TestComplete / TestExecute parallel testing across multiple machines for Windows application

[matt_vb]

We are using TestComplete to automate testing our WPF Windows Desktop application. We then run the tests using TestExecute through our Jenkins CI system. As we are adding more tests the time taken to run them is increasing and so we are looking to split the tests up and run them across multiple computers. 

Ideally we would want to build the application on one Jenkins agent then distribute the binaries and test projects to the other Jenkins agents. Tests would then be allocated out to each agent to run (so that there is a rough balance in the time taken on each agent), then have Jenkins show the consolidated results.

There is lots of documentation on parallel testing for web tests, but I've struggled to find resources on how to do this for desktop applications. 

Can anyone provide assistance or point me in the direction of relevant resources?

[Marsha_R]

See if the Jenkins section in here is useful:

https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/working-with/integration/continuous-integration-syst...

[matt_vb]

That was helpful for getting Jenkins setup originally, but (unless I'm missing it) there isn't any information there about splitting the tests across multiple machines.

[Marsha_R]

Both of these describe how to run different project suites/projects/tests in Jenkins

https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/working-with/integration/jenkins/running-tests.html

https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/working-with/integration/jenkins/pipeline.html

[matt_vb]

Thanks. Those links don't seem to contain anything related to splitting tests across multiple machines or how to run in parallel.

Is it just a case of having to create separate execution plans and then manually running them on each different Jenkins agent?

[Marsha_R · Accepted solution]

This is how you would split them up.  I don't believe there's a way to have it split automatically.