I ticked Enable Parallel Execution on a suite of four short API tests and it got 4× slower:
- Parallel, max 4: 27.2 s
- Parallel off: 6.6 s
84% of the process time went to starting Java processes, not to running tests. In a parallel suite Katalon starts one Java process per test case, and for short tests that start-up costs more than parallel saves. I couldn’t see this clearly anywhere, so I built a small free tool that shows it: Run Clock.
What it shows after every run
- the real time, from Katalon preparing the run to the last Java process exiting
- where the time went: start-up, running tests and shutdown, for every process
- every parallel setting you’ve run for that suite, raced on one clock, and which one is fastest
- for Test Suite Collections, each suite on the collection’s own clock, and Sequential against Parallel
- a warning when a run is slower than usual for its setting
- an All runs page to compare any two runs
See a real report first
No install needed, they open in your browser:
Install
It’s a drop-in Test Listener: no plugin, no changes to your test cases or suites.
npx katalon-run-clock install "C:\path\to\your\katalon-project"
Then in Project Settings m refresh the project
CI
It works with Katalon Runtime Engine on Windows, Linux and macOS agents. It puts a summary on the build page and can keep history between builds. The repo has a ready-to-use Azure Pipelines example, and there’s a GitHub Action on the Marketplace.
Tested on Katalon Studio 11.6 across 43 real runs. Free and open source (Apache 2.0).
If you try it, especially on a bigger suite, I’d like to hear what your numbers look like and what’s missing.