Horizontally scalable distributed system for automated firmware testing and method thereof

A method for operating a test system comprising:

• splitting a plurality of test stations for testing a plurality of firmware products into multiple pools, each pool including multiple test stations;
• delivering, by each of competing test stations among the multiple test stations, a competing test start event, comprising a request to start testing, to a corresponding execution instance among multiple execution instances, each execution instance for executing tests corresponding to an associated pool;
• receiving, by the corresponding execution instance, competing test start events from the competing test stations in the associated pool;
• and
• executing, by the corresponding execution instance, a run test command on a select test station among the competing test stations such that the select test station performs test execution based on a test sequence,
• wherein the multiple test stations in each pool compete for tests, and
• wherein the splitting of the plurality of test stations comprises:
• splitting the plurality of test stations into the multiple pools based on set characteristics, wherein the test stations in a given pool have at least one of the set characteristics in common.