Load Testing for Software Developers
I ran across these slides that present an introduction to load testing for developers. Being primarily a developer myself, I thought it might be worth a read. It is pretty light – it would be nice to get a video with the entire presentation. But it does raise some good points that many developers can benefit from. I particularly liked that the author (Simon Brown) differentiated between performance and scalability – a difference that is easy to miss. He also points out that you cannot predict system performance, either from diagrams and charts or by extrapolating results from past experience. Perhaps even more important is that load testing does not have to be expensive and that even a little testing, especially early in the project, can bring a lot of confidence about the system performance.
The only thing missing from this presentation is anything about selection of load testing software. Choosing good tools is critical to any project and load testing is no different. Testers should not be spending valuable time cut-and-pasting data into spreadsheets to get meaningful charts! Granted, I’m biased on this point, since we have possibly the best load test reports in the industry :>
Chris
Chief Engineer
When his dad brought home a Commodore PET computer, Chris was drawn into computers. 7 years later, after finishing his degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering at Purdue University, he found himself writing software for industrial control systems. His first foray into testing software resulted in an innovative control system for testing lubricants in automotive engines. The Internet grabbed his attention and he became one of the first Sun Certified Java Developers. His focus then locked on performance testing of websites. As Chief Engineer for Web Performance since 2001, Chris now spends his time turning real-world testing challenges into new features for the Load Tester product.