Business Impact Of Poor Application Performance
IT Projects face many types of risks that can jeopardize the success of an implemented system
. Besides the common risk of the system not satisfying its functional requirements, there are several other very serious and costly risks related to the system not satisfying its non-functional requirements.
Examples of non-functional requirements related risks are listed below:
* The system may not support its required maximum number of users with acceptable response times.
* The system may not be reliable under its maximum required load over a sustained period of time without degraded performance.
* The system may fail catastrophically when the availability of key processing resources become degraded or deprived.
* The system may not scale well beyond the currently required maximum load of users or transactions.
* The system's hardware/software infrastructure components may not be the optimal configuration out of a set of candidate components.
* The actual causes of identified performance problems may be difficult to determine or iteratively tune.
* The system functionality may work for small numbers of users, but it may not for larger number of concurrent users.
Strategies for Mitigating Performance Related Risks
There are several types of strategies for mitigating performance-related risks. Some pertain to logical testing (a.k.a. inspection) of key Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) artifacts/deliverables from the requirements, to analysis and design models, to implemented code. All are quite effective in reducing risks but do not verify whether the above performance related risks have been mitigated. Only performance focused testing could accomplish this. Performance focused testing consists of several goals or strategies. Each helps reduce one or more of the types of performance related risks mentioned in this table.
Testing Objectives
Performance Testing- The system must support its required maximum number of users while the response times remain acceptable. For example, verifying while the system operates under normal load conditions, the end users receive responses to all requests within 20 seconds.
Reliability/Stability Testing- The system must be reliable under a sustained maximum required load for a sustained period of time before performance degrades.
Stress Testing- The system must not fail catastrophically when processing resources become degraded or deprived. For example, suppose the maximum load a system takes is 200 Vusers. Continue to put more load on the system to see where it system breaks.
System Scalability Testing- The whole system must be scalable beyond the current requirements for its maximum load. For example, running the same performance test against the same applications on different target platforms to measure its scalability.
Infrastructure Evaluation- The optimal configuration of hardware/software infrastructure components out of a set of available candidates must be determined.
Performance Tuning- Determine the cause of a specific performance problem for an existing system, and tune the system accordingly to improve its performance.
Functionality Testing Under Load- Verify the system satisfies its functional requirements while placed under maximum required load.
When performance related testing is properly planned and executed, many if not all of the above risks can be mitigated. Unfortunately, it is easier to improperly plan and execute these tests than to do it right the first time. Ultimately, those unmitigated risks can result in:
1.Costly delays in the final release of the system due to extended testing/tuning effort.
2.Additional infrastructure costs.
3.Expensive redesign of major subsystems late in the project life cycle, or even worse a complete failure of the project.
Assurance of quality
The effort needed to execute a successful performance testing plan is often underestimated. Many organizations try to get performance testing done using in-house developers or testers who may have little or no knowledge of performance testing methodologies or tools. More often than none, those efforts end up in failed objectives and could result in poor quality application deployed in production as mentioned above.
One option to alleviate that risk is to hire full-time performance experts. These performance experts would typically have the specialized performance testing knowledge required to meet the objectives. This skill set would include testing best practices knowledge, networks & infrastructure knowledge, testing tools expertise and good overall technology understanding. The problem with that strategy is that this skill set is difficult to find. And if successfully acquired, they require continual training to keep up with the new technologies. Sometimes it is not cost effective to keep these highly skilled individuals on staff when the demand for application performance testing is not required throughout the SDLC.
Savings on investment
The current trend in outsourcing performance testing services to a third party organization provides the best solution for this dilemma. Most of these testing organizations have qualified and experienced performance testers on staff that understand all the aspects of testing various infrastructures. They have industry best practices knowledge along with tools expertise to plan and execute tests within a short duration of time and they also provide flexible engagement models that fit the needs of specific projects. These outsourcing companies present a great opportunity for companies to cut back on labor cost without sacrificing the quality of the delivered application.
However, when you are short listing performance testing service providers, it is imperative to do your due diligence in ensuring that the provider has the right credentials to deliver on the objectives. Select providers with a good track record and diverse industry experience. Ensure that they have consultants on staff that is certified in industry standard Performance testing tools like Loadrunner & Performance center. Advanced QA, a Texas, U.S.A based company is one of those outsourcers that fit the bill. They have a solid track record of successful engagements across verticals. They have a staff of performance testing experts that are recognized in the industry. Their partnerships with companies like HP, Oracle and BEA gives them a better insight into emerging technologies.
by: Aaron Dicosta
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