Category Archives: Performance techie

Technical bits of performance testing

The story so far: 3 blog posts ago I introduced a web site which offered the new option to buy drinks and snacks in advance for a cinema visit. This is an imaginary web site. Why should you need an extra drink? For the desert scene in Monsters Unlimited. Also imaginary stuff.

1 blog post ago an anxious project leader dropped by for a performance test for the next day. Somehow it ended up as a cliff hanger for … [Some dots] SFDIPOT in performance test.
Now I can continue to write about my standard talk for project leaders about performance tests. Let me add some flavour. Stirred, not shaken.

SFDIPOT is basically used to determine new angles.  Up till now I have not used it for performance test. I could make a rough picture about the system. Why not? Visual testing anyone?

This is Structure. What are the building blocks?

basic structure

The customer uses a web site to buy tickets. There is an extra module to handle orders of drinks and snacks. So an extra flow is added.
extended structure
Decades ago I would be happy with this picture. But I know now that I would miss important information.

Now I have a look to the Function or what the system is expected to do.

“Hey, what’s that?”
“The marketing department is keeping a close eye on revenue.”
“I understand that they want to increase it, but this can impact the performance of the system.”
“You are right, so analysis takes place outside this system.”
“Okay.”

“But the counters are inside the system.”
“Sure enough.”

Another way to look at functions is to visualise it.

customer journey

”Okay I do understand the pictures, but what is that rectangle with the heart?”
”It is the toilet.”
”But it has nothing to do with web site.”
“But it can impact the cinema visit. (: P)
This picture offers another perspective. You might call a visual user journey. ”

Data is all the information which exchanged in the system.
“You probably have a link to the purchasing department.”
”Yep and this one is also handled outside the website.”

data

”If I zoom in, I see tickets, drinks and snacks going this way. It’s first just raw data.
I miss some money. ”
”That is no problem. A supplier takes care of the payments. ”
”Ok.
What about all those snacks and drinks? ”
”Those are bar codes and numbers.”

Interfaces are ways to interact with the system. So …
”I am curious whether the system can handle streaming film trailers.”
”Sure no problem. The web site has two servers: one is completely dedicated for streaming. ”

”Do you have free WiFi?”
”Sure, but …”
”What happens, if a lot of visitors start to watch a movie trailer on their mobile?”
”Wait. You are telling me that my internal network could be slower. I did not think about this option. We need to take measures like a separate network for visitors. ”
”Yes.”

”How did you figure this out?”
”I was thinking very fast.
Like . ”
”Could you please slow down?”
“# $ €
|:| |:|”
”Man, you think fast. Let me see: # stands for numbers, €$ for money and |:| |:| for … ”
”For movie. ”
”Okay. I know a lot of symbols, but this one is new. ”
”I just figured that one out.
In the past films were on celluloid rolls. There was picture and some holes to transport the roll. : are the holes. You know like this. ”
celluloid

”I still not get it.
How did this image popped up? ”
”I looked to my user journey.
So my customer has picked up a ticket, drink, and snack? What can she or he do?

This.”
[Hand moves to a pocket and takes out a smartphone.]
“Wow.”
“That’s why it is so important to use multiple senses to plan a proper test.
This movement [hand collecting phone] is muscle memory. ”

Now we have a look at the platforms or where is the system used?

“No problem. The web site and the connected systems work on one platform. It is used frequently. Known technology.”
“But the browsers can be used on smartphones and tablets with different browsers and different operating systems.”
“This is also known technology.”

platforms

Operations is about how the system is or will be used. This could lead to the following plausible talk.

“After our last talk I talked with the marketers. They noticed the following patterns:

  • Most tickets bought in advance are sold at least one day in advance.
  • Most tickets bought in advance are sold for the weekend.
  • The week patterns are almost the most same in the month except for the first week. “

expected ticket sales

“First week. Can you explain it?”
“Salary is paid in the last week of the month. People pay more for entertainment, if there is more money on their bank accounts. ”

“Of course there are exceptions on the months. December and the summer months are way higher because of the holidays. Watching a  movie is a nice way to spend holiday hours.
There are of course still unexpected and expected mega ticket selling movies.”

“Do you also take discounted movie tickets in account?”
“Yes, this lead to some increases. About 5 to 10 percent.”

“I would suggest to use the December holiday as the standard load profile. This way the system can handle peaks. To be sure a percentage of 10 % is added.

“Is your customer also interested, when the system breaks down?”
“We already took precautions: the modules for the tickets, drinks, and snacks are placed in the cloud and their resources are automatically scaled.”

“So everything is covered.”
“It looks good. It is important to know which factors have a major impact on the performance like CPU or chip, RAM or memory and use of network.”

resources subsystems

“Of course  you are interested in the change of use of the resources.

“You go to the ticket counter. You get a ticket for the movie and vouchers for snacks and drinks.

If I look to the user journey I miss a step between the ticket counter and the shop counter?”

“Wait the lines are wrong, it should be like this:”
different flows
“The ticket counter should have access to the drinks and snacks ordered.

“Okay I update the pic later.”

