The following are the different phases of load and scalability testing for a Web
application:
Architecture Validation- tests the scalability of the architecture early in the
development of a Web application, presumably after a prototype of the application has
been created that can generate transactions to touch all tiers of the application. This
allows the engineering organization to determine the viability of the architectural
framework selected to build the Web application.
Performance Benchmarking - sets and creates the benchmark tests for the initial
version of the application for all business transactions and gives the engineering and
the quality assurance groups a set of metrics to quantify the scalability of the
application. Based on the requirements specified, the development group will either
maintain this scalability or improve upon it through the subsequent milestones.
Performance Regression - is the phase where the Web application is tested with the
established benchmarks to ensure that the changes made to the application do not
result in degradation of scalability. These tests are executed when key milestones have
been reached or architectural modifications have been made during the development
of the application. It is also common that the benchmark tests and the metrics
originally set for the application be replaced or augmented with additional tests and
newer metrics to reflect the improvements made to the application.
Acceptance and Scalability Fine Tuning - is the final load testing phase prior to the
official launch of the Web application where all the different pieces of the Web
application - including the hardware, load balancing components and all software
components - are integrated and the scalability is validated. Different scenarios of
real-life usage are emulated and the scalability of the final configuration is validated.
These different scenarios are also used to configure the hardware and software
components to yield optimal performance.
24x7 Performance Monitoring - after the application is deployed, it is essential to
monitor the performance of the system under the real load generated by actual users
so that crashes or slow-downs can be spotted before they become problematic. In this
phase, data pertaining to real life usage can be collected to help refine future scalability
tests for accurate emulation of load.
