Charlotte Kummer

If you’ve done any performance testing, or even seen a demo, you are probably familiar with the “big line graph” that is created as the test runs.

The typical scenario is simple:  Have the load tool start with one simultaneous user running a script.  Then add a new user, say, every thirty seconds plus a small random pause.  The script consists of a set of pre-defined operations – login, search, click on some item, and logout.

As more users are added we expect to see response times get higher.  We might see response times go through the roof at some magic number as the system hits a bottleneck, or, perhaps it goes up gracefully.  With some cloud-based systems, ideally, performance stays within a range over time.

It’s a simple way to do testing.  It is straightforward, even easy to implement.

And it has a pile of problems.

Let’s dig in, shall we?

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