[Me]:- Guruji, if I have to do Performance testing, what questions I will need ask and get answers for effective testing
[Guruji]:- You can ask yourself these questions
1) What are the performance criteria that the application needs to meet? (Page load time over various line speeds, bytes over the wire, server-side performance issues, client response times, and so on.)
2) What are the baseline numbers for these, as determined by testing?
3) What is the typical customer bandwidth? Make sure that metrics are taken with this.
4) Will there be automation to quantify the performance numbers?
5) Will this automation require developers to provide performance markers in the code? Are these documented?
6) Can the server configuration be changed to set the caching on images higher, allowing users revisiting the site from the same machine the ability to use the images from cache instead of downloading them from the server?
7) Have all the graphics been optimized for the Web?
8) What operations are the most expensive?
9) What do the most expensive operations cost?
10) What do the cheapest operations cost?
11) Is there a base cost that cannot be escaped; any fixed overhead costs?
12) What is the cost (in megahertz or other value) of a typical user scenario?
13) Is there any instrumentation being used to calculate performance?
14) Are other tools being used to calculate performance?
15) What are the metrics for quantifiable entities such as:
a) Performance versus users
b) Performance versus time
c) Transactions per second
d) Errors per user interaction
e) Errors per unit of time
f) Kilobytes of data per second
g) Average amount of data downloaded per user visit
h) Round-trip time
i) Round-trip count
j) Client response time
k) Bytes per request
l) Bytes over the wire per transaction
16) Has the application been profiled when performing at peak capacity-75 or 80 percent CPU utilization?
Vinay Jagtap
A hard core Technocrat with over a decade of extensive experience in heading complex test projects coupled with real time experience of project management and thought leadership. Extensive experience in Performance, Security and Automation Testing and development of automation frameworks and ability to setup and execute Global service centers and Center of Excellences for testing.
