The objective of any performance test is to assess the capabilities and limitations of the system when it is subjected to realistic user load. The keyword here is realistic user load. A performance test would be more realistic if it has the below items implemented.
Simulation of real user behavior is to understand the way the application is accessed by an end user. There are four important aspects of Real user behavior simulation. They are as below:
Real user navigation are different - If there are 100 users accessing a web application, its not mandatory that all of them using the application for the same purpose. For example a Banking application can be used by the users either to transfer funds, check their balances, Add beneficiaries, download statements and many more. Each of these navigation should be recorded as a separate script.
Real user inputs are different - The inputs provided by the end users to the product are also different. Different people log in with different user name and passwords, search for different products, enter different shipping and permanent addresses etc. To Simulate this aspect, each script has to be parameterized
Real user Selections are different - Once the users enter the application, their selections also can be different (selections from dropdown, radio buttons, check boxes etc). For example in case of booking flights, even if two users are searching for flights from Hyderabad to New York , there can be several flights available and there are chances that both the users may choose different flights. To simulate this aspect of real user behavior, each script has to be correlated
Real users wait between the requests - There would be some waiting time between two successive requests made by a real user. For example the real user launches gmail.com (request1) and then he enters the username and password and click on Log in(request2). So between request1 and request2, the user waits for some time (this wait time is called think time, and the user waits between requests either to read content and fill in some details or to think and act upon). The same has to be implemented in every script by including think times in the script.
All the above are achieved using the Scripting part of the performance tool (in case of LR, it is VUGen).
The other important aspect of a realistic performance test is to simulate the realistic load patterns
which includes
If the above two points are considered, a performance test that is executed will be more realistic and the results are more accurate.
- Simulation of real user behavior
- Simulation of real user load patterns
Simulation of real user behavior is to understand the way the application is accessed by an end user. There are four important aspects of Real user behavior simulation. They are as below:
Real user navigation are different - If there are 100 users accessing a web application, its not mandatory that all of them using the application for the same purpose. For example a Banking application can be used by the users either to transfer funds, check their balances, Add beneficiaries, download statements and many more. Each of these navigation should be recorded as a separate script.
Real user inputs are different - The inputs provided by the end users to the product are also different. Different people log in with different user name and passwords, search for different products, enter different shipping and permanent addresses etc. To Simulate this aspect, each script has to be parameterized
Real user Selections are different - Once the users enter the application, their selections also can be different (selections from dropdown, radio buttons, check boxes etc). For example in case of booking flights, even if two users are searching for flights from Hyderabad to New York , there can be several flights available and there are chances that both the users may choose different flights. To simulate this aspect of real user behavior, each script has to be correlated
Real users wait between the requests - There would be some waiting time between two successive requests made by a real user. For example the real user launches gmail.com (request1) and then he enters the username and password and click on Log in(request2). So between request1 and request2, the user waits for some time (this wait time is called think time, and the user waits between requests either to read content and fill in some details or to think and act upon). The same has to be implemented in every script by including think times in the script.
All the above are achieved using the Scripting part of the performance tool (in case of LR, it is VUGen).
The other important aspect of a realistic performance test is to simulate the realistic load patterns
which includes
- Simulating User Mix (Various types of users for ex: Registered users vs non registered users, Admin users etc)
- Simulating Transaction Mix (The ratio at which each identified use case has to be executed or the load distribution across various use cases)
- Simulating Users' Geographical Locations - Either by having the Load Generators from the locations where the users are coming from or Having the WAN Simulator to simulate the users' geographical locations
- Simulating User's bandwidth - Though few users are from same location, there are possibilities that their Bandwidths are different. This point has to be kept in mind while generating the user load on to the system
- Simulating traffic rate - The rate at which the users come on to the system, the duration the peak user load is maintained, the rate at which users drop off from the system
If the above two points are considered, a performance test that is executed will be more realistic and the results are more accurate.
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