Testing ASP.NET Web Applications

8.3. Capturing Performance Requirements

The term performance is such a subjective term that it's important to receive input from all the project stake holders on what is considered "good" performance. Earlier in this chapter you learned what is considered to be "good" performance times, but these times may not match the project stake holder's thoughts. Reaching out to business stake holders such as Domain Experts and users of the system will give you an idea of how they expect the application to perform. Also include developers, architects, and network administrators for their input into how they expect the system to perform.

Most of the time if you ask project stake holders how the application should perform they will reply with "fast." Testing a web application that is intended for use on an intranet and is only expected to support 10 users at a time is a bit different than testing a web application intended to be open as a public service on the Internet that might receive more than 100,000 concurrent users at a time. Knowing how the application will be used will help you design a performance test that is effective.

8.3.1. What to Ask First

To get the proverbial requirements ball rolling, the following three questions can be asked to help break the ice or cause a discussion that may last the entire day in some cases.

8.3.1.1. Availability

Is it acceptable for the application to have any downtime? The most common answer to this question is "No." Clients do not realize what ...