Testing Applications on the Web: Test Planning for Mobile and Internet-Based Systems, Second Edition

Chapter 19. Performance Testing

Why Read This Chapter?

When a user clicks on the Buy button, how confident are you that they are not being subjected to long waits and error-laden transaction processing, especially when the system is serving hundreds (or thousands) of other users at the same time? Conducting performance and load testing on your system is one of the best ways to ensure that your system can endure the actual load or projected business demand and, simultaneously, can serve multiple users in a reliable and timely manner. This chapter provides an introduction to fundamental performance and load testing concepts, to include defining system performance and load requirements—often from incomplete or vague objectives—creating and executing performance and load test plans, and, finally, interpreting your test results to determine likely bottlenecks and possible resolutions.

TOPICS COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER

• Introduction

• Performance Testing Concepts

• Performance Testing Key Factors

• Three Phases of Performance Testing

• Setting Goals and Expectations and Defining Deliverables

• Gathering Requirements

• Defining the Workload

• Sizing the Workload

• Problems Concerning the Workload

• Selecting Performance Metrics

• Which Tests to Run and When to Start

• Tool Options and Generation Loads

• Writing the Test Plan

• Testing Phase

• Analysis Phase

• Other Testing Considerations

• Bibliography

Introduction

One of the key benefits of Web applications is that they enable multiple users to access the application simultaneously. Multiple ...