Case Study. Case Study. Performance Testing For Student Application. US-based For-profit University (Higher Education) Compunnel Software Group

Transcription

1 Performance Testing For Student Application US-based For-profit University (Higher Education) Compunnel Software Group

2 Compunnel s Performance Testing Solution Delivers Impressive Student Experience for a US-based University Our Customer Our client is a United States-based private, for-profit higher education institution that provides postsecondary education services. The university enrolls about 38,000 students through its online learning programs, and at 100 campuses located in 24 states of the United States. The university adopts an instructional model, that combines on-campus and online classes, designed to help students further their educational needs. To enable a blended learning curricula, the university has developed an out of the box, MyClient application that allows students to enroll in classes and view other relevant courses in the application. Having a stable student portal is critical to satisfy the university's student needs and deliver a high level of service. It also impacts the university s credibility and future success. The university was looking forward to conduct performance, load and compatibility testing for this application to ensure that the application is easily available and accessible to the users. Customer at a glance: - One of the largest adult education-focused accredited online universities in America. - The university has been successfully educating working adults for over 120 yrs. - The university enrolls about 38,000 students through its online learning programs, and at 100 campuses located in 24 US states. The Customer s Challenges During peak sessions, the MyClient application receives huge web traffic with extended login sessions. Due to this, the student portal was saturated and was not able to handle the volume effectively. This resulted in poor application performance and students reported difficulties in accessing their courses online. For this reason, the university identified performance testing as an essential to the success of their MyClient student portal. Apart from application performance related challenges, the university also faced the following roadblocks: Unavailability of a central team dedicated to testing business critical applications Silo-centric methods and lack of proficiency in testing leading to high resource costs Limited resources available in-house and a tight deadline Limited code-level understanding, as the application was developed by another vendor Environment optimization and recommendations for the App or DB Server performance at code or hardware level. For the new academic session, the university wanted to launch a much more stable application for its students and achieve higher student satisfaction. Compunnel partnered with the university to help in predicting the system behavior and application performance Compunnel Software Group

3 Compunnel s Performance Testing Solution Approach to Performance Testing Compunnel defined a holistic phase by phase approach ensuring a standardized testing framework to deliver predictability and consistency. Our framework took a predictive approach with emphasis on detailed analysis and planning before starting the actual testing. Key milestones of our approach were: Discovery Stage - Tool Identification, Test Bed Definition, Establish Performance Scenarios Test Environment Setup Stage- Test Bed Setup, Performance Test Script Development, Baseline Benchmarking Script Execution - Stress, Load Test with incremental load Reporting - Analysis and final recommendations Best practices adopted were: Checklist and scenarios identified for tweaking page level and site level performance Quality, productivity, effort and schedule metrics were monitored at all stages Periodic reviews and regular customer feedback was gathered Compunnel s Performance Testing Solution: Compunnel recommended the use of WAPT 7.5 as a performance testing tool for the MyClient application. After a preliminary analysis, Compunnel s test team set up a test environment for emulating concurrent users to put the application through user-loads. Application Specification: - Number of Tiers: Web tier/mysql DB - Protocols being used: https - Middleware: Custom Java login application running on Tomcat - Database engine: MySQL for Drupal - Web Server: Apache for Drupal - Coding languages used: Drupal/PHP - Types of encryption: SSL, terminated on F5 Load Balancer. - Certificates (e.g. VeriSign): Entrust Compunnel Software Group

4 Predicting system behavior and application performance to improve student satisfaction Key milestones covered during the design and execution stages were: Test Bed Setup & Test Scripting Test Scenarios Identification for Performance Testing Script Development for Individual and Mixed Scenarios Script Execution with maximum transactions per second in order to simulate maximum concurrent users in terms of transactions Analysis and report preparation Final recommendation and performance report shared with the client The application was tested for: Response time of API calls with varied applications Concurrent user-load simulated from 5 to 32,000 users Time for page load at different load levels Application environment optimization and re-tests for post-optimization results - Simulated performance testing with a user-load of 32,000 users. - Home page response optimization enhanced from 22 seconds to 0.75 seconds. - Database server was identified as causing the major bottleneck. Results Home page response enhanced to 0.75 seconds from 22 seconds post optimization Compunnel Software Group

5 DB Server memory was identified as causing the major bottleneck. - Predicting the system behavior and performance, led to optimization of the complete student portal. - Boosted the reputation of the university by providing students with reliable and fast access to courses. - Reduced costs through zero downtime and ability to fix issues early. Business Benefits Although the MyClient application is a simple application, its structure is complex as it receives data inputs from various databases. As a result of Compunnel s holistic performance testing solution, the university received significant benefits. Enhanced Productivity- Efficient response time of the MyClient application reduced the overall course completion timeline Critical application defects that cause capacity outages were eliminated Workload on the helpdesk reduced significantly due to a minimum number of system related complaints A 100% available application provided a high quality student experience, culminating in increased student satisfaction Compunnel Software Group

6 The Compunnel Difference Compunnel The Right Choice Compunnel has been providing successful customer outcomes to global organizations for nearly 20 years. Backed by deep domain expertise in multiple industries, we offer specialized quality assurance solutions along with exceptional project management based on processes perfected over the duration of Compunnel s existence. Compunnel provides consultative advice on the most effective approaches and ways to save on costs. We explain how we will ensure that each project is primed for success. We provide roadmap assessments and consultative guidance, discovery, design, building, deployment and operational support. Compunnel works from a foundation focused on data governance and architecture. We provide highly specialized and cost-effective teams drawing from our expert IT resources of 1,000+ worldwide. We help organizations significantly reduce costs, typically up to 40% less, with our flexible onsite and offshore model. For more information about Compunnel s Quality Assurance Services, visit call (800) or us at contactus@compunnel.com. Compunnel is a leading provider of Independent Quality Assurance and Software Testing services. For almost 20 years, we have been helping our esteemed customers, improve IT quality management and deployment, maintain control over constant changes and reduce delivery costs with our combined onsite and offshore model. Compunnel Software Group is a leading global business technology services company. Recognized for our comprehensive portfolio of technology services and outsourcing solutions, we combine extensive industry knowledge with highly tailored application development and information management services. Application Development Cloud Solutions Business Intelligence Learning Solutions IT Staffing Compunnel Software Group