It takes time, it takes patience, it needs a methodical approach to measure what is needed – it cannot be all point and click as fast as you can go and then say – “we’ve tested for performance”.
If you’re getting started with implementing a Performance Strategy for the first time there are a few steps you can take before you even start coding that will help set yourself and your team up for success.
- Plan it Out – What does success look like? What is a failure? “It’s running slow is not a failure, it’s a symptom”. The more precise you are with your users, the better the result you’ll have. Spreadsheets are built for performance testing.
- Set thresholds for variability – One 1000 users, entering the same information 1000 times will not generate the performance results you are looking for. Things will get cached, pieces will get overlooked. Ensure your tests have some degree of random interaction to them to simulate a real user interaction.
- Edge Cases go last – build wins by doing the Happy Scenarios and getting people on board with what you are doing. Edge Cases should come after all the Happy Scenarios have passed, Happy Scenarios sell
product , Edge Cases keep customers. - Watch your Metrics – It’s very easy to get lazy with the cloud, too easy. If you are using Cloud VMs, focus on your metrics, record, record, record. The more data you have the better. Adding more hardware to the problem is not a solution until everything else has been exhausted.
- Start Now – don’t leave it until the end of your release, start now, build a user story around it, get your customers on board and start doing it with your first few releases to QA. When implemented this way, it becomes a part of life and everyone starts to think about it, not solely the guy who “does performance”
And you thought this was going to be a long, crazy, heavy post. Similar to how everyone thinks that performance testing is a long, crazy, heavy process.
