Run
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.
- Unit
- hours per run and per year
- Where you enter it
- Computed; shown on the Run tab.
What it means
For an automation vendor: preparation and start-up, plus failures per run multiplied by triage time, plus defects multiplied by write-up time, plus sign-off. For a manual approach: preparation, plus every case multiplied by the tester's execution time, plus defect write-up and sign-off — with no separate triage, because the tester decides as they go.
Effort per year is effort per run multiplied by runs per year. Both are outputs.
Why it matters to the cost
This is the recurring human cost that the licence fee is supposed to buy down, and it is where manual testing becomes expensive: the same hundred hours every cycle. For tools, it is dominated by triage, which is why the failure breakdown and the tool's diagnostics matter more than raw execution speed.
Typical values
For a 300-case suite: six to ten hours per run for a tool; around a hundred hours per run for manual execution.
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
Run effort 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 run effort impacts the calculation of test automation costsLast reviewed 2026-09-15. All terms.