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Performance Testing for large scale programmes

In this post we are going to look at performance testing on large scale programmes.

A few the posts we write define techniques and approaches based on a single application under test but sometimes you are faced with the prospect of performance testing:

  • A new solution that replaces several legacy applications,
  • A service migration from once cloud provider to another or one data center to another,
  • An infrastructure update that covers multiple applications or services,
  • A new solution that compliments and integrates with existing software.

Now, especially in the case of migration of services, performance is key, and you cannot afford to see a degradation in performance as the business users will have already become accustomed to the software and how it performs.

You can look to make it perform better but it is unlikely they will tolerate poorer performance just because you have migrated from one platform to another.

Equally, new solutions that replace legacy application will (rightly or not) be expected to perform better than their predecessor which is a challenge as your new solution will undoubtedly have a different workflow and approach to delivering what the end-users want.

These types of large-scale programmes can on the surface seem complex from a Quality Assurance perspective and we have put together this guide to help you understand some of the techniques you can use to ensure that the performance testing aspect of the testing is manageable and not overwhelming. We have set out in the sections below things to consider to assist in the performance testing of large-scale programmes of work.

  • in JMeter
  • 4 min read

Producing JMeter Tests from OpenAPI

Swagger in conjunction with OpenAPI is a way for REST API’s to be build, documented and consumed. It is defined in either YAML or JSON. OpenAPI and Swagger are both open source, and their use is commonplace amongst development teams and can make the life of a performance tester a lot easier as it allows us to build JMeter tests directly from the definition of the endpoints.

The object of this post is to look at how we can produce JMeter tests directly from a Swagger definition. If you are unfamiliar with Swagger it is worth spending some time reading the online overview as it will provide a good understanding of how the specification works.

Now clearly in order for you to leverage the benefits of building performance tests from Swagger definitions you are going to need to have your development teams use it to describe the API contract for service they are producing, but for the purposes of this post we will use a test definition called Swagger Petstore.

Performance Testing in application Design

There are many articles on the huge benefits of performance testing integrated into the development process and the concept of shift-left performance testing.

We have also discussed the concepts of Load Test Driven Development which involves the creation of performance testing in parallel with the code development and sits alongside Test Driven Development.

We are going to consider in this post how involving performance testing resources in the application design process can be a benefit.

  • in JMeter
  • 5 min read

Soap Requests in JMeter

We are going to look at how to test SOAP Services using JMeter and some of the issues that you can face when testing these services.

We are going to provide some basic principles of SOAP in this post and while some requests can be complex in their definition and structure testing them is relatively straightforward.

The best approach to performance testing SOAP Requests is to discuss what the structure of the message is with your development teams or 3rd parties should the service be hosted external to your organisation. Fundamentally it is no different to any other HTTP Request in that you need:

  • URL of the service,
  • Payload,
  • Request Header (including any authorisation).