“If I go with 5 excited kids, I end up with 6 movie tickets, 6 snack vouchers and 6 drink vouchers. Double the number of drinks for Monsters Unlimited with the desert scene.”

That is a lot of printing.
So I have 24 cards. This is bigger than the set of business cards I end with after a conference. And the set of followers on Social Media. Todo cursive.

So the network can handle the extra information for the printers.”
“Yes, it is insignificant number of bytes.”

How much time does it take to print ’em all?”
“0.5 sec a ticket.”
“So I have to wait 12 seconds.
Wait 180 people go to a movie. That makes 4 x 180 pieces of paper in worst case (1 movie ticket, 2 drinks, and 1snack person). Only the printing will take 4 x 180 x 0.5, which makes 360 seconds. That is exactly 1 hour.
Of course people will not arrive after each other, but like this. If I add the number of voucher for drinks and snacks, I get …”

“Could you please stop?”
“Did I do some miscalculation?”
“No. I remembered something else. It took us months to determine the right number of ticket counters. My customer had to increase the number of counters. In this case it would be by 4. That is not pretty.

This is out of my scope. I am only responsible for IT.”
“Printers are also IT.  The system is not a single web site. Look at the pictures.

You might consider to reduce the number of vouchers. There is enough room on the paper for other things.”

The following item of interest is about the relationship between the system and Time. Yes finally.

A few months ago there was a question about ambiguous requirements. As a performance test coordinator I often heard: “It is fast enough.”

My solution was to perform a performance test on the old and the new system and compare the results.

Sometimes I was lucky and I had some real acceptance criteria. Like 95 % of the response time of function X is under 20 seconds. And a completely filled web site. The same content might give the same response. Or the other way around: almost no content is almost no delay.

“Now let me look at the response times. In the current system these are the response time for the tickets page, the payment module, and the ticket counter.
That payment module is swift and it is outsourced.
For the drink and snack page and the shop counter the times are added. Notice, that there is night between the day and the cinema visit.
response time actions

I can add the numbers for one movie. Then I get these numbers Fir two movies on an evening there is reassuring low response time.

“Let me guess your system is fast enough to handle a blockbuster evening.”
“You bet.”
“I don’t take bets I can lose.

But what about this?
Snacks and drinks ordered in advance are collected by the cinema people.
There is probably an acceptance criterion that snacks and drinks can be collected by the customer within 2 minutes after collecting the ticket.
So if I come with 5 kids collecting 6 snacks and 12 drinks, someone has to be quite fast. But there might be more people needed who collect their drinks and snacks.”

“That will be a problem. But I am only responsible for IT.”
“What about the people who have to work it. And your customer who depends on order drinks and snacks in advance page?”

“One apple juice please.”
“Huh. Oh yeah, you won the bet.”
“No, I am thirsty after all that talking.”
“You ain’t seen the desert scene of Monsters Unlimited.”

[Small update: there is a Q&A a few blog posts later about this very blog post.  You can even join the party.]

Non Violent performance testing

A colleague once told about a strange request. Now let me imagine the whole situation.

“Could you perform a performance test tomorrow?”
“If this is an unknown web site it takes 4 weeks: 1 week for test planning, 1 week for scripting, 1 week for execution of the scripts, and 1 week for test rest reporting.
If there are a few minor changes, it takes 2 weeks. If the test scripts and test data do not have to be changed, it will be one week.”

Now imagine the face of the project leader. Poor fellow.

Now I change the request of the project leader.
“I have a web site which must be tested on performance. I am exasperated.
I have a need for participation.
Would you please perform a performance test on my web site tomorrow?”

I used all the elements of the model of Non Violent Communication as described in my previous blog post.

I could add a little more detail.
“The web host provider needs a test report of the web site, that the performance is good. Within 3 days the web site must go live.”

This is a decent request and it is almost impossible to say: No.
Really? I have to fit at least a week of testing in 1 day. It is fair to say that this is not possible. It is not a reasonable request, so it is better to decline.

Then the dance can start. Let me first focus on the need of the project leader.
“I notice that you do not like my answer. Am I right?”
“Yes, you are right.”
“And you have now a need for clarity?”
[after a slow nod]
“I have a need for cooperation.
I am willing to cooperate, but a test plan takes one week.”

Now the dance is focused on the performance tester. It is her or his turn to explain. Almost.

“You extended a cinema web site with an option to order drinks and snacks in advance. It is just one page.”
“Can you not have the computer just click on the page to see what happens? That’s what computers are good at.”

“Would you please let me explain?”
“Yes. Sure.”
“If I would go with 2 friends I would buy three drinks and 3 snacks. Unless it is Monsters Unlimited with the desert scene.
It takes at most 15 clicks for 1 visit.
But there more than 3 visitors for the movie.

Now many people can look to the movie?”
“180. “
“What is the average number of tickets in 1 order?”
“I do not know.”
“Let’s assume it is 2. Then 90 different people will go to the drinks and snack page. So I have 90 sessions for ordering.“

“I can check with marketing and we can go.”
“But those 90 orders are not placed on the same moment.”

