios in parallel, you will need to upgrade to JUnit 5.

Pre-requisites​

  • Cucumber 7.x
  • Serenity BDD 3.9.8 or 4.0.x
  • Maven 3.x for building the project

Now, let's get started with the detailed step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Update Serenity BDD to a Recent Version​

Before proceeding, make sure that you have a recent version of Serenity BDD. Versions 3.9.8 or 4.0.x are recommended for best results.

You can check your current version in your pom.xml file or update it to the latest version.

Step 2: Update to JUnit 5 in Your Maven Project​

JUnit 5 provides the foundation for running tests in parallel with Cucumber and Serenity. Here's how you can update to JUnit 5 in your pom.xml file:

  1. Open the pom.xml file in your Maven project.

  2. Add the following dependencies for JUnit 5 and Cucumber 7.

    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.junit</groupId>
                <artifactId>junit-bom</artifactId>
                <version>5.10.0</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        ...
        <!-- JUNIT 5 Dependencies -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.junit.platform</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit-platform-launcher</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.junit.platform</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit-platform-suite</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit-jupiter-engine</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.cucumber</groupId>
            <artifactId>cucumber-junit-platform-engine</artifactId>
            <version>7.2.3</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

More details on JUnit 5 and Maven can be found in the JUnit 5 User Guide.

Step 3: Create a junit-platform.properties File​

Create a new file named junit-platform.properties in your src/test/resources folder. This file enables and configures parallel execution.

Add the following content to the file:

cucumber.execution.parallel.enabled=true
cucumber.execution.parallel.config.strategy=dynamic
cucumber.plugin=net.serenitybdd.cucumber.core.plugin.SerenityReporterParallel
Breaking Change in Serenity 5.0.0

The Cucumber plugin path changed from io.cucumber.core.plugin.* to net.serenitybdd.cucumber.core.plugin.* in Serenity 5.0.0. Make sure to use the updated path shown above.

These properties enable parallel execution and configure it to use a dynamic strategy, along with the Serenity reporter for parallel execution.

Step 4: Create a cucumber.properties File​

Create a new file named cucumber.properties in your src/test/resources folder. This file will contain the Cucumber options for your Cucumber tests.

Add the following content to the file:

cucumber.execution.order = random
cucumber.plugin=pretty,json:target/cucumber.json,timeline:target/test-results/timeline
cucumber.snippet-type=camelcase

You can find more details on Cucumber configuration options in the Cucumber documentation.

Step 5: Update Your Cucumber Runner Class​

You should have a single runner class for your whole test suite. Update it as follows:

import org.junit.platform.suite.api.IncludeEngines;
import org.junit.platform.suite.api.SelectClasspathResource;
import org.junit.platform.suite.api.Suite;

@Suite
@IncludeEngines("cucumber")
@SelectClasspathResource("/features")
public class AcceptanceTestSuite {}

This runner class will include all the features in the /features directory and run them using the Cucumber engine.

Conclusion​

That's it! By following these steps, you can leverage the power of parallel execution with Cucumber and Serenity BDD. This will significantly reduce the execution time of your test suite, leading to faster feedback and more efficient development cycles.

Happy testing! 🚀