TestingBudget

Run

Prepare and start a run

The per-run overhead before and during execution: environment readiness, test data, kick-off and monitoring.

Unit
hours per run
Where you enter it
Run tab, Detailed mode, per vendor.

What it means

What a person does around a run rather than inside it: confirming the build and environment are ready, refreshing test data, starting the run, and watching for infrastructure failures and re-runs. Every regression checklist separates this preparation as its own block of work.

It is per vendor because tools differ in how much of it they absorb — hosted execution grids and built-in data management reduce it; a self-managed grid increases it.

Why it matters to the cost

Half an hour a run sounds trivial and adds up to a working week a year on a fortnightly cadence. It is also a place where a homegrown framework quietly costs more than its licence suggests: someone has to keep the grid alive before every run.

Typical values

Ten to fifteen minutes for a hosted platform; thirty to forty-five minutes where you run your own grid; up to an hour for a manual cycle's set-up.

Typical values describe a category of tool — AI-native, codeless, script-based, homegrown, manual — never a named product. Why we do not price named products.

Where it appears in the model

Run — every release

tests broken per run
Total test cases × Test breakage rate ÷ Runs per year — found here, repaired under Maintain
flaky per run
Total test cases × Flaky failures per run
Failures per run
Defects found per run + tests broken per run + flaky per run — derived, never asked
Run effort
Prepare and start a run + Failures per run × Triage one failure + Defects found per run × Write up one defect + Report and sign off — an automation tool
Run effort
Prepare and start a run + Total test cases × Execution time per case + Defects found per run × Write up one defect + Report and sign off — a manual approach — the tester is the run
Machine time per run
Total test cases × Execution time per case — automation only; duration, not labour
Run cost per year
Run effort per run × Runs per year × Effective hourly rate + Token cost

Every name is a link to its definition. See the whole model.

Try it with your numbers

Prepare and start a run is a row in the calculator. Change it and every total on the page moves with it — free, in your browser, nothing to install.

See how prepare and start a run impacts the calculation of test automation costs

Related terms

  • Run effort The person-hours a run costs — preparation, triage, defect write-up and sign-off for a tool; execution itself for manual testing — and the same figure over a year.
  • Infrastructure per year What it costs to run the tests: execution grid, device cloud, CI minutes, environments — often the hidden line.
  • Report and sign off The per-run work of summarising results against the exit criteria and giving the release a go or no-go.

Last reviewed 2026-09-15. All terms.