Performance testing in simple is monitoring the behaviour of
the system under different loads
Actual Performance testing in any system can be divided into
three major parts
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Load Generation
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Load Application
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Load analysis or the system analysis
Load Generation:
This is
the place where the actual load is been generate in the form of number of users
or in the form of number of requests to system(s) under test
When
there is any performance testing engagement the first thing to do is to
stabilise and be clear of how this load is going to be generated to the system.
At most of the time this load generation is done by automated synchronous
format. In some special cases if there is no other go this can also be done
manually to simulate the user load e.g.: In RDP session the load has to be
generated using separate VBS files for each users manually
Load Application:
The
actual application or the system under study where the load is implemented is
the Load application level. In this level the test environment is studied and
the prepared load is either applied directly or with some defined delay as per
the client’s requirements.
In this
level making the environment ready for the load application simulating the real
time scenario’s is the major task done in this level. The stability of the
environment under different load conditions has to be maintained
Load Analysis Part:
The
Analysis of how the system under test reacted in the context of performance
(like response time, throughput) is done in the analysis part.
In this
phase obtaining data in excel tables, graphical format or any other reliable
format can be given as the output. This report is been compared with the
expected output framed before the test run. The deviation is addressed by
trimming the various factors in site to produce a perfect system as expected.
Almost all the performance testing tools will have these
four entities. In some special cases we may not have apt way to generate load
to the system. During those scenario’s we must analyse a work around method to
come up with an alternative method to address.
The Load application and analysis can easily be obtained,
but obtaining a apt/clear report is the challenging task. Tools like Jmeter,
Load Runner will have built in tools to support to most of the analysis part.
For simple understanding in layman terms
Let’s keep a simple scenario of 50 people travelling in a
bus
50 People – Load generated in the generation part
Bus – Actual system under test
Speed/Mileage of the bus – Performance parameters which
need to be analysed in the analysis part by analysing the bus (system under
test)
