Practical Service Level Management: Delivering High-Quality Web-Based Services

Building Transaction Load-Test Scripts and Profiles

Testing transactions is the ultimate goal. You want to understand which loading levels and transaction mixes degrade performance. Identifying possible compliance problems and mitigating them before the service is introduced prevents unpleasant service launches that melt down.

The first step is determining the transactions you will use for testing. They must be representative, reflecting the way customers actually use these services. For example, not every customer who connects to a web site will buy a product, and the transaction mix should reflect that reality rather than have everyone order a product with each transaction. You still might want to have a 100 percent order rate for ultimate ...