SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE TESTING SERVICE

Transcription

1 SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE TESTING SERVICE

2 Service Definition GTS s performance testing services allows customers to reduce the risk of poor application performance. This is done by performance testing applications under real world load conditions to isolate and correct performance bottlenecks before they are launched into production. GTS uses technology to create models that simulate different production scenarios to identify and eradicate potential bottlenecks before they affect end users. This service will help clients ensure that their applications are tuned to specific user loads, while at the same time allowing realistic Service Level Agreements to be defined. Performance testing helps customers minimize infrastructure investment, while maximizing the performance and scalability of applications. Performance testing emulates hundreds of concurrent users to put applications through the rigors of real-life user loads. Performance testers stress the application from end-to-end to measure the response times of key business processes. Simultaneously, the performance testing tool collects systems and component-level performance information through a comprehensive array of system monitors and diagnostics modules. These metrics are combined into a sophisticated analysis module that allows teams to drill down to isolate bottlenecks within the architecture. In this way, these can then be eradicated resulting in improved end user response times, increased infrastructure capacity and reduced risk of application failure when moving into production. This service will help customers by solving the three most common issues that projects face in performance testing, namely, inadequate knowledge of best practices around performance testing, insufficient time to tune performance, lack of skilled performance testing resources. Performance Testing can be defined as the process of analyzing software applications and supporting infrastructures to determine acceptable performance (in terms of end user response times), scalability (how many users the system can support) and transaction handling capabilities by modelling the real-world application usage conditions against the application and supporting infrastructure under test.

3 Value Proposition The objectives of performance testing are specific to each customer s environment, but the following is a list of some common business objectives that GTS s performance testing services can achieve: Obtain an accurate picture of end-to-end system performance Verify that new applications meet specified performance requirements Identify and eliminate performance bottlenecks during the development lifecycle, before they appear in production Improve the scalability and availability of applications Maximize the use of infrastructure Optimise system capacity (number of concurrent users and throughput) and user experience (end-to-end response time and error rates) Provide confirmation that the system meets business needs and service-level agreements Create a baseline for system performance Improve end user response times Increase infrastructure capacity Reduced risk of application failure when moving into production Minimise future IT spend by understanding where the greatest bang-per-buck can be achieved Prevent overcapitalization (having more hardware than is necessary) Predict system behaviour to minimize surprises Business Model Ad-hoc Testing Service Our test team and ad-hoc service allows you to bring in specialist software security testing services and resources as they are needed. This can range from bringing in an expert for a particular assignment (such as conducting a stress test) to providing an ad-hoc managed testing service. Co-Sourced Testing Service This is a partial service to support the ongoing software security testing needs of an organization or business unit. It usually incorporates test management, functional testing and specialist test services as required. The customer is usually in control of the general approach but does not have the specialized skills in-house. Full Outsourced Testing Service This is a full service to support all the ongoing software testing needs of an organization or business unit. It usually incorporates test management, functional testing and specialist test services as required.

4 Component Model GTS will create the benchmark, map out the architecture and infrastructure components, script the different business processes, conduct the load tests, analyse the results and provide a comprehensive final report. The service is comprised of the following Components and High Level Steps: Project Planning and Kick-off Define the project scope, the objectives and the technical approach, and agree on the overall time schedule. Here we analyst the technical architecture and map the performance testing solution to the different components Setup & Scripting Install and configure the performance testing tool, create the test scripts, and complete an overall verification of the entire performance optimization process. Performance Test Execution and Analysis Performance Test scenarios emulate what is expected to happen in a production environment. During the execution phase of the project, a number of different scenarios will be tested based on the planning that was done earlier. The test results will be analysed and problem areas, if they exist, will be pointed out. Together with the customer s subject matter expert, the bottlenecks will be eradicated and the performance and capacity of the system improved. Software Performance Testing Sub-genres covered by GTS Among those new to performance testing, there is often a misconception that execution is a single event. In fact, it is a multi-step process consisting of several types of performance tests. Each type of test provides information necessary to understand the business risk of releasing the application. The types of load tests include: Component Load Testing Component load tests serve as a unit performance test. They should be executed in the following cases: Validate whether new components have an impact on the overall system performance Certify existing components in the context of the new performance requirements Validate design assumptions as soon as they are implemented The tests could be load tested as soon as their stability is confirmed by the functional unit tests. Business Process Load Testing A business process load test focuses on loading a specific business process. Given the modularity of today s applications, as well as the iterative development process, this approach allows assessing early performance and scalability of critical business processes from the end user perspective. Business process load tests could be started as soon as the functional tests confirm stability.

5 System Wide Load Testing System load testing focuses on the complete application. It could be started once initial application stability is proven by the functional test team. The system load test should ensure identification of infrastructure performance issues. It is based on a representative mix of the business processes executed at the various load levels with different ramp up policies, and is usually executed in pre-production environments. Soak and Capacity Planning Tests Soak tests are designed to run the system for a long period of time to examine how well the system performs. These tests may uncover memory leaks and other problems that do not appear during the shorter tests. Capacity tests are designed to push the system to the point that response times become unacceptable. This information is useful in determining Production Benchmarking The goal of the production benchmark is to ensure that the system behaviour in the production environment matches expectations set in pre-production for a specific set of performance parameters. An additional objective is to verify final infrastructure sizing looking for optimization opportunities. If benchmark shows different results than pre-production tuning baseline, the same process as for preproduction tuning should be initiated. Production system monitoring tools are used to collect system statistics during the production benchmark run. Regression Tests A simplified load testing exercise should be completed in the test environment before any changes are made to the production application. These tests will help ensure no adverse performance degradation when the changes are made in production Completion At the end of the performance testing project, we will create a comprehensive report that describes the initial benchmark, the individual test execution stages and their results, and our final recommendations. Performance testing is an iterative process that should be repeated for each build including changes impacting potential system performance This system is also suitable for: SAP performance testing Web Application Load & Stress testing Software application scalability testing IT systems volume testing (including embedded systems) Infrastructure performance monitoring and tuning (including the network) Performance testing multi-tiered solutions that include a combination of applications, IT systems and infrastructure

6 Commercial Model Dependant on Scope of Work session to be defined by customer and GTS Software Performance Test Specialist Once Off Engagements Between 2 6 weeks Includes a 6-pack run: Load Stress Other (if required and scoped) Test to be run to satisfy the customer s requirements Contact Details For further information or to arrange for an assessment / quotation please contact: Global Testing Services Tel: Fax: Web: info@eoh-gts.co.za A member of the EOH Group of Companies Medium to Longer term engagements Between 6 18 weeks For multiple applications and environments with more comprehensive testing scope *Standard Consulting Rates for specialist consultants apply in accordance to GTS Consulting Rate card (available on request)