“No Stress” Performance Testing: for non-performance specialists

1. “No Stress” Performance Testing:for non-performance specialists Created for: By: Scott Barber Chief Technologist PerfTestPlus, Inc.

2. Scott Barber Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.sbarber@perftestplus.comwww.perftestplus.com@sbarber Co-Founder: Workshop On Performance and Reliabilitywww.performance-workshop.org Co-Author: Contributing Author: Author: Books: www.perftestplus.com/pubsAbout me: about.me/scott.barber

3. Let’s Begin at the Beginning Overview / Refresher

4. What is Performance? • System or application characteristics related to: • Speed: - responsiveness- user experience • Scalability: - capacity- load- volume • Stability: - consistency- reliability- stress

5. What is Performance Testing? • Testing designed to: • Inform software system optimization by balancing: • Cost • Time to market • Capacity • while remaining focused on the quality of service to system users.

6. Performance vs. Load Testing? Performance is to Load as Rectangle is to Square

7. The Performance Lifecycle is: • Conception to Headstone • Not • Cradle to Grave

8. Who is Responsible? Everyone

9. Where does it fit in the SDLC?

10. Personally, I’m fond of… Performant Application Delivery

12. Load Tests Stress Tests Endurance Tests Infrastructure/Configuration Verification Load Variability Analysis Background Load for Acceptance Tests… What is it? • Or any other deliberate approximation of • Production Conditions

13. What is it? Out of Scopefor thisPresentation

14. Preventing Poor Performance witha little work…every day…from every one.

15. Proactive Micro & Macro Establish Goals Update Targets Units Stories Tiers Resources Goals Dev & Prod Times Resources Sizes Frequencies Dashboard! Assess Compare Investigate Accept Answer

19. … to address randomperformance questions.

20. What value do we hope to gain? RPT questions are often not known requirements, goals, thresholds, or constraints Value should be the main driver behind performance test design and planning RPT questions often indicate the true priorities of stakeholders RPT answers will frequently override requirements in “go-live” decisions Value Begins with Clear Objectives Premise

21. Evolved from: “What have we got?What do we want?Howdo we get there…?” --Bob Barber (Scott’s dad) … as quickly, simply, and cheaply as possible?  --Addendum added by: Scott Barber

22. Which is… • …a common man’s way of expressing the problem solving approach thatclassical engineers employ. • Given: “What have we got?” • Find: “What do we want?” • Solve: “How do we get there?”

23. Inspired by Rapid Software Testing Consistent with Rapid Software Testing themes Sanctioned by James Bach, Michael Bolton & the RST instructors to asa specific implementation of the Rapid Testing Methodology For more information about RST, visit:http://www.satisfice.com/info_rst.shtml RPT is: Attribution

24. What is it? • An approach to respond to a specific performance-related questionafter4 or fewer hours of team effort with 1 or more of: • A)The answer • B) A partial answer • To determine the value of additional effort • The level of effort to provide the answer • C) Better questions to address the underlying concern

25. Conceptual Approach Receive Question Generate Test Coverage Outline (TCO) (~20 min) Transform TCO into Rapid Strategy (~20 min) Execute Strategy (~2.5 hrs) Consolidate/Analyze Data (~30 min) Report Results (~20 min)

26. Key Points • Entire Lifecycle • Entire Team Focused • Individual, Role, & Team Accountability & Responsibility • Continuous & Collaborative

27. The Bottom Line

28. Addendum Jessica’s Story

29. Questions?

30. Not Convinced? Test me!

31. Contact Info about.me/scott.barberChief Technologist PerfTestPlus, Inc. E-mail: sbarber@perftestplus.com Blog: scott-barber.blogspot.com Web Site: www.PerfTestPlus.com Twitter: @sbarber