Task: Establish Performance Test Goals |
This task describes how to plan performance tests.
Disciplines: Test
Purpose
The purpose of this task is to: Develop performance test plans Characterize the workload Identify important performance measurements
Relationships
Roles | Primary Performer: Test Analyst | Additional Performers: Test Designer Test Manager
Inputs | Mandatory: [Technical Architecture] Architectural Decisions Component Model [Technical Specification] Actor Glossary Storyboard System-Wide Requirements Use Case Use-Case Model Vision | Optional: Test Evaluation Summary Test Plan Workload Specification
Outputs | Test Plan Workload Specification
Steps
Plan Performance Test
Identify performance testing targets, scope, and objectives. Begin to characterize the workload definition and capture workload definition decisions in the workload definition specification.
Identify Measurements
Select certain responses to specifically measure. By choosing highly visible or common activities in user scenarios, your measurements will represent a quantitative value of how well the end user will feel that the system is responding.
Develop Performance Test Plan
Capture performance test targets, scope, and objectives in the performance test plan. Ensure that the test team understands the performance test goals by having the team review the performance test plan.
Determine Performance Test Success Criteria
Success criteria for your performance test are subjective and consist of a highly tailored set of pass/fail value judgments. To facilitate effective performance testing, develop an agreement (for example, a service level agreement or SLA) for each important operation identified in your list of measurements. Ensure that this agreement represents the operational parameters of the deployed system. In most cases, agreement should be met by the pre-deployment performance test or they should be renegotiated.
More Information
Guidelines | Developing a Performance Test Plan Performance Test Goals
Tool Mentors | Analyze and Evaluate Results from Reports Using Rational Performance Tester Create a Test Project Using IBM Rational Performance Tester
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