Process

Load Testing Basics 

A series of articles covering the basics of performance testing.

• What is Performance Testing?

  Performance Testing enables the testing of anticipated load and concurrency you would expect to encounter in the real world prior to release. Examples of this may be simulating thousands of hits on a site, checking it doesn’t crash and ensuring respo...

• Performance testing definitions

  Performance testing is an umbrella term used for highly transactional types of tests. It is a general definition used to encapsulate Stress, Volume, Load, Soak, Spike and Failover testing to name a few.  What follows is an attempt to define, in orde...

• Selecting Performance Test Tools

  Note: This article will work on the assumption that a client has no performance tools in place and urgently requires a load testing solution. Selecting the correct performance test tool is fraught with difficulties for the novice.  I’ve been int...

• Loadrunner Parameter Types - An Overview

  Parameterization provides the ability to use different values in scripts and thus helps create data driven test scenarios. Parameterization also reduces the size of scripts. I recently attempted to search for articles and couldn't find a consolidated�...

• Revisiting Performance Testing Basics

  In this article, I have attempted to clarify some basic and most important terminologies and concepts pertaining to performance and the load testing arena. The Performance of web sites is increasingly becoming important. Companies are realising th...

Performance Testing Process:

A load testing tool can only be as powerful as the process and knowledge being applied to its use. A series of articles covering the performance testing process and best practices :

• The Core Performance Testing Lifecycle

  The Core Performance Testing Lifecycle Good performance testing isn’t just about generating load onto the system; it’s about generating the correct load into a system and achieving accurate results.  I view performance testing as a sub-project in...

• The Performance Testing Requirements Phase

  “Performance testing is only as accurate as the model you simulate – time invested in the requirements is time well spent” – Jason In terms of time and duration – most of the time is spent executing performance tests, but in terms of impor...

• The Performance Execution Phase

  This is where the real performance testing begins – scripting, execution, re-execution and analysis of results. Generally I attempt to get into the scripting phase as soon as possible – not all phases of the Performance Testing lifecycle have to be...

• The Results and reporting stage

  Performance testing results produce lots and lots of figures, statistics and graphs. To the uninitiated stakeholder with lots of other tasks to balance it looks like pure hell, particularly if they are asked to sign off on the basis of these. Performa...

• What makes a good Performance Tester?

  Performance testing is a high profile and high impact activity; mistakes made here are very visible and costly.  Performance testing is akin to a technical project manager role.  Quality requirements and stakeholder management is as important as the ...

• Detailed Performance Testing process

  I have previously described the high level performance testing process - here is a detailed flow of the steps required for the implementation of this. The diagram is split into idealised roles.  In practice we quite often find the performance team is ...

• Why performance can’t be guaranteed.

  Its important to set an expectation after performance testing has been complete that there may be performance related issues after the system has gone live.  This can be an easy or difficult task depending on the understanding the client has.  Perfor...

• Managing, identifying & assessing Performance Requirements

  The aim of this post is to outline how to determine and prioritise the key performance requirements within a project.  I’ve already covered how important it is to have good performance requirements (Click here).  These are the items that drive and...

• The Risks Of Testing in Scaled Performance Environments

  This article will explain the risks associated with using a scaled (aka downsized) environment for Performance Testing.  Performance testing is frequently executed against a smaller sized environment than the live production. Testing against the pro...

• Web Response Times

  This is the best article I've come across for acceptable web response times. In short, if you are an online retailer faster is better; I've worked in companies where they have actually slowed down the results for end users (This company has lost a lot...