Situation

Our modelbox testing infrastructure had a significant scalability problem: long end-to-end integration test times meant only a small subset of models could realistically be included in gate and nightly CI/CD jobs. This left large portions of the model pipeline untested and introduced risk for every release.

Task

Improve the testing framework to enable broader model coverage while dramatically reducing test execution time, making the pipeline more reliable and developer-friendly.

Actions

• Implemented mock integration tests that could run in a development environment without depending on heavy PEF checkpoints, enabling fast, frequent testing cycles.
• Integrated these mock tests with Bazel's caching infrastructure to eliminate redundant test runs and further reduce iteration time.
• Fixed multiple failing nightly Jenkins jobs, bringing the pipeline back to a healthy baseline.
• Identified and addressed several "low-hanging fruit" improvements in collaboration with partner teams, including enhancements to JSONNET-based DAG tests.

Result

The app server and model integration test time dropped from over an hour to just seconds. The pipeline became significantly more reliable, coverage expanded across a much larger set of models, and manual intervention needs dropped considerably.