VSTS Gems- Identify flaky tests

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Gem

Identify flaky tests

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View flaky tests in the Test hub:

Area

Test

TFS Availability

Future

Value

  • Increase confidence in automated test process effectiveness
  • Save time & Shorten the MTTD (Mean time to detect) of the Flaky tests

Full Description

Sometimes tests are flaky - they fail on one run and pass on another without any changes. Flaky tests can be frustrating and will undermine confidence in test effectiveness - causing failures to be ignored and bugs to slip through.  You can now configure the Visual Studio Test task to re-run failed tests. The test results then indicate which tests initially failed and then passed on re-run. Pay attention to flaky tests, they are telling you something :)

The Visual Studio Test task can be configured to control the maximum number of attempts to re-run failed tests and a threshold percentage for failures (e.g. only re-run tests if less than 20% of all tests failed) to avoid re-running tests in event of wide spread failures.

You can refer to DevOps at Microsoft on Eliminating flaky tests

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