At that moment the project leader would look for another performance tester willing to help him.

My colleague had lost a customer. In this case there is no problem.

What happened?

A lot of talking.
“Would you please be more specific?”
“Sure.”

There were needs and feelings mentioned. The performance test coordinator focused on the project leader. And he explained a lot. A lot of talking. But no project though.

It is also possible to focus first on the test coordinator instead of the project leader.

Ready? Set. Speak.

“How can I help you?”
“I talked to my customer. She agreed to postpone the go live date of drink and snack page in the cinema web site.”
“The last time I had not enough time to explain why a performance test takes this long.
I was disgruntled.
I have a need to be understood.
Would you please let me explain, why the performance test takes time?”

More than 5 years ago in my real life I talked with my boss about a performance test. I had calculated that the investment in a performance would be earned back in 3 months. According to some financial standards this is quite good. But budget was too tight. My boss just asked, whether I had signed anything. This was not the case, so he advised to stop.

Other things that happened

A week ago a fellow TestBash speaker wrote a personal story about her needs which were not fulfilled. Poor fellow. There was a lot of emotion in the post. So she quit. And found joy back in little things.

Now you might doubt whether people would really read this story. But there were. Reactions came in. People who were touched by her story. Feelings and needs can be a big + or PLUS in communication.

For the people who are really struggling:

  • Describe the situation in an objective way.
  • Go to the feelings inventory.
    And determine your feeling (watch the flags for other languages available)
  • Go to the needs inventory.
    And determine your need. ([Other languages …] Chinese any one?)
  • Now formulate your request and make it reasonable.

There are other ways to handle difficult situations. One of my most read blog posts last year was about being fired. I unconsciously used stoicism. My need was clear: a need for support my family. But I had no bad feelings on that moment. I neglected the negative ones.

Does it fit?

Fancy restaurants have little delicious dishes and standard spoons, which might not fit.

Take that

“We cannot combine the automated test and the performance test.”, Scott stated. “They don’t fit. It’s a waste of time.”
Alice looked hopeful.
George brushed it away:
“Instead of testing you are talking. You’re the one, who wastes time.”
Scott was a man, who did not mind a good discussion:
“We’ll lose a lot of time, if we do not split the tests. ”
“My decision is definite.” George answered.
“Don’t you understand?” Scott shouted.
Alice started to look white.

“You can leave the room NOW.”
“You cannot run away from decisions.”
George stood up:
“You bet. I will have a little talk with HR right now.”
He went out the room and slammed the door.
Alice looked miserable.

The door opened slowly. George looked inside and said:
“That did not go quite right.”

Take Me To St Louis

“Scott, do you know a person you never shout at and who knows as much about automated tests and performance tests as your manager?” George asked.
Scott was silent for a few moments.
“My mother. ….!? Wait a sec. You are not involving my mom in this discussion!”

“Hi mom”, Scott began.
“What is the matter, son?”, George answered.
“I want to thank for the apple pie you made for me.”
George raised an eye brow, Alice smiled.
“Did you come to talk only about the apple pie? ”
“No, for my work I have to combine automated tests and performance test.”
“I am sorry, son, but I cannot help you with this. Just do, what they told you.”

Scott was shifting gears in his head.
“A performance test for a car is to look, whether it can handle the load.”
Alice put a thumb up.
“I understand: if I can put all ingredients for an apple pie in the car, then it can handle the load.”
“No mom, that is the purpose of an automated test. That one is focused on the functionality of the car: can I open the door, put the ingredients in the car, close the door, and drive away?”
George looked puzzled:
“What kind of load do you mean?”

George nodded.
Scott made another attempt:
“A load for car software are heavy conditions. Does the car ride well with four adults, luggage for long holiday on slippery roads in a dark rainy night?”
“I only fetch my apple pie ingredients in my car during daylight, when the weather is good. ” George explained.
Scott threw his arms up in the air.
A frown appeared on Alice’s forehead.

Take 5

“You are close.”, George assured Scott.

“You know, mom, that a car has a lot of software.”, Scott stated.
“You say so, son.”, George answered. Scott continued with:
“The dashboard must show the right information at the right moment, if I am speeding on the highway. In this case the computers in the car must work very hard. That is the purpose of the performance test.

An automated test can be used to check, whether all buttons and displays of the dashboard work properly. If I drive fast, I am not using every button on the dashboard. So the automated test and performance test cannot be combined. It does not fit.”
Alice put her right hand on her chin.

“Thank you for the explanation, son. You definitely earned an apple pie.”
Alice started laughing merrily. Scott joined in.

After Alice had stopped with laughing, Scott looked at Alice:
“Do you need more arguments, Boss?”

Alice sobered up. She got a focused look:
“You know, that there is a lot of pressure. So I tried to take a shortcut. I notice, that you have a lot of anger. I assume, that you have a need to be understood. Am I right?”
Scott just nodded.
“This basically means, that a choice must be made between quality and functionality. “, Alice continued.
“At the moment Quality has the best chances.”

Alice turned away from Scott.
“George, I really want to thank you for ..”
George’s chair was empty. He had left the room.