{"id":48176,"date":"2022-07-05T13:09:53","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T17:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdtimes.com\/?p=48176"},"modified":"2022-07-05T13:09:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T17:09:53","slug":"why-performance-testing-is-so-vital-and-so-difficult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sdtimes.com\/test\/why-performance-testing-is-so-vital-and-so-difficult\/","title":{"rendered":"Why performance testing is so vital and so difficult"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ability to ensure applications deliver consistent, responsive performance at all times is critical for pretty much every organization, and is especially vital for retailers and other e-commerce providers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if an app delivers the best, most innovative functionality, it won\u2019t matter if loading or transactions take too long. Further, as users continue to grow increasingly impatient, the definition of \u201ctoo long\u201d continues to shrink.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, it is critical to validate application performance, both before new services are launched and before periods of peak activity. For example, for a retailer, it is vital to do extensive performance testing in advance of Black Friday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Traditionally, teams have been doing what we\u2019d refer to as \u201cclassic\u201d performance testing. Through this approach, teams do end-to-end testing based on high volumes of virtual users or synthetic transactions. Quite often, this type of performance testing is likely to delay new releases by several weeks. Further, this type of testing is extremely costly, invariably consuming a lot of staff time and resources. These challenges are particularly problematic in modern continuous delivery lifecycles, where keeping cycle times to a minimum is critical.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To combat these challenges, it is imperative that teams gain the ability to speed software releases, while consistently ensuring they\u2019re not introducing performance issues into production environments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Introducing Continuous Performance Testing<\/strong><\/h5>\n

While a lot has been written about continuous testing, much of the focus has tended to center on continuous functional testing. A subset of continuous testing, continuous performance testing (CPT) is based on the principle of \u201ccontinuous everything\u201d in DevOps. As opposed to having a single performance testing phase, CPT is employed in situations in which performance testing needs to happen across different phases of the continuous integration\/continuous delivery (CI\/CD) lifecycle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

CPT is a key enabler of continuous delivery. With CPT, teams can ensure apps are peak-performance ready at all times, so they can release new code without lengthy performance testing delays. There are three keys to enabling the successful implementation of CPT:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n