Fundamentals of performance testing
Chapter 1 Fundamentals of Web Application
Performance Testing
Objectives
·
Learn what performance testing is.
·
Learn the core activities of performance testing.
·
Learn why performance testing matters.
·
Learn about the relevance of project context to performance testing.
·
Learn how tuning fits into the performance testing cycle.
Overview
Performance testing is a type of testing intended to determine the responsiveness,
throughput, reliability, and/or scalability of a system under a given workload.
Performance testing is commonly conducted to accomplish the following:
·
Assess production readiness
·
Evaluate against performance criteria
·
Compare performance characteristics of multiple systems or system configurations
·
Find the source of performance problems
·
Support system tuning
·
Find throughput levels
This chapter provides a set of foundational building blocks on which to base your
understanding of performance testing principles, ultimately leading to successful
performance-testing projects. Additionally, this chapter introduces various terms and
concepts used throughout this guide.
How to Use This Chapter
Use this chapter to understand the purpose of performance testing and the core activities
that it entails. To get the most from this chapter:
·
Use the "Project Context" section to understand how to focus on the relevant items
during performance testing.
·
Use the "Relationship Between Performance Testing and Tuning" section to
understand the relationship between performance testing and performance tuning, and
to understand the overall performance tuning process.
·
Use the "Performance, Load, and Stress Testing" section to understand various types
of performance testing.
·
Use the "Baselines" and "Benchmarking" sections to understand the various methods
of performance comparison that you can use to evaluate your application.
·
Use the "Terminology" section to understand the common terminology for
performance testing that will facilitate articulating terms correctly in the context of
your project.
