This article presents a compilation of concrete cases where performance testing is important, with some emphasis on Agile methodologies. It also offers a short code of best practices to keep in mind when drawing up a performance test plan, which is useful whenever the tester needs to plan and execute a performance test suite, or to supplement his or her knowledge.
This article moves swiftly from theory to real-life cases, enabling testers to anticipate potential problems in real life.“Jorge Asensio, Test Automation Expert at q-leap.
[…] Almost all the time, when people talk about performance testing in agile software development, they’re talking about the process. For example, plan and prepare early, start testing as soon as a story has passed functional testing, continuous testing and communication, etc. – the quality associated with performance testing itself, which is also crucial to the success of the agile process, is rarely mentioned.
The quality associated with performance testing practice can be viewed from several perspectives: the quality of the engineer, the quality of the testing practice, the quality of the testing tool and the quality of the people and practice beyond the performance testing team.
THE QUALITY OF THE PERFORMANCE TEST ENGINEER
To begin with, it’s the people who participate and drive the process. The performance test engineer must not only be familiar with the agile process, but also with the performance test lifecycle, from planning to test development, execution, results analysis, reporting and diagnosis.
There’s probably no need to stress the criticality of the planning phase: it’s in this phase that performance requirements are gathered, the test plan is drafted and important questions such as test coverage, expected load, acceptance criteria, and the ability of the existing tool to do the job need to be asked and answered. These questions would come naturally to an experienced tester, but probably not to a novice.
Agile development requires tests to be developed and executed on time. From this point of view, the more the test engineer knows about the tool and the application under test, the more productive he becomes. There’s no denying that some tests are difficult to develop and can take a long time, but if the test engineer is always behind schedule due to a lack of working knowledge of the tool or application, this is a problem that needs to be solved now.
Every tool has its limits, and the quality of the engineer is also reflected in the fact that he has enough weapons in his toolkit to complete the tool. In general, knowledge of all aspects of software engineering and computer engineering helps. What’s more, the cause of certain performance problems is sometimes difficult to determine, even for an experienced tester. The engineer’s knowledge and experience often determine the time needed to identify the cause.
It is necessary to highlight the roles that performance test engineers should play. Our main role, of course as expected, is to participate in the software development process and provide the necessary test coverage. Our other roles, rarely mentioned and sometimes ignored even by some testers, include, but are not limited to, promoting performance awareness among all parties involved in the software development life cycle (SDLC) and educating people about the wide range of tests we can perform.
Believe it or not, it’s not uncommon for people to think that the only thing we do is CHARGE testing, i.e. measuring the response time of an application under a certain load. Without the support and participation of other teams, it will be very difficult for performance testing to be successful […].
Continue reading the full article here to understand the quality of performance testing practice, the quality of the testing tool, and the quality of everything beyond the performance testing team.
ABOUT THE Q-LEAP EXPERT WHO RECOMMENDED THIS ARTICLE
Jorge Asensio is a test automation expert at q-leap. Jorge is fully dedicated to his career in software testing, always focused on perfecting automation, functionality and performance. He is also an expert in Selenium Browser Automation, a framework for automating online applications. Jorge works closely within the company to help evaluate and improve existing automation frameworks, design, run and maintain automated test scripts to ensure quality control standards are achieved.
Written by : Jun Zhuang
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