Performance Testing is a vital check that your applications can support expected volumes, by generating traffic across all layers of a system, as a real user would, from network to UI, to database and interfaces. Performance testing maps to business processes, to accurately simulate real life usage on applications, to gauge system stability and response times under different workloads.
Frequently referred to as Load or Stress Testing, Performance Testing in fact encompasses both types of testing.
Load Testing determines the ability of infrastructure to support the expected usage of a system, while Stress Testing examines the ability to cope with exceptional transaction volumes.
At Prolifics Testing, our dedicated Performance team use cutting-edge technologies, such as our in-house accelerators, custom dashboards, and pre-deployed Cloud injector machines, to measure software reliability at load. These techniques enable us to rapidly deliver a quality service to our customers at speed, with less cost. For those applications not accessible externally, we are able to setup performance tests internally, within private networks, where security is an issue.
Why Performance Test?
There's no doubt that Performance Testing is critical to successful business operations and end user satisfaction. If below par, the reliability of your websites, apps, and systems will not go unnoticed, with the potential to seriously undermine your commercial objectives.
There are three core reasons for Performance Testing, which we examine in detail below:
- Preventing system crashes
- Achieving acceptable response times
- Mitigating scaling risks
Preventing system crashes
No doubt, the nightmare scenario for most companies is when high levels of traffic bring systems grinding to a halt.
According to Atlassian, website downtime incidents 'are not only potentially toxic to customer trust and loyalty […] – they're also the financial grim reaper'. Crashes aren't just harmful because of the opportunity cost of downtime, but also due to the very real possibility of reputational damage.
Good Performance Testing therefore aims to identify and remedy problems that would otherwise cause a website to crash, prior to go-live.
Achieving acceptable response times
Similarly, as technological standards continue to rise, users' tolerance for software response times is falling drastically. According to research carried out by Google, when websites fail to load within 5 seconds for mobile users, the probability of these users 'bouncing' - abandoning the site to find a different resource - increases by an average of 106%.
Again, good Performance Testing works to mitigate this risk by achieving exceptional response times and thereby streamlining the overall user experience. In turn, this means more online traffic for your business, with an increased likelihood of conversions.
Mitigating scaling risks
Finally, as your business grows, new customisations and interfaces between systems have the potential to create performance bottlenecks. Applications need to be able to scale, and their performance requirements met well into the future. Manual regression testing is one solution to this problem, but the process is often slow and calls for close monitoring to ensure meaningful results.
When implemented as an automated solution, Performance Testing means these issues are caught as the application grows, so that fixes can be quickly deployed and tests maintained for future use. The risk that comes with scaling up is effectively mitigated, leaving you free to focus on other aspects of the business.
Interested so far? Let us know your requirements via our short contact form, and we will be in touch to organise a free consultation:
What sets us apart?
All too often, the vital job of Performance Testing is overlooked during projects due to it being seen as expensive, time-consuming, and highly technical. We're here to show you that this needn't be the case.
Here's a brief overview of how we achieve exemplary results for our clients:
- Ready-made frameworks for both open source (Apache JMeter, Locust) and enterprise tools (LoadRunner, Silk Performer, NeoLoad)
- Pre-built environments for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, to quickly simulate large amounts of worldwide traffic
- Internally-developed Accelerators that reduce testing times and costs by up to 40%
- Integration with Docker for containerisation, reducing reliance on expensive hardware
- Provision of live metrics and real-time reports for every test via our Grafana dashboard
- Ability to analyse trends over time thanks to improved Performance Analytics and integration to Power BI
Unlike other Performance Testing providers, we avoid the need for complex scripting and drawn-out creation of complex scenarios, helping your organisation to Shift Left with ease.
And although we have particular expertise in designing and delivering performance test suites based on the JMeter open-source platform, 'one-size-fits-all' is never a part of what we do. Our UK-based services adapt to suit your business, not the other way around.
Accelerators
We offer all of our clients free use of our Performance Testing Accelerator suite as part of their service. These accelerators help to automate what would ordinarily be time-consuming and expensive manual procedures, as well as increasing reliability of test results.
Our three most popular Performance Testing Accelerators are:
Script Enhancer Accelerator
Using the robust VB.Net programming language, the Script Enhancer Accelerator is specifically built to reduce Performance Testing times by automating the customisation of the script. This is achieved by inserting fields such as Transaction Names, Error Handling, Think Times and Check Points.
Test Data Mining Accelerator
Performance tests can require significant amounts of data to be generated manually. Our approach boasts full automation of this process by using test data mining techniques from any available database and automatic generation of the remaining data using scripts.
Infrastructure Monitoring Accelerator
Our Infrastructure Monitoring Accelerator is an agentless tool that uses versatile Python scripts to capture raw data from logs across applications, web servers, and databases. These data include response times, throughputs, memory utilisation, CPU load and more.
Our Accelerators integrate with all the major test management tools, including Micro Focus ALM and Jira. We also offer automated test case design for a range of major COTS applications, including SAP, Oracle EBS, and Workday HCM.
Performance Engineering
Using reliable and tested methods, together with the latest tools, our team are able to integrate Performance Testing into your development process, to shift testing left and allow earlier visibility of potential performance problems identifying and fixing issues at source.
A baseline of application performance is used to compare the results from each iteration of tests, so the adherence to non-functional requirements and Service Level Agreements can be measured during development against anticipated user volumes.
This approach fits in well with Agile practices and helps ensure good performance is built into application development, from the ground up.
Delivery
Depending on the systems under test, your software architecture, and possible security or access limitations, we run our UK-based testing projects either onsite, remotely, or in a blended delivery model, to reap the rewards of onsite consulting and offsite delivery. However the project is delivered, we always work closely with you, involving your teams in the process, and frequently inviting you to view the tests running in real time.
In over 20 years of business, we have carried out Performance Testing within a range of environments, from full Cloud, to Hybrid Cloud, to fully on-prem. For example, where cloud-based injectors are not suitable for a client, perhaps due to security concerns, we have used machines on clients' networks so that the entire test cycle is kept within your private infrastructure.
It's also worth mentioning that we’re not tied to any testing tool providers, so are able to offer a completely impartial service that pairs the best tool for each project with your desired outcomes.
Get in touch
Whether you are interested in fast-tracking Performance Testing to achieve results quickly, or wish to implement it as part of your CI/CD pipeline, we have over 20 years' experience of delivering Performance Testing services to clients spanning a wide variety of industries.
To set up a free 30 minute consultation, simply send us a quick email detailing your requirements at info@prolifics-testing.com, or fill out our short contact form.
Following a successful consultation session, we would provide you with a detailed proposal covering scope, timescales, deliverables and SLAs, along with a fixed price / time-and-materials quote, depending on preference.
We look forward to working with you!
