This practical book provides a step-by-step approach to testing mission-critical applications for scalability and performance before they're deployed -- a vital topic to which other books devote one chapter, if that.
Businesses today live and die by network applications and web services. Because of the increasing complexity of these programs, and the pressure to deploy them quickly, many professionals don't take the time to ensure that they'll perform well and scale effectively. The Art of Application Performance Testing explains the complete life cycle of the testing process, and demonstrates best practices to help you plan, gain approval for, coordinate, and conduct performance tests on your applications. With this book, you'll learn to:
Set realistic performance testing goals
Implement an effective application performance testing strategy
Interpret performance test results
Cope with different application technologies and architectures
Use automated performance testing tools
Test traditional local applications, web-based applications, and web services (SOAs)
Recognize and resolves issues that are often overlooked in performance tests
Written by a consultant with 30 years of experience in the IT industry and over 12 years experience with performance testing, this easy-to-read book is illustrated with real-world examples and packed with practical advice. The Art of Application Performance Testing thoroughly explains the pitfalls of an inadequate testing strategy and offers you a robust, structured approach for ensuring that your applications perform well and scale effectively when the need arises.
"Ian has maintained a vendor-agnostic methodology beautifully in this material. The metrics and graphs, along with background information provided in his case studies, eloquently convey to the reader, 'Methodology above all, tools at your discretion...' Ian's expertise shines through throughout the entire reading experience."-- Matt St. Onge, Enterprise Solution Architect, HCL Technologies America / Teradyne
Chapter 1 Why Performance Test?
What Is Performance? The End-User Perspective
Bad Performance: Why It’s So Common
Summary
Chapter 2 The Fundamentals of Effective Application Performance Testing
Choosing an Appropriate Performance Testing Tool
Designing an Appropriate Performance Test Environment
Setting Realistic and Appropriate Performance Targets
Making Sure Your Application Is Stable Enough for Performance Testing
Obtaining a Code Freeze
Identifying and Scripting the Business-Critical Transactions
Providing Sufficient Test Data of High Quality
Ensuring Accurate Performance Test Design
Identifying the Server and Network Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Allocating Enough Time to Performance Test Effectively
Originally hailing from Auckland, New Zealand, Ian Molyneaux ended up in IT purely by chance after applying for an interesting looking job advertised as "junior computer operator" in the mid '70s. The rest is history, 30 years later I've held many roles in IT, although I've shied away from anything management related as I'm a techie at heart. His current role is EMEA SME (Subject Matter Expert) for Application Performance Assurance at Compuware. Presently residing in Buckinghamshire, U.K. with wife Sarah, daughter Sasha, and two cats, and trying to get used to the idea of turning 49!
Comments about O'Reilly Media The Art of Application Performance Testing:
It could have been called "Performance Testing In A Nutshell," but this is the "/theory/in/practice" series.
The topic is "Performance Testing," specifically, as opposed to regression testing, etc. So, what is performance? The author suggests that although it can be different things to different people, it boils down to people not being delayed as they interact with an application. This leads to standards of measurement, such as response times and throughput.
This is a very meaty book, though less than 140 pages. The author covers everything from company politics to automation. During my first pass through I was able to map out a direction for performance testing of a very large project that I have - performance is primary for this application and this approach will ensure that performance is given the priority it needs, and which has been lacking to this point.
I'm sure I'll be referring to this book a lot. Definitely recommended.
