10 Must-Know Tips for Performance Test Automation

More than other automation, bad performance test automation leads to:

• Undetectably incorrect results
• Good release decisions, based on bad data
• Surprising, catastrophic failures in production
• Incorrect hardware purchases
• Extended down-time
• Significant media coverage and brand erosion

More than other automation, performance test automation demands:

• Clear objectives (not pass/fail requirements)
• Valid application usage models
• Detailed knowledge of the system and the business
• External test monitoring
• Cross-team collaboration

Unfortunately, bad performance test automation is:

• Very easy to create,
• Difficult to detect, and
• More difficult to correct.

The following 10 tips, based on my own experiences, will help you avoid creating bad performance test automation in the first place.

Tip #10: Data Design

• *Lots* of test data is essential (at least 3 sets per user to be simulated – 10 is not uncommon)
• Test Data to be unique and minimally overlapping (updating the same row in a database 1000 times has a different performance profile than 1000 different rows)
• Consider changed/consumed data (a search will provide different results, and a item to be purchased may be out of stock without careful planning)
• Don’t share your data environment (see above)

Top 10 Automation Tips from STP Online Summit

I had the pleasure of hosting the second Online Summit, delivered by Software Test Professionals: Achieving Business Value With Test Automation.  The online summit format consists of 3 sessions each for 3 consecutive days.  The sessions for this summit were:

• Software Test Automation, Where's the Value? – Scott Barber
• Achieving Value with Automated Acceptance Tests – Linda Hayes  
• Developer Level Automation Value from "Velcro" to "Velocity"  – Rob Sabourin  
• The Simple and Powerful Build Verification Tests (BVT) – Alan Page  
• Functional Automation is the Gateway Drug to Continuous Delivery – Adam Goucher  
• Test Automation at the API Layer...Why Bother? – BJ Rollison 
• Experiences with Adding Value Through Test Automation – Mark Fewster  
• Test Automation Misconceptions and Money Pits – Hans Buwalda  
• Top Tips for Addressing the Challenge – Scott Barber  
• Speaker Panel – Scott Barber, Linda Hayes, Alan Page, Adam Goucher, Mark Fewster & Guest Panelist Griffin Jones 

One of my duties as host was to try to summarize the most valuable nuggets of information from across all of the presentations into a "top tips" list.  This is what I came up with:

Scott's Top 10 Automation Tips from:

STP Online Summit: Achieving Business Value with Test Automation

Due to the overwhelming success and positive reviews of the last STP Online Summit: Business Value of Performance Testing, we've decided to do it again -- only this time, we're going to explore Achieving Business Value with Test Automation.

Join me (while I continue practicing my radio host skills for my emergency back-up career as a sportscaster) and 7 other presenters that I consider to be elite practitioners, teachers, and thinkers in their test automation areas of specialization for 3 half days online to learn their tips and methods for achieving business value with test automation. If you or your organization are using, or thinking about using, automation to enhance or improve your testing, you're not going to want to miss this online summit. I honestly can't think of anywhere else you can get this concentration of relevant and thematically targeted information at a better price, but you be the judge:

When: Tuesday October 11 10:00AM - Thursday October 13 1:30PM PST

Cost: $195 USD before 9/26/11 $245 USD after 9/26/11

Theme: For more than 15 years organizations have been investing in the promise of better, cheaper, and faster testing through automation. While some companies have achieved demonstrable business value from their forays into test automation, many others have experienced questionable to negative returns on their investments. Join your host, Scott Barber, for this three day online summit, to hear how seven recognized leaders in test automation have achieved real business value by implementing a variety of automation flavors and styles for their employers and clients. Learn how to answer the ROI question by focusing on business value instead of testing tasks, and how to implement automation in ways that deliver that value to the business, not just to the development and/or test team.

Happy About Global Software Test Automation

I just posted this review for Hung Nguyen's new book on Amazon. All you testers and test managers out there, slip this book under your boss's door when they aren't looking and watch how quickly the company starts embracing and respecting software testing!

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Happy About Global Software Test Automation: A Discussion of Software Testing for Executives is an absolute must read for any executive in a company that develops, customizes or implements